Prepare well for battle with the briars and reap a juicy harvest

Sun-filled grapes, plums, apples, pears, oranges and peaches - and others - which are eaten directly from the tree, or even purchased in local open-air markets, offer pleasures rarely experienced in this country.

For no matter how speedily those fruits are transported to our shores, their distinctive fresh taste diminishes almost by the hour. The trick is to catch them with the sun upon them.

But here in England we have access to a wonderful wild fruit, one which we can pick and eat instantly from the bush.

Examples have been ripening quickly in the recent sunshine; the fruit is as tasty and fresh as any of the continental offerings and it is free to those who are brave enough to tackle its robust defences.

Furthermore, it is available for several weeks, ripening from the middle of August and continuing to tempt us well into September.

It is, of course, the humble bramble, sometimes called the blackberry or more locally known as the brummel.

I was reminded of its tasty pleasures only a couple of days before writing these notes. We embarked on a bramble-gathering expedition because we had spotted some huge and juicy examples in one of our regular picking areas.

Quite honestly, the bushes were unexpectedly heavy with colossal examples, no doubt the product of our fairly recent hot weather, and we did not wish to miss the opportunity to enjoy them.

Going a-brambling is never easy however. One needs defensive clothing with something to protect legs and arms, a walking stick or thumbstick to deflect the inevitable spikes which seem able to grab you wherever you are, and preferably three hands - one to hold a receptacle of some kind while the other two cope with (a) the prickly branches which carry the fruit and (b) the actual act of collecting the fruit in defiance of prickles, nettles, thistles and other examples of nature's ability to protect its own.

It's amazing how many bees turn angry when faced with humans going a-brambling, and it's also amazing just how much wildlife seems to congregate in the protective depths of a bramble patch.

If one is prepared for this kind of battle, however, the result is definitely worth the effort. Large juicy brambles are superb in pies or crumbles, they are wondrous with apples, custard or ice-cream, or they are good enough to eat direct from the bush, as many a purple-faced child will testify.

Very tasty jams and jellies can be produced from them too and what is not widely known is that their roots were once used to manufacture an orange-coloured dye.

We could be tempted to believe the bramble is essentially English, or perhaps British, but it can be found in many parts of the world.

It flourishes across North America and is present in Europe, Asia and the British Isles; I understand it is also plentiful in Australia, New Zealand and many other countries where, in some cases, it is regarded as a prolific weed.

There is also a Himalayan variety of the bramble and some varieties are evergreen.

It seems to be a most versatile plant which, in some countries, is cultivated, with its fruit being considered a very important crop. The fact it is so widespread would indicate it can flourish in all manner of climates, soils and environmental conditions and it is also a very ancient plant.

It is thought to have been growing in Eastern Europe long before the ice ages, thus indicating the plant has existed for many thousands of years. Most certainly it was used as a food in the distant past - when a Neolithic man's remains were discovered near the Essex coast in 1911, his stomach was found to contain bramble seeds.

Not surprisingly in this country, the bramble has generated its own lore, both as a curative plant and as a means of warding off evil spirits.

In the not-so-distant past, bramble leaves were considered useful by being placed on burns and swellings to ease them. In Cornwall, this was done by first soaking the leaves in pure spring water, with a short verse being uttered three times over each leaf. In some places bramble twigs were cut and mixed with those from the rowan tree and the ivy to ward off witches.

Another remedy occurred when a briar took root at both ends. Sick children were made to crawl through the resultant archway in the hope it would effect a cure; this was also thought to cure rheumatism in elderly people.

There is one old story that Christ used bramble stems as whips to drive the moneylenders out of the temple and another yarn suggests he used briars to urge his donkey to greater efforts! Furthermore, there is a legend that the Crown of Thorns was made from the briars of a bramble.

In total, therefore, it is most versatile, with thousands of varieties around the world, but here in England it is said the devil spits on brambles after September 29.

It's not really the devil; it's the flesh fly turning them into juice for it to enjoy!

The Anglo-Saxons used to call September the Haefestmonath - the harvest month - and although much of this year's corn harvest was gathered earlier than usual owing to the hot and dry weather of early August, there may still be a good deal to be brought home from the fields.

In the past, the physical act of cutting the corn, leaving it in the fields as stooks to dry "while the church bells rang twice", and then leading it into the barns to be followed eventually by threshing and stacking of the straw was a long and laborious process.

So much depended upon the weather and there is little doubt that the satisfactory completion of the harvest was the climax of most farmers' years. There was a great sense of achievement and relief when all was finally gathered in.

Such was the importance of the completion of a good harvest that there were the inevitable celebrations, often when the last sheaf was cut.

It was these celebrations which led to the craft of making corn dollies, or dozzles, from straw and also the custom of holding mell suppers. These were a party with food, drinking and dancing for all those who had helped with the harvest.

I have a verse from Wensleydale which was sung at mell suppers in that area:

John Metcalfe has gitten all shorn an' mawn,

All but a few standards an' a bit o' lowse corn,

We hev her, we hev her, fast in a tether,

Cum help us ti hod her! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.

Quite often, these happy parties were a curious mixture of ancient superstition and modern celebrations, with the corn dolly featuring as a focal point.

For centuries, it was believed that the last sheaf of corn to be cut on a farm contained the Corn Spirit. As the corn was systematically being cut, so the Corn Spirit took shelter among the remaining uncut sections and finally, when only one sheaf remained to be dealt with, she was thought to take refuge among its stems.

It was thought that if those last few stems were cut, then the man responsible would also kill the Corn Spirit. That could not be tolerated, for she was the goddess Ceres. In some places, those remaining few stems were never cut, but were left standing in the field, although sometimes they were plaited to form further protection of Ceres.

This was the beginning of the craft of making corn dollies. To protect the Corn Spirit, people would make copies of those plaited stems and bring them indoors, perhaps in the shape of a human figure or perhaps an animal or even something like a miniature cornstack or even a pyramid. These were then regarded as the last sheaf which contained the Corn Spirit and so they became the focus for the mell suppers which followed. On occasions, these dollies were taken into church as part of the decorations for the harvest festival, an odd mixture of Christianity and paganism.

If a harvest worker accidentally, or even with a show of bravado, actually cut the last sheaf without any protective ceremonial, (the form of which varied across the country), then he was sometimes dealt with quite harshly. He could be attacked by his colleagues, banished from the harvest field and, in very early times, even killed to restore life to the Corn Spirit!

So when you see an elaborate corn dolly in a modern exhibition or in church, just consider its original significance.