The soft fruit at the allotment is starting to take off. Today I got a tub of raspberries and almost a full tub of blackberries. The latter are quite firm and will still be good tomorrow but the raspberries don’t keep long. They seem to need using on the day of picking or freezing – even keeping in the fridge seems a bit dicey for this variety.

I am collecting frozen raspberries from earlier, smaller batches but decided to use today’s harvest for another shrub. So far, I’ve just given them a wash and then put them in a sterilised jar topped up with white wine vinegar. Over the next week or two I’ll keep the jar in the fridge, shaking every now and then. Once the vinegar has had time to take on the colour and flavour, I’ll strain off the solids and turn the liquid into a thin syrup by heating with sugar (up to the same weight but I’ll judge by taste) and that should be a fruity shrub cordial which will let me enjoy raspberry season into the autumn.