First of all, towards the end of the summer, go out with a bowl, box or some other container and find your nearest bramble bushes, which should be bursting with delicious berries.  (Better make sure you are wearing old clothes too, as they stain something awful, especially if you’ve been testing them as you go, just to make sure they are all right!)

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When you get home, give them a rinse and find a suitably big, (or small, if you have eaten too many of them), pot and throw them in with a little bit of water – just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.  Bring this all to the boil, turn down the heat and pop a lid on and sing silly songs for about 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let it all cool right down.  (If this is an adult doing this, make sure you are supervised by a responsible child!)

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Take a sieve and strain the cooked berries into a jug – you can be quite brutal, squishing as much juice out as you can with the back of a spoon.

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You then need to borrow as many ice cube trays as you can from your neighbours and do two things: (1) pour the strained juice into one set of trays and (2) dollop the mush in the sieve into another set of trays.  Then put both lots in your freezer for a few hours, until they have hardened.

 

Next, pop out the frozen juice cubes and put in a polythene bag and the frozen mush cubes and put in a separate bag and store the bags in your freezer until you are ready to use them.  (The mush cubes are just a by-product but are delicious defrosted and added to your morning cereal to make it tastier – and healthier.)

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Now, you have to decide if you are making Blackberry Fizz for people who want to be able to walk in a straight line afterwards, or rascals like Hedgehog, who want to get merry and forget what day of the week it is.

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If it’s the former, two thirds fill a large tumbler with fresh lemonade and add about 4 or 5 blackberry juice cubes; if it’s the latter, take a swanky champagne glass and two thirds fill it with Prosecco – or Champagne if you are really posh - and add about 4 or 5 cubes.  Whichever one you choose, it should fizz up nicely and you will have the best drink you have tried all summer!