Unlike strawberries and raspberries, blackberries are pretty easy to find out in the bountiful British countryside – if you check your local hedgerows you’re bound to find them growing. And why wouldn’t you? They’re a delicious balance of sweet and sour when you pick them at just the right time, and they’re bursting with vitamin C too.

Blackberries are incredibly versatile – they work particularly well with both feathered and furred game, as well as in desserts. Read on for some inspiration courtesy of our favourite chefs and food writers – just make sure you take plenty of tupperware with you when you go foraging, and watch out for those thorns!

This delightful chutney is typical of Peter Joseph’s cooking – a little hit of spice gives it warmth and depth, without overpowering those juicy blackberries. Peter fries off his spices in oil, then adds the blackberries and water before cooking his chutney down to the right consistency. Then it’s just a case of sterilising your jars, filling them with chutney and enjoying it until next summer rolls around!

Most of us make a beeline for chocolate when we think of making a mousse for dessert, but as Victoria Glass shows, you can easily adapt the recipe to fit your recently foraged fruit. Make sure your egg yolks are well whisked and your mixture is all folded together well, and you should end up with a beautiful purple-hued blackberry mousse. Even better, the blackberry seeds you’re left with from your purée can be dried out in the oven and made into powder, or even fruit leather!

This blackberry and marshmallow cake is the sort of multi-layered show-stopper we’ve come to expect from Angela Field. The key, she says, is to use 100% cocoa powder, which will give you a much lighter, richer and darker sponge than using regular cooking chocolate. Blackberry and chocolate is a match made in heaven, so while this cake is a little more effort than some others, there’s no question that it’ll be worth it in the end.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to wander through The Queen’s Terminal at Heathrow recently, you might have stumbled upon The Gorgeous Kitchen, serving up, among other things, a wide variety of intriguing alternative Bloody Marys. The recipe is pretty straight forward, just make sure you muddle aggressively and you’ll end up with something delicious to see away that Sunday hangover.

Monica Shaw’s blackberry vinegar is an ingenious way of preserving your hard-foraged berries without taking up precious space in the freezer. Just steep your blackberries in an equal quantity of cider vinegar for seven to ten days, then strain, and boil the liquid with sugar for ten minutes or so. The result will be fairly sticky, and should have a nice balance of sweetness and acid, much like a good balsamic vinegar.