Blackberry season always sneaks up on me. One summer day I’m just walking along when the perfect dark shade of blackberry catches my eye on the side of the trail. You know what that means: free snacks for a whole month!

Two days ago, after returning from a trip, that moment happened. I plucked the berry from the vine to sample its smooshy sweetness. Blackberry season is upon us!

My younger brother is visiting, so we decided to go beyond mere nibbles and cook up a whole blackberry cobbler.

We walked to our “secret blackberry spot”, which isn’t really secret since it’s next to a busy road. Most pedestrians use the riverside trail, so this area stays out of the clutches of the more serious blackberry hunters who tromp around with their boots and picker poles.

Sure enough, the tangle of invasive vines brimmed with glistening blackberries. We picked the biggest ones, and some even managed to make it into the bowl instead of going straight into my mouth.

Within a matter of minutes, we had gathered enough. I escaped almost completely unscathed, except for a tiny scratch on the back of my hand and deep red stains on my fingers.

On the way back, we decided to take the shortcut home. The steep, thorny trail through the trees turns any day into a mini-adventure, especially when you claw your way up it balancing a bowl of blackberries.

My boyfriend's butt climbs the trail home.

I'm not very creative in the kitchen, which makes a crispy cobbler the perfect treat - it's so easy!

Here are the ingredients:

• 3-6 cups of blackberries
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of pure white cocaine (which is what I call sugar)
• ¾ stick of butter
• Lemon juice (optional, my mom gave me this lemon and I didn’t want to waste it)

Step 1:
Give the blackberries a bath to get all the junk off them.

Step 2:
Spread the berries in a greased cake tin. Pause for a moment to wish you were making your favorite chocolate cake or brownies instead, but this will be almost as good.

Step 3:
Squeeze half a lemon over the blackberries. Suck on the lemon for the rest of the process. It's so tangy!

Step 4:
Stir up the egg, flour, and sugar in a bowl and dump the crumbly mixture over the berries.

Step 5:
Drizzle the whole mess with melted butter. It should look really weird and unappetizing at this point. That's just its defense mechanism to keep you from eating it too soon.

Told you it looks gross.

Step 6:
Pop the tin in the oven at 375 degrees and bake for around 35 minutes, until the top is a golden brown with melted blackberries bubbling out of it.

That’s it!

My brother had left for his daily dose of Subway, so we sent him to the grocery store on his walk back to pick us up a pint of vanilla ice cream. He showed up just after the cobbler slipped out of the oven - perfect timing!

Warm, summery perfection!

P.S. My brother created a Steemit account but won’t tell me his username because he’s super private like that… So if he’s reading this: Hi Matt, please upvote this so I can figure out who you are! ;)