Blackberry Sherbet

There are blackberries growing wild behind the house right now, and every few days they produce surprisingly large amounts of fruit. One has to be careful not to get scratched by the thorns or eaten alive by ants and mosquitos while picking, but it's mostly worth it for the amount of sherbets and cereal toppings and cobblers that get made during the summer. This fantastic sherbet recipe is pretty easy and tastes like heaven on a hot summer day. It can be adapted to use other kinds of berries or fruit too.


Blackberry Sherbet

4 cups blackberries, rinsed thoroughly
4 cups buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract


Begin by mashing the berries through a wire mesh strainer to separate the juices from the pulp and seeds. If you use your fingers instead of a spatula to do this, it will stain your hands a lovely purple color.

To the blackberry juice, add the other three ingredients and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour into your ice cream churn and follow the manufacturer instructions on how to get that set up and churning. Ice cream churn tip: always used crushed ice to layer with salt when churning, not ice cubes. The crushed ice yields better texture in the ice cream, because it gets colder (melts more quickly) and can do a better job of closely surrounding the churn.

Servings: 8-10, or less if you get tempted to eat it all in one sitting because it's so delicious.