Wild berries and a healthy fruit crumble

I'm feeling replenished after a week on the beautiful Isle of Arran. And my timing was unintentionally brilliant. The blackberries might be on their last legs down south, but on Arran they were perfect. I don't think I have ever seen such a profusion of them. The bramble plants were everywhere, their thorny stems thrusting through fences and around bushes like an illustration of unstoppable life-force. And almost every hedgerow was studded with shiny black berries, most of them so large and plump it was almost impossible to pass by without picking a few.

They say this is a record year for blackberries. I hadn't been to Arran before, so I don't know if it's always like that or if I just got lucky. Anyhow, the result was that I could stuff berries into my mouth to stave off hunger pangs on long walks. And top my morning porridge with a handful of them. But that still left a lot of berries. We were on holiday in a self-catering cottage, so freezing the blackberries or making jam weren't realistic options. There was nothing for it: it would have to be a pudding. As luck would have it, there were a few windfall apples in the garden. And so a crumble was born.

I realised it had been a long time since I'd made a dessert just for the two of us. Such things seem to have been reserved for when we've had visitors or I wanted to take something to colleagues or relatives. But this homely pudding was a real joy, the more so because it seemed like a rare treat.

Cooking in a self-catering cottage adds a few challenges of its own. You don't really want to buy a load of ingredients that you will only use a little of and then have to throw away when you leave. We had porridge oats and a little sugar already - could we improvise a crumble from that? It turned out that we could. No flour, no butter, just oats, a little brown sugar and a dash of cold water mixed in to provide the right texture. Simple and in pudding terms, pretty healthy too.

If I'd had any cinnamon or mixed spice I would have added it, but it wasn't at all bad without. As for the custard, I have to confess that it was tinned. Normally I'm a Bird's custard powder girl (though the proper home-made stuff, with eggs and vanilla, is lovely for a special occasion). But I didn't want to be left with most of a tub of custard powder, so tinned it was - and it was surprisingly edible. I don't think this was just because I'd worked up an appetite in Arran's mountains first.