What time today do you reckon the devil spits on the blackberries?

[MagentaRavioli]

I know we’ve had blackberry season for a good 6 weeks and I really should have picked more ahead of Michalmas, but life is busy. Do you reckon the devil spits on the blackberries at midnight on the feast day, or sunset the night before, or will I be okay with nipping out this afternoon to see what I can salvage from the hedgerow?

@CMOTDibbler are you from Banbury? The Fair is known as the Michaelmas Fair (nearest Wednesday after 13th October).
A couple of years ago a sign about changes to bus stops called it the "Mop" and that caused many many complaints on local Facebook 😂
@MagentaRavioli how do you know if the blackberries have been spat (widdled/stomped) on?

Why did no one tell me about this, they should teach this in schools instead of pythagoras theorem.

We have a lot of woodland and a lot of blackberries. They finished 3-4 weeks ago here (midlands)

They were end aug- mid sep here (hertfordshire) then any later ones went mouldy after all the rain we had. No devil spitting involved (unless his spit was that downpour!)

@Needmorelego No, but South Oxfordshire so maybe its a county thing - but I'm only the next county north now and its all Mop here

@CMOTDibbler I love local names for fairs.
I lived in Stratford upon Avon for a while where it was "The Mop" and then went away for a bit and some bits came back for a few more days and was "The Runaway Mop" 😂
The Banbury Michaelmas fair is always a bit special because it's the final fair of the year for that particular fair company.
(sorry @MagentaRavioli ) we've gone from blackberries to fairs.

I also love a good Mop. I’ve been to Warwick, Southam & Chipping Sodbury Mops.

I don’t mind a fair either - it’s the mop in Marlborough.

@Needmorelego you know if the devil’s spat because it’s past Michalmas of course. But also it’s the time of year that anything left on the brambles is either dried up or awful mush gone rotten.

I have to report that the meagre crop of blackberries we got today were fine in the crumble we had for dinner. So if it turns out the devil has done his business with them we’ll probably have iffy tummies in the morning.

Just for completeness and as we’re soon in sprout season, I also cut a cross in each sprout before cooking to let the devil out (cos once he’s done widdling the berries he switches over to sprouts).

It’s supposed to be because St Michael threw him out of Heaven and he landed in a blackberry bush… I am far from religious but learned it from the As the Season Turns podcast!

@MagentaRavioli I was just reading up on Michaelmas Day and it's apparently traditional to eat goose.
Some fairs this time of year I believe are called Goose Fairs.
Mumsnet has been very educational today 🙂🪿

Please will someone explain to me what this thread is about?
Pretty please?

Plus, where in the world are you that you are still blackberrying at the end of September ?

@Habbit I too say it’s the witches not the devil.
Specifically the Wizen witch, who wizened the blackberries. But down our way she does it on the 1st Sept. Ours are all hard and covered in webs by now unfortunately

What, you mean the devil is the store manager in Waitrose?????!!

@CMOTDibbler
I think we must be in the same county? Begins with W?

My grandma, from North Northumberland, used to say the Devil hit them with his club. But we pick them until October here, Blackberry week half-term holiday is in mid-October.

Are there any left? I'm in Co Durham and they seem to be finished. Picked about 6Kg but nothing in the last week or so.

😂

No. The devil is much too busy peeing on blackberry bushes to keep up a day job.

Actually I think this makes a lot of sense

Haha My dad once told me he was out walking and for reasons he can't explain he thought it would be clever or funny to go up to another lady picking blackberries and say in a ooh arr pirate voice 'ahh the devil he spits on them after (whatever month it is). When he recounted the story he was like yeah she sort of scuttled off, I think I scared her. I think he was hoping for a conversation but its a risky opener 😂

Still loads here. I made a lovely crumble this week and will probably do the same again in the next few days. We're probably too far North and off the beaten track for any satanic fruit spoiling here - the public transport is rubbish.

We found some up near Felton yesterday.

When the devil got kicked out of heaven, he fell to earth and landed in a bramble bush. So he pissed on it. Therefore you shouldn't pick brambles after OCTOBER 11th, as that's the day he got kicked out.

Some mumsnetters apparently think he only spat on them on 30th Sept....

Our blackberries were pretty much gone a couple of weeks ago, but we foraged the last few about a week ago for wine..
But! .. strangely today it seems to have suddenly almost stopped fermenting... ( It should have gone on at least another week) .

Of course! Now we have the answer as to why!

Thank you @Saz12 _ I like an old tale myself, but this is the first time I've heard this one.

I had never heard of this until reading the thread yesterday, however Radio 6 had someone talking about it this morning. I might not get this quite right but it went along the lines of pre-1751 the UK had 11 extra days in the calendar, we decided to bring it in line with the rest of Europe and therefore we had to lose 11, which meant that some 'old" festivals got lost. One of those was Old Michaelmas which was around 10 Oct, and that's the day the devil landed in the blackberry bush. Michaelmas as we have it in the current calendar was the day St Michael defeated the devil, he then went, erm, somewhere for 10 days or so then fell into the bush at Old Michaelmas, and thats the day after which you shouldn't pick the berries or you will have bad luck!