to be saddened by "don't be disgusting, if you want blackberries we'll get them from the supermarket"?

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We spent a good part of yesterday afternoon blackberrying as a family. It was lovely. DCs ate more fruit than they would normally eat in a week, we chatted about nothing / really important stuff all afternoon, whole family returned totally relaxed, we had blackberries and ice cream for tea and have enough in the freezer to keep us in crumbles all winter.

But, while we were out there was a young girls c. 4yo with her grandparents. She wanted to pick and try the fruit like my Dcs were doing. Her grandmother told here "Don't be disgusting, if you want blackberries we'll get some from Tescos". Why in the world would she think chemical laden soft fruit from the supermarket was less disgusting than wild fruit and deprive her GD such a wonderful simple pleasure? It was said in a voice designed for us to hear too, which I thought was a nice touch, but I suppose at least she had taken the little girl out into the countryside

YANBU. How wonderful to eat the when you have picked them yourself and they haven't travelled hundred of miles and been handled by god knows how many people.

SomethingBlue, no really, there are mycophilic countries where mushrooms are part of the traditional cuisine and most people will gladly pick and eat with mushrooms. And then there are the mycophobic ones where mushrooms are treated with extreme caution, like UK.

Interestingly the mycophobic ones tend to have more mushroom poisonings as people have no idea about the edible and poisonous ones - like the article here:
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1308997/The-deadly-dish-poisoned-lives-How-The-Horse-Whisperers-Nicholas-Evans-killed-family-wild-mushrooms.html

No-one in a mushroom-loving country would mix up Cortinatius (deadly webcap) with Boletus (ceps), it's like claiming you though the apple was a cucumber.

sorry, www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1308997/The-deadly-dish-poisoned-lives-How-The-Horse-Whisperers-Nicholas-Evans-killed-family-wild-mushrooms.html

Nooo! I'm not going to dig up any wild bluebells! I want to buy some bulbs.My grandmother told me that there are companies specialising in bulbs and seeds for wild flowers - although they can be quite pricey. We were only talking recently and I still haven't got around to checking it out yet.

Sod blackberries, we have tons of cherry trees where I am.

The cherry trees are now mainly bare

The only ones by us are RIGHT next to the very busy road but we grow our own raspberries, carrots and brocclli this year but DS LOVES blackberries, so actually I did buy some last week god actually double but when we go to MIL (she lives a couple of hours from us) she has loads in her garden

HeavyHeidi, I had never thought about there being such a stark division between the mycophobes and the mycophiles. I would consider myself up for all manner of wild food, but I just have absolutely no knowledge of wild mushrooms. All I was ever taught about them was "NOOOOOoooooooooo!!".

Apocalypse, is that cherry juice on your cheeks? I'll swap you for a few tonnes of pears.

Baroness

Try Chiltern Seeds for the bluebells.

Yes they may be slightly stained, makes me chuckle that there are cherry trees growing near morissons where they sell for a fortune

I can't understand why anyone would pay good money to buy something from a shop that you can pick for free outside.

My sisters and I as children always ate fresh blackberries we'd pick through the fences of our neighbours' gardens. We had to be careful to pick the worms out of them before eating. I just couldn't bring myself to pay for them now.

We also used to peel trodden in chewing gum off the pavement. We'd pick and spit all the gravel out - some of them had lots of flavour left in them! Likewise I can't see the point in paying for bubbly gum in these economic times.

I'm with Heidi here we often pick wild mushrooms and we're in the UK we make absolutly sure we know what they are via our various books and the internet but thanks to it we get to enjoy wild oyster mushrooms and blue buttons so far this year from a little park.

BTW to make sure they're maggot free just soak them, all the nasties float to the top

Am so jealous of all of you with your blackberries! Round these parts, there are hardly any, and they are those titchy, stunted ones. Not sure that the birds have got them either, think it has just been a poor year for them (here).

On the other hand, am drowning under the plums from my garden; have cooked them every which way I can think of and people are starting to avoid me lest I INSIST that they take more with them. I'd gladly swap some for any blackberries or any cherries...

If anyones in Nottingham wanting Blackberries then put on some boots and jeans Bulwell Hall park is full of them if you're willing to wade into the middle of the brambles you could easily take home a few bags full.

rubyrubyruby, what time shall I come round?

stranded, you sound like me all that's growing near my morrisons is concrete

Blackberries not ready here yet our valley seems to be a few weeks behind the rest of the local area an dI can't be arsed to drive somewhere to go blackberry picking! Soon though we shall be able to head up the lines and pick away. I have an understairs cupboard full of elderflower cordial and come autumn I'll add a few bottled of elderberry vodka to it, yum! Sadly last autumn the council sent a couple of tractors down teh lines to cut back the undergrowth so no raspberries to speak of this year though thankfully the best bramble spots seem to have survived unscathed.

Aren't some people strange? I take my DC's blackberry and damson picking as soon as they're ready and always get comments about it! I don't really care though - the Dc's love it & we (sometimes) even manage to bring enough berries home to make bramble jelly... it still annoys me that I can't eat them though, blackberries bring me out in a huge itchy rash :(

YANBU. What a sad and ridiculous attitude.

How sad and uneducated. Where in earth does she think blackberries in the supermarket come from. the granddaughters will grow up thinking that meat and veg come from packets in the supermarket. The best blackberries are straight from the bush, I love wild fruit. Why pay for something that's free

Paying for blackberries is mad, picking them is great fun. We've got apple trees and a baby plum tree and the local city farm is awash with damsons, 30p for 2lb, and the money goes to a worthwhile cause. Have made several crumbles, pounds of jam and just started some damson gin. I would love some sloes tho, if anyone knows of any (we're in Notts)

Very sad indeed. We went blackberrying on Sunday and made 2 Apple and blackberry crumbles with the results.

When you freeze do you just bag them up and freeze? Or do you wash / cook them first?