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

Thanks for the links about sloes. I wish I had a friendly old-timer nearby who could help with the identification! It makes me so nervous that I might poison my rellies with "sloe" gin that's not made from sloes!

I was thinking today about the birds etc. and whether it's wrong to take their fruits, but I think that's nature. On the one hand we would always have gathered blackberries, but on the other maybe there are fewer around. Nonetheless, the birds that are endangered are not endangered because of fewer blackberries but actually because of a decline in their hedgerow habitat, there are plenty of unharvested and soft berries (as well as fruit rotting on the trees), and there are also plenty of feeding opportunities for the birds that aren't endangered. As long as it's not done on an industrial scale I think it's fine, provided it's done legally (i.e., you are allowed to be on the land and not taking commercially).

Shameful and seeing it was the grandma even more shameful, woman of her generation should have known better, poor little girl.
We picked green gages, plums, and masses of apples, me and DD made jam and rest of the fruit we cleaned, cut it up and put in the freezer, in process we had lot's of fun.
Unfortunately we live in era of plastic wrapping, and everything has to be vacuum packed, otherwise it might be unsafe for consumption, ridiculous.

I'm not worried about the birds...I think there must be plenty of food to go around....especially now (with all the wild seeds, fruits and nuts around).

In my garden they have all the sweetpea seeds and sunflower seeds (when the flowers have died) to munch on....and I feed the little ones year round (from my squirrel proof bird feeder).

Where does supermarket fruit grow? In greenhouses sometimes, but often in trees and in fields, the same as all other fruit. Maybe it gets washed before packaging but what's the difference between that, and picking your own fruit and then rinsing it?

dh went up the road earlier and got a whole bag of blackberries,
I will add them to my neighbours donated apples and cook loads of crumble for dd(been told to give her crumble as she can't eat fruit proper)

Cereal, I have one word for you: pesticides.

Also, when fruit/salad is bagged in cellophane, they exchange the air inside for a nitrogen mix, to stop it reacting and decomposing 'too quickly' for the supermarket stock chain process.

Also, the varieties sold in stores are bred to grow fast and large. Not for taste. So when they sell you something that's tasty or has a good level of antioxidants/vitamins/omega3/whatever, they can then charge you a premium.

I've been picking apples from the trees outside our library for weeks now, and have got 7lbs of blackberries stashed in the freezer from a single hour's pick at a nature reserve last weekend. Have also just discovered a damson tree at the end of the road, oh joy of joys and fortune of fortunes! Wild plum trees line our side street, and there are so many apple, crab apple and pear trees in the gardens that are always laden with rotting fruit that I am seriously tempted to do a leaflet drop asking if I can pick. And my neighbour has said we can also use her chest freezer in the garage!