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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder why anyone buys blackberries?

72 replies

MakeHayNotStraw · 03/09/2012 17:42

Ok, I am clearly a bit bored, but also curious as to why anyone would pay £3 for a small punnet of blackberries in a supermarket. Doesn't bother me, buy what you like, obviously, I'm just idly curious! I can kind of understand it in the centre of cities (although I live in a city and still managed to gather a bagful on the way back from the school run) but my parents live in the arse end of nowhere in the country and their "local" supermarket still sells them, which presumably they wouldn't if they didn't sell?

OP posts:

funkybuddah · 04/09/2012 08:11

I'm going picking with dc2 today, if I soak them will any grub/ living things cone out?

Altho dc2 wanders along eating them from the bush so don't know why I'm wondering.

McPie · 04/09/2012 08:13

I bought 3 thornless blackberry plants last year and you are lucky if there is a dozen blackberries on it so am leaving them to the birds this year and hope for a crop next year. I have stopped buying soft fruit from the supermarkets now as no matter how nice the punnet looks by the next morning they have started going furry!

Salbertina · 04/09/2012 08:18

Just have to make the and v obvious point that thought this thread was going to be in praise of the saintly iPhone!

But I do love blackberries plural, just wdnt spend £3 on them. Not grown where I live so really miss actually, make a good crumble!

spoonsspoonsspoons · 04/09/2012 08:39

I've picked a fair few from the garden (we have a bramble hedge) but there's quite a bit of regional variation. At my parents which is only an hour away they're nowhere near ready.

I know locally a lot of people won't pick them as it's an ex-mining area and the old colliery sites are where they grow

Tee2072 · 04/09/2012 08:42

I would have no idea what a blackberry bush looked like if I fell over it.

But I don't buy them either because they are much too expensive.

ArbitraryUsername · 04/09/2012 08:46

Our garden had load of brambles waiting to ripen. But DH cut them all back and now there is no fruit.

AnnTeak · 04/09/2012 08:54

Yabu, not everyone lives in the country you know.

WhispersOfWickedness · 04/09/2012 08:55

We have a 'cultivated bramble' in our front garden that we planted last year, we've had a couple of pounds off it already and will probably get the same again by the end of the season. We are in north Lincolnshire for whoever asked, they started to go ripe about 3 weeks ago...

MackerelOfFact · 04/09/2012 08:59

It's just convenience, isn't it? The same reason people buy pre-prepared carrots or ready-made pies or those stupid little pouches of laundry detergent.

spoonsspoonsspoons · 04/09/2012 08:59

Interesting whispers, my parents are in north lincs and all the blackberries there are still green

WhispersOfWickedness · 04/09/2012 09:09

Ooo, very strange, spoons, maybe there are early and late varieties?

Original poster

MakeHayNotStraw · 04/09/2012 22:19

We're in the Midlands, I noticed the first ones last week. And I live in a city (albeit a small one), not the country, for the poster who assumed....

Thornless blackberry bushes, sounds ideal!

OP posts:

CoolaSchmoola · 04/09/2012 22:21

YANBU - the shop bought ones taste of nothing.

pickofthepops · 04/09/2012 22:21

I love blackberries, my favourite fruit. Unfortunately I drive to work and rarely get to explore and look out for bushes with them on. That's why i buy them.

Original poster

MakeHayNotStraw · 05/09/2012 07:18

Just had a look at the other thread - I'm amazed that people would think it's disgusting! Never come across that POV. Weird.

OP posts:

Scholes34 · 05/09/2012 08:59

Cultivated ones are certainly more juicy.

I do pick wild ones though and find the best way to eat them is to make them into ice cream to eat with apple pie, so you get the nice apple/blackberry mix. Otherwise, there are just too many pips. Also good for making blackberry whiskey, which also means no pips. I'm not a great fan of pips.

MrsRobertDuvallHasRosacea · 05/09/2012 09:01

Everyone's picked the ones round here!

Yes, I buy them from Waitrose.

biffnbuster · 05/09/2012 09:41

After my measly 4 at the weekend, found some on the other side of town, looking good and ripe. But very SOUR, I will not give up though......

TroublesomeEx · 05/09/2012 10:06

I wouldn't pick blackberries from the school run - dog wee and car fumes.

Not everyone has them growing wild nearby - fair enough.

Not everyone trusts that you can eat them picked wild -

We have a lovely plum tree in the garden. When I asked BIL's children if they wanted to pick some to eat a couple of years ago he actually asked me if they were safe

theodorakis · 05/09/2012 11:25

I thought you meant the phone...was going to reply it's because Apple is shit. Actually that works anyway.

cantthinkofadadsname · 05/09/2012 11:28

My exs new house has blackberries in the garden which made her really happy. She always used to pick blackberries when we went walking and we once had a "debate" about the right and wrongs of picking them when the bush was overhanging into the road :)

MonkeyRisotto · 05/09/2012 12:15

We went for 2 walks last week and snacked on blackberries, elderberries, bilberries, and ears of corn, as we went. Yum :)

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