to wonder why there are blackberries going bad whilst people complain that they don't have enough money to feed their family healthy food.

[froken]

We went blackberry picking today, I was expecting a couple of manky blackberries to be left because I hear so often in the media and on mumsnet people saying how they struggle to feed their dc healthy food and sometimes people saying they have a hard time finding enough money to feed their dc at all.

There was a huge amount of blackberries, we were a 20 min walk outside a major city so an easily accessible place for 1000s of families.

We picked 9 pounds of blackberries.

Aibu to think that it would be a good idea for those struggling to feed their family a healthy diet (and those struggling to feed their family at all) should be out picking the free fruit that grows all over England's public spaces?

Pensioner Pie would be okay but my Mum is only fit for making stock. Risotto at a push.

Apols for the typos.

Stick to pictures Val

This is such a funny thread, thanks all, after a shite day you've really made me snigger

cheers - beer here and we don't have symbol for that funnily enough.

it is clearly too late and i'm clearly too tipsy and bored because i actually googled calories in dust AND there are clearly a lot of people who are too bored because it brings up pages of results.

pensioner pie might be a bit tough and chewy but i'm assured that you just have to cook cheap cuts of meat slowly and for a long time so slow cooked old codger casserole might be better.

(i wouldn't know because i don't buy meat because i spend all my money on fancy phones and 5m wide tvs)

Pensioners would need to be cooked for much longer than Jamie's four-hour brisket. I couldn't afford that!

but the meat is free and you'd probably get a tax rebate from the tories for the culling vault. mix it with blackberries and you're on your way.

incidentally if you listen to JO's interview on woman's hour he clearly read our thread in aibu because he actually acknowledges that the only tv you can buy if you're skint and limited to brighthouse or whatever it's called is a flat widescreen one which people on here had pointed out.

so if you're still reading us jamie you could have redeemed yourself with a hands up straightforward, man i fucked up and didn't think when i opened my mouth instead of the poor me, i'm a 'ard working bloke who creates jobs and everyone wants a pop at me. even the vairy middle class woman's hour presenter knew you were an utter numpty and should have just held your hands up.

anyone who was on that aibu thread i really recommend you go to radio iplayer and listen to his slot because it is so clear he read us and he's defending himself against what was said on there.

Culling Tory voters might get me hanged when they start applying retrospective laws as they do!

Great post about the radio programme.

Yup I heard him to on Womens Hour swallowed.

I did snigger a bit....

ooh torytwizzlers could be lovely eh? nutrition and national service all in one. ethical food at it's best.

not just me then squeak ? he was definitely responding to us wasn't he?

Haha let them eat blackberries...

You know what is sad? The huge quantities of food just thrown away by cafes every day. How is it allowed??? Couldn't they send it to shelters or something??

Well it was uncanny if not swallowed !

TOO uncanny imo.

yes extra - health and safety malarchy.

when i was living in london there was a 'soup kitchen' that gave out pret a manger sandwiches that were at the point of use by/best before date. clearly they'd made a deal to do so in whatever way it took to get round the law.

what horrifies me is the way supermarkets would rather take 50p off say a £4 product when it's at it's use by date thereby not selling it because it's not worth it to the consumer and throwing it in the bin as wastage instead. if they halved the price it would be worth buying and would sell but presumably they don't want to 'devalue' their products like that. it's just criminal wastage really.

I have just returned from an eventful evening of bin raking, kids in tow, natch, of the two small food shops two miles away, to tide us over until the brambles are ripe.

We didn't get far, because the bouncers were there to check I was a lone parent on benefits. Damn!

'Why is it so wrong to think that people who have no money to buy food should take advantage of local free sources of food? Not instead of foodbanks, not instead of benefits but to supplement those sources of help.

If a family uses a foodbank and they go and pick a couple of pots of blackberries maybe they could leave some blackberries for other people.

I am not benefit bashing, my entire childhood was funded by benefits, I feel that families with a limited income could embrace the tasty free food around them a bit more.'

You are forgetting a completely free, if grown properly, even outdoors, source of income.

Cannabis. Yes, single mums, forget the blackberries. Do like my hippie friend's single mum and grow your cannabis out in the wilds. If it's caught out, no one knows who planted it, and best of all, no sneaky HMRC to worry about.

The proceeds are tastier and more profitable than any bramble.

Expat what happened to your post on the chat thread where you called him a wanker? It was deleted but did HQ explain?

We wouldn't be able to discuss politics at all if we refrained from such language.

we certainly wouldn't be able to discuss politicians if we weren't allowed to use the word wanker.

and yes, i can afford his books and craps if i wanted to too. i won't be buying any of it though.

think he assumes all of the naysayers are benefit living paupers, well think on Jamie. we're the thinking end of your demographic.

Ah Marie Antoinette, how are you these days?

Let them eat jam as posted above pretty much covers it for me.

Oh, Vault, did that get deleted? I get deleted so often, I lose tracks.

Well, here's another for them to delete, I think, in my opinion, he is both a wanker and a cunt. :o

I think JO thinks his heart is in the right place and that he is misunderstood. The facts are that his heart IS in the right place, but he misunderstands reality.

He has had a charmed life, and genuinely doesnt get how hard life can be. He has never had to look at his children eating a meal that will still leave them hungry because thats all you can afford. He has never gone to bed at the same time as the kids because the electricity is about to run out so you cant afford to have the (Flatscreen 52") TV on. He has never gone hungry so his kids can eat, and worried about the school holidays because there wont be FSM to eke out the little he has.

What he needs to do is accept that while he means well, he really is not the person to tackle this issue and step out of the debate.