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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

800 replies

froken · 06/09/2013 20:16

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?

OP posts:
PaulSmenis · 07/09/2013 08:19

If I couldn't afford to buy food, it's not as though a diet of fruit would feed my family properly.

Ffs, just think of the amount of bog roll you'd get through. If you are poor enough to be struggling to feed yourself, do you seriously think you would be able to budget for the extra arse paper? Poor people would shit themselves to death.

Sorry OP. Bad advice.

MadeOfStarDust · 07/09/2013 08:22

I do understand a little of where the OP is coming from though... when we were growing up we had nothing.... - but were fortunate enough to live on a Scottish island...

we had free trout and mackerel, crab and lobster and clams and mussels, and rabbit and pigeon, and blackberries and nettles and grew potatoes in every square inch of our 12 foot square yard....

we never went hungry, but a good part of the evening for us kids was spent "foraging" for want of a better word.... it was just "going to get something for tea" to us....

Not everyone is that "fortunate", but as OP stated, there is some food out there .. we could either have sat and complained and eaten potatoes with cheap cheese, or gone out and caught something for tea... The island I come from has great poverty problems, with people complaining about the price of food etc - there are still the same wild foods available as when I was young - some go out and get their own meal - others like to whinge...

froken · 07/09/2013 08:26

that is indeed incredible of her mother but doesn't make what she did easy or 'ok' or the standard we should aim for for all poor people

I completly agree that we should aim to live in a society where people are not hungry. Unfortunately in the UK at the moment people are going hungry and it seems silly to me to let food go bad.

Why is it so wrong to suggest people struggling to buy food for their families go and pick blackberries. A cup of blackberries gives you half the vitamin c you need for a day.

Even when you have very very little there are ways to provide some food for yourself.

OP posts:
ExcuseTypos · 07/09/2013 08:59

"Even when you have very very little there are ways to provide some food for yourself."

I think you're coming across just like a goady, shit stirrer. Do you mean to?

ShakeAndVac · 07/09/2013 09:07

Wow, there's some sarcastic bitches on here (even more so than unusual!)
Where exactly does the OP say "get picking blackberries, it'll cure all the poverty?" Confused
It's a thread asking why there's so much fruit going to waste at the side of the road, when people could pick it - there's always threads saying how expensive fruit is, and I agree that it is - OP got a perfectly valid AIBU to wonder why people don't get it for free?
Looking at all the replies crying "but it might have maggots in it" I think there's the answer. If they're not polished to within an inch of their lives and wrapped up in realms of cellophane, people don't want to know.

LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 07/09/2013 09:12

I don't think she said at the side of the road, and as people said, that's not a great place to pick - not because of the cellophane, because of the exhaust fumes. Which are not a good idea, even if they're free.

nkf · 07/09/2013 09:15

This has to be the weirdest post ever. Blackberries, poverty - it just doesn't compute.

Chippednailvarnish · 07/09/2013 09:25

Ffs OP, how about you actually address the points the other posters are making instead of banging on endlessly about fucking fruit?

If you live in a big city there isn't much fruit...
If you live in an industrial area any fruit may well be growing in unsuitable soil...
If you are working all the hours God sends to keep a roof over your family's head (which you clearly aren't)...

Picking fucking fruit isn't going to be a viable option.

ShakeAndVac · 07/09/2013 09:31

I don't think she said at the side of the road, and as people said, that's not a great place to pick - not because of the cellophane, because of the exhaust fumes. Which are not a good idea, even if they're free

They come from places like that originally, what's a bit of exhaust fumes going to do exactly? You're breathing in them day in day out anyway!
I used to pick blackberries straight off the bush and eat them when I was small. I'm still here to tell the tale.

stubbornstains · 07/09/2013 09:35

swallowedafly you don't live in Cornwall do you? I could do with some apples, and my rhubarb is nothing short of magnificent. (bet you live in Scotland Sad).

You might need to replace your rhubarb with new crowns if it's a bit long in the tooth.

holidaybug · 07/09/2013 09:35

"Even when you have very very little there are ways to provide some food for yourself."

True and I don't think you're coming across as a shit stirrer - some people just seem to have a huge chip on their shoulders

froken · 07/09/2013 09:37

I think you're coming across just like a goady, shit stirrer. Do you mean to?

Not at all. I can't afford to give my ds raspberries, blackberries and blueberries everyday, I cant afford to buy expensive mushrooms but I want to give him those things and so I go and collect them so he can have them.

Obviously blackberries are not going to sustain a person but a handful a day will provide vitamins and will free up cash to spend on other foods.

It's terrible that people are hungry, it really is an awful situation. I hope that life becomes easier for poor families but whilst the situation is as it is I don't understand why people don't take advantage of free food.

OP posts:
JustGettingOnWithIt · 07/09/2013 09:39

Froken and especially Froken?s mum, will you nod happily at the idea of your grandchildren and great grandchildren having to continue having so much fun?

I?m a mum and a gran too, and I?ve tried to make a lot ok and ?fun? that?s not, because we make the best of what we have to do, but as they grow older they get taught to sing a different song.

Foraging does eke us out here; we?re reliant on it and go a lot further than blackberries, fruits and leaves, along with yellow labels, bun fights, skip diving, (most food skips are now bleached and padlocked here) replacing collars and cuffs, turning sides to middle, weekly patching and darning, and there?s little I can?t make, and we've sorted ourselves so we can get out past our officially unsafe lead polluted food sources (we have a blight notice) and to better ones, and we preserve everything and live of much of it all year round, but it all takes up a huge amount of time keeping us surviving the situation, that could be better spent trying to get out of it.

I could write the book on ?Frugality made fun? but I won?t because it will only encourage people to think it?s ok.

We?re resourceful and prioritise education and anything that will give my dc?s and dgc?s a way out of this trap of spreading far too little far too thin for far too long that goes back several generations, and I?m determined to change it. As I know the apple never falls far from the tree, I?m changing the tree's attitudes.

One of my dc?s made me a present that says; ?My mum has made so much from so little for so long, she can now make anything from nothing.?

Underneath is a post it note that says ?Now learn everything you can and aim high if you don?t want to end up just like her.?

Rethink the message you're sending down the family line if you don't want to be nodding approvingly at your grandchildren living hand to mouth too.

LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 07/09/2013 09:42

shake - sorry, I am confused by 'they come from places like that originally'.

Erm, no.

They really, really don't.

Brambles: very old
Car fumes and roadsides: relatively new.

HTH.

Good lord.

And to answer the other bit: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18415532

But hey, let's just test it on anyone on minimum wage, eh?

Chippednailvarnish · 07/09/2013 09:42

That's the spirit OP just keep banging on about fruit.

EduCated · 07/09/2013 09:46

I haven't seen a blackberry bush round these parts. Ever. I don't think they can grow too well through Tarmac.

froken · 07/09/2013 09:47

If you live in a big city there isn't much fruit...

I never said ever family should go out fruit collecting just that where I was ( which was in easy walking distance to 1000s of families there was lots of fruit.

If you live in an industrial area any fruit may well be growing in unsuitable soil..

Again, not suggesting this would be an option for everyone, if the soil is bad obviously you can't do it.

If you are working all the hours God sends to keep a roof over your family's head (which you clearly aren't)...

If your working all the time you can't go out fruit picking. There are many families with lots of spare time. I am on maternity leave at the moment but I worked a 60 hour week before my ds was born as we needed the money ( at the moment I get the same wage as when I was at work)

OP posts:
swallowedAfly · 07/09/2013 09:47

stubborn sadly i'm a long way from cornwall. maybe i will tell some poor people to come and pick up the fallen apples each day if they don't i will report them for benefit fraud as they're obviously not deserving Grin

won't replace the crowns, i only give the rhubarb away anyway. might try my grandad's trick of covering them with upturned flowerpots for the winter.

Chippednailvarnish · 07/09/2013 09:48

What planet are you on? Most poor people wouldn't be able to afford to take maternity leave. I find your misguided postings almost funny.

LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 07/09/2013 09:49

True, true, froken, we're idle shites. Or I definitely am.

So why bother post it on MN?

I think that's what puzzles me a bit. It's only going to end up as either this - a bit of gentle ribbing and a dose of reality - or another endless smug-in about 'yah, why don't the poor do better, I myself recommend ...', which is a bit uncomfortable really, isn't it?

EduCated · 07/09/2013 09:52

So that leaves us with families who have an adult at home during the day time, who live within walking distance of a semi-rural area, which often tend to attract families with a little more money who want a naice environment, rather than inner city living, or who have transport to get themselves there.

I think our target market for Blackberries For All has dropped somewhat there. And I'd hazard a guess that those who can access these areas are a little less likely to be those who are desperately in need.

In the words of Supreme Overlord Duncan Ballantyne, I'm out.

Saffyz · 07/09/2013 09:53
Biscuit
swallowedAfly · 07/09/2013 09:54

ok so a few poor people who live in rural areas where they're lucky enough for their brambles not to be full of pollution from traffic or alternatively covered in pesticides because they're on the edges of fields that get sprayed every single year and who won't be trespassing may be able for 2 weeks a year to get some blackberries. they will need to be not working and have plenty of time for picking, washing, storing, making stuff.

that's that sorted.

TrinityRhino · 07/09/2013 09:54

Val you are awesome Grin

Lampshadeofdoom · 07/09/2013 10:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.