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?

Well said shakeandvac. People are putting words into ops mouth, I live in london and there's tons of foraging that can be done- we made elderflower cordial a few weeks ago, got blackberries by the bucket load, elderberries and rowan are apparently out soon (according to OH) nettles (they don't sting when cooked!) make really good soup and risotto and we've got fruit and veg growing in the garden. We're very lucky to have a garden in which to grow stuff, and the time to pick and make stuff but there are many others who could and don't.

I work with a woman who didn't want her children eating blackberries from the bush because they weren't from a supermarket and its a shame that attitudes like that are more common now. No one is claiming that a few blackberries will cure poverty but there's a bigger picture of which many of you appear to want to miss the point on just to be nasty to the op.

Our culture has become a lot more supermarket orientated, many people don't know what wild things can and can't be eaten, or how they may need to be cooked but it doesn't mean you can't find out. The Internet and books will tell you more than you ever needed to know about it all. It is a good activity with children too.

Sadly there are no blackberry bushes on our estate! There's an alleyway round the back with a few, but that is where dogs and yoofs piss.

Suppose I could wash them in Dettol though. Do food banks supply Dettol?

Many poor people who use the food banks are in minimum wage labouring jobs (perhaps more than one) with long hours and high stress. They have not the time nor luxury to go blackberry picking in daylight nor jam making.

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

As in they come from bushes whether they're picked by yourselves or all 'wrapped up posh' by supermarkets!

nettles (they don't sting when cooked!) make really good soup

Oooh I like the sound of that, I've always wanted to make nettle tea or soup or something but not got round to it!

A tip for getting the bugs and maggots out of blackberries here - freeze them laid out on some paper or whatever, and the buggers come crawling out.

I was sarcy in a previous post, but I have an observation. In my locality, foraging seems to be quite a middle class activity.

Foraging happens a bit here too, but we're very rural. We're lucky enough to be able to find apples, damsons, blackberries all within half a mile.

I'm old, so know about blackberries. Soak in cold salted water for half an hour, kills the maggots, rinse well, use.

The council estate I grew up on was more likely to have those oh so nutritious flying pigs than anything growing and edible.

My maternity leave is standard in Sweden, nurseries dont take babies below a year and the government pays for the maternity leave.

I am pleased a handful of posters don't think aibu but I do understand that most people think aibu.

I'm in a town, but if I walk far enough out of it there's some countryside so I feel inspired to go for a walk and a forage this afternoon!

It's 10 miles before I'm in anything even vaguely describable as countryside. Am I excused?

Good luck shake! I want to go again today, I think I may be a little addicted.

It's 10 miles before I'm in anything even vaguely describable as countryside. Am I excused?

Nope. Get on your bike with an armful of carrier bags.

I don't have a bike. Nowhere to keep one that it wouldn't get nicked

I could get a bus, but that's a fiver that far these days

Good luck shake! I want to go again today, I think I may be a little addicted.

Will report back if I find anything worth scoffing

sorry, YABU OP
really, think about the time spent vs calories obtained of your blackberries
most people would be better off spending an hour at work in terms of spending power would allow them more options in terms of reliably feeding their family. Not to mention you will have to store your blackberries which either means you need a freezer (and to know you can pay the electricity) or to make jam - sugar, means of cooking, pan, jars etc plus the ability to sterilise them.

I agree, foraging and an appreciation of the environment is useful but its not a replacement for adequate money to buy food, its a lovely indulgence if youve got time and energy to spare. (I pick chanetrelles and boletus when I have time and a few more unusual things for the uk
eg blaeberries, cowberries (think you would call them lingonberries, svensker?), sorrel when in season, wild raspberries, elder berries and flowers, geans and can also fish, and set a mean snare (you can probably tell where I live from this set of skills, my environment is very different from blackberries in the south!) Doesnt mean its a viable lifestyle choice that will get people in the urban environment out of food poverty. Oddly enough, it was usually better for us to sell the mushrooms we picked than to eat them

So are you allowed to complain about not having enough money to feed your family as long as you've picked a tub full of blackberries then?

Is it okay to rely on other people to feed your kids, if you've managed to pick a few mushrooms. Is that all allowed then, yes?

DS2 and I went bramble picking yesterday on the Innocent Railway in Edinburgh. Got enough to make a crumble. Probably not enough to sustain the family for a day though.

"I live in london and there's tons of foraging that can be done- we made elderflower cordial a few weeks ago, got blackberries by the bucket load, elderberries and rowan are apparently out soon (according to OH) nettles (they don't sting when cooked!) make really good soup and risotto and we've got fruit and veg growing in the garden. We're very lucky to have a garden in which to grow stuff, and the time to pick and make stuff but there are many others who could and don't."

Do please check the soil you forage from in the city - I wasn't aware of the problem until I was told about high cadmium levels in a country park ( land used to be a medical waste tip decades ago apparently). The same guy told me that even the owls don't hunt on one side of the river because they've learned that small rodents are likely to be full of toxins from old waste tips and an ancient dye works and will poison them. The local university did some research on why so many moles were dying and there were very high metal levels in the soil. I would never have guessed any of this. The whole area looks lovely and very rural and there has been no actual industry there for decades.

Noel no and don't come back being all bloody fussy because you wasnt sure whether or not a few mushrooms might have actually been poisonous so you didnt pick all of them

I used to love blackberry picking as a child. We were not well off and my mum would make loads of jam with them. We used to ask farmers for permission to go on their land to pick them which was usually granted. Unfortunately, in my country, when I was about twelve they were deemed by some agricultural authority as an invasive weed (somehow they grow better here than in England) and farmers were then required to spray them with all sorts of crap to kill off the plants. If we ate them, it'd probably kill us off eventually too. So no blackberries for quite a while. Then this herbicide was banned a couple of years ago because it was making the farmers sick and blackberries are making a return so yum! Would never consider them a solution to poverty though.

That's one thing I won't be looking for and picking - mushrooms. Not got enough mushroom knowledge to know which ones are safe and which ones can poison or send you on a trip to Trip Out City!

People can complain all they want but it wont help their situation.

I have never said it was not ok for people to rely on other people to provide food for them, I said that I was reliant on food provided by other people my entire childhood. What I did say is that the families who are struggling to provide food for their kids in our local areacould be collecting a small amount of food for themselves.

I have never said it was not ok for people to rely on other people to provide food for them, I said that I was reliant on food provided by other people my entire childhood. What I did say is that the families who are struggling to provide food for their kids in our local areacould be collecting a small amount of food for themselves.

I wouldn't worry Froken, anyone can see that you haven't actually said that ANYWHERE.
People are going to twist round what you're saying and put words in your mouth whatever you say, as they'll only see what they want to see.

I used the language that the OP used herself actually