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?

Yellowballoons - eccentric? What, because he made nettle soup? I already am eccentric - and happy with it. I already eye up skips as I pass them - my dad taught me

Why be dull? Who cares if "only" eight people come to your funeral - is that the standard of a "successful" life?! A well attended funeral?

Yellowballoons - not sure how you get from picking produce to being an eccentric with few friends - you're stretching it a lot there aren't you?

I still want an answer to why anyone would be embarrassed if their neighbours saw them picking blackberries!

'You are a bunch of playground bullies and its vile responses
to posts like this that give mumsnet a bad name'

Couldn't agree more

For goodness sake
This thread is a masterclass in Mumsnet twaddly nitpicking cannot-do-oh-no-how-very-dare-you-suggest-something-positive.

OP says blackberries are free and plentiful, wonders why more people aren't supplementing their diet with free food.

It is perfectly reasonable. Do any of you know people who have done this? I do. They supplemented their diets - and very well too - with foraged food. I've done it myself (it's all there on the web, and 'Food For Free' is back in print).

If you have access to wild foods and the inclination to get interested in the subject, it is there and it will add interest to your diet. And you'll get some exercise. Call that patronising if you want, it is simply a fact though.

You know what I think? After spending more time than was necessary on that Jamie Oliver thread, I have come to the conclusion that some of you really get off on pointing out what "the poor" couldn't possibly do, the dear things. You forget that actually people are many and various, and because one poster couldn't do x,y,z for her own reasons doesn't mean that all ideas are irrelevant to low income families and it's offensive to suggest good things. I find that fucking patronising in the extreme. It's as though you've labelled people on extremely low incomes as automatically depressed, disordered and incapable. "That'll solve all their problems " is such a common response, ignoring the fact that people are not posting about solving all their problems, they are posting about something they know works in the right combination of circumstances (like: access to blackberries for fucking starters, duh). But no, let's have a can't-do session and knock the life out of any good ideas.

oohdaddypig. I could tell you were.

One thing, if you never remember anything else. Yes, he was healthy. But he ended up dying because of the eccentricity. He got a brain tumour[not saying that that was because of what he ate]. But he didnt tell anyone that he was not feeling right for 9 months. And he didnt go to the doctor at all during that time. By the time myself[yes, I am one of the family members] and others realised that there was a problem, it was too late. This outs me btw, but I dont care. It is too important a post for me not to write. Now crying about him.

Dont let that be you too oohdaddypig.

If anyone needs them there are free food recipes on my blog, including an autumn related one.

www.austerityhousekeeping.wordpress.com

Sorry yellow, that's very sad. But really there is no need to label us "eccentrics" as one "type". Our terrible affliction of eccentricity manifests itself in many different ways you know.

But thanks for your concern which I hope is genuine but I suspect, sadly, not.

I went blackberry picking at the park yesterday.

There was a man sleeping rough in the bushes.

I still picked lots of blackberries. Was that wrong? Was I taking his only source of food. What d'you think OP?

the other thing that gets totally overlooked with allotments (other than the need for tools, transport and big initial outlay of both money and intense physical labour) is water. most allotments do not have water on site for you to use for free and vegetables are very water intensive so you're talking about sourcing that water (paying for it on your meter) and transporting it daily to the allotment to do the watering.

the costs just do not add up and the amount of labour required is vast. i'm not talking about laziness here btw but the sheer reality that even as a healthy-ish 37yo the chances of me digging over and deweeding a whole allotment single handed are bloody slim. i found even digging flower beds in my garden bloody hard work. my dad is impressive - can really go at it and keep going with sweat dripping off of him (farmer stock, his father was a machine for digging) but it still takes hours to do a small patch and if you're like me you'll have calluses all over you and be in so much pain the next day you need a few days off to recover!

the poorest in the country tend to be women with small children, in particular single women. their realistic chances of a) having the resources for tools, water transportation etc and b) the energy and strength for that level of intensive labour and c) the sheer time are very, very slim and all for what? more expensive vegetables than they can buy from the shops.

Bean - what is the point of your post? To goad the OP further? Because she dared suggest blackberries as a free food so she should pronounce on all moral implications of that?

Away with your taunts.

I have come to the conclusion that some of you really get off on pointing out what "the poor" couldn't possibly do, the dear things. You forget that actually people are many and various, and because one poster couldn't do x,y,z for her own reasons doesn't mean that all ideas are irrelevant to low income families and it's offensive to suggest good things

No but it's fucking offensive, patronising and ridiculous and makes you sound like a total twat to stride on in and say

'ah, poor people! I know whay don't you supplement your meagre food supplies with blackberries' or

'well if you can afford a big telebox like that then you shouldn't be feeing your little darlings chips'

That's what you are doing

I tried. Search me on Advanced Search if you want. Best wishes.

OP YANBU. Blackberries are not a solution to food poverty, obviously, but I think it is crazy that people will happily pay £3 for a punnet of organic blueberries when they could pick themselves a load of much fresher, and equally organic wild blackberries for free.

WRT allotments, we have a small one and TBH it is a middle class hobby that saves us little or no money once you take into account the cost of renting the plot, tools, seeds etc. However, our allotment neighbours have a much larger and long-established plot from which they do manage to grow a significant amount of their food. They are on benefits and would probably not be able to afford cherries, strawberries, asparagus etc if they didn't grow them themselves.

My grandfather managed to maintain two large allotments and grew the majority of vegetables for his family of four (also very low income, though employed, and spent every evening tending the allotments). He was very knowledgable about growing things. So actually, I do think that making allotments more easily available could improve peoples access to fresh fruit and vegetables, which grow ever more expensive on the shops. It's also a nice activity to involve children in, as even a 2 year old can help with watering, picking berries etc.

Bean - what is the point of your post? To goad the OP further? Because she dared suggest blackberries as a free food so she should pronounce on all moral implications of that?

cross post. She did sound a bit patronising though.

It's a couple of handfuls of degrees away from people who say things like

'people in the third world should stop having babies if they can't afford to feed them'

It's ill informed, patronising, judgemental, ridiculous and discriminatory.

That's what i think anyway.................

Bean I think you should re-read the post because that wasnt what she said. She said, that free fruit is a way of supplementing a diet.

Actually it's a way of supplementing a diet whether your poor or super-rich. And whist we can surely all see its not the solution to the overall problem, we can all agree we'd all get a nice dessert ifvwevwent and did it.

Beanandgone: who has done that?

ANY time anybody dares to suggest anything that could conceivably go a tiny way to making life a bit better - for anybody really - they get pounced on in exactly your manner. It's exhausting and divisive. It is starting to look like there's a tranche of posters who really want 'the poor' to not have access to anything nice: unless it's big tellies and fags, so they can have a go, presumably.

I think it's a fair point that we DO have a lot of free bounty out there at certain points of the year.

It isn't always easy or practical for people to obtain though.

We are also a society who no longer remembers a time of HAVING to gather nature given free food. This is a GOOD thing, nobody should have to rely upon what might or might not grow on bushes and trees.....but it's a nice bonus.

I am in social housing and back onto a busy lane by farmland....my shed and back fence are covered in blackberry bushes and DS had a fantastic time yesterday picking a nice quantity. I added apples and made an apple and blackberry crumble....'twas yummy. I still needed the ingredients for the crumble mixture and to add apples.

As a child in Ireland my grandmother HAD to gather what was available along with her siblings. They grew potatoes, they gathered seaweed from the beach (this was both used for a food AND as an enrichment for the potato crops. It was gather what was there or starve....I am glad we no longer have to do this.

"most allotments do not have water on site for you to use for free and vegetables are very water intensive so you're talking about sourcing that water (paying for it on your meter) and transporting it daily to the allotment to do the watering."

Wow, swallowed, that is really interesting.

And very surprising to me.

I guess I would have presumed that allotments would have water on site (even if you had to pay for it).

I had no idea that people with allotments were having to transport water (presumably by car) to their plots of land.

It's quite bizarre when you think about it.

Good points too about the hard manual labour involved in growing vegetables and the fact that the poorest in our society are mothers with small children.

It's probably all a waste of time suggesting ideas on here anyway as the real poor of society won't have access to computers to be able to read the Mumsnet threads - not outside of library hours anyway.

the thing is the OP could have said, "hey everyone just a head's up that the bushes are full of blackberries in some areas and they're a fun easy way to get some free fruit".

instead she had to invoke "the poor" and judgments.

a genuine desire to help would have led to the former, she chose the latter.

Jakebullet I am not picking on you in particular but this It isn't always easy or practical for people to obtain though.

Nothing is always easy or practical to obtain. Absolutely nothing. Not one thing. There is nothing in our society that is available to all people for no effort. The point is that we work out what is available and we work out how best to get it. It is not easy at all times.

"hey everyone just a head's up that the bushes are full of blackberries in some areas and they're a fun easy way to get some free fruit"

Spot on swallowed. EXACTLY

...they are great this year too :) I need some recipes.

in fact every time someone says, "the poor", of course it's offensive. same as if you said, "the gays" or "the blacks" as if they were a uniform group of otherness.

we have all learnt not to say, for example, epileptic people - we say 'people with epilepsy' to recognise and honour the person over the condition.

why can people not see that the same courtesy and respect should be offered for socio-economic groups? that they are people before a financial condition?