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?

[LoveSewingBee]

I love blackberries but there are none, absolutely none near where I live.

There are rosehips (nice for jam making) but they grow alongside very busy roads, so probably not advisable.

I think you are a lucky person OP to live so close to all those lovely blackberries, just count your blessings and be grateful.

[LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti]

I've been lying out on Port Meadow with my mouth open all bloody afternoon, and not one single rabbit ran in.

Baldrick lied.

[OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly]

I just eat peoples dogs. If its good enough for north Koreans....

[expatinscotland]

They are nowhere near ripe in this part of Scotland and yy, last year, they were unripe one day and rotten the next.

Again, as the human race evolved, they started farming. For a bloody good reason. Foraging is a far less reliable way.

[WafflyVersatile]

I expect there are loads of foodbank 'clients' standing on a roadside 20 mins walk from town right now, berating one of their number for the lack of blackberries. 'But I swear yesterday there were loads. LOADS!'

[YouveCatToBeKittenMe]

I'm sure there wouldn't be much meat on a poodle, I've never seen a really fat one

I have some fruit trees in my garden. I am currently up to my eyes in apples. Please come and help yourselves.
The wasps are free, (the ones that haven't been eaten by the hornet.)

[Wuldric]

Recipe for hedgehog stew for the OP. I feel the OP is just the person to print this recipe on many cards and distribute them locally to poor people. Together with a lecture on blackberrying.

BOORSRON - FROM VANSLOW SMITH 
It was our practice to catch hedgehogs for eating, of which there was a plentiful supply if you knew where to look. Now I have heard many unfounded stories about the cooking of these boorsron (which is the Romany name for a hedgehog ? sometimes also called a hotchi-witchi), and so I consider it time to put the record straight!

We would catch about six, and around our fire at night would draw them, (Romany for preparing meat), and making a wooden skewer, would open up the belly, using the skewer to do this. They would then be singed until their spikes were almost burnt off, then scalded in a bath of boiling water. At that stage they could be skinned, washed in salt water, then impaled on a hazel stick, just like a kebab, and slowly roasted over the embers of the fire. We also prepared moorhens and dabchicks (small black water birds similar to moorhens) in the same way all through the winter months.

If we had pheasants, they were plucked and gutted, washed in salt water and then boiled. Mother had a large pot, and two pheasants boiled in this way were about right. When the pot had stood overnight, a large quantity of yellow fat would be lifted off and then two rabbits also put in the pot. This was then all stewed together with plenty of onions, vegetables, lentils and dumplings!

[reelingintheyears]

Not even a hare in your mouth LRD?

Disappointing.

[thornrose]

I grew up in poverty, we picked blackberries, it was the only time we ever had pudding

Having "Pudding" hardly solves the issue though does it?

[LEMisdisappointed]

Mrs DeVere, you could have a point there - all those overrun rescue centres!! Sorted!

OP - do grow up, theres a love

[RussianBlu]

If I find wild fruit I generally eat them straight off the bush, no washing. My only rule is that they are growing approx above the height of my hips (in case dogs use them as a toilet etc). Am I living on the edge? I have done this since I was little.

[LEMisdisappointed]

I actually really like pigeon, although ive only ever had it in expensive resturants

[froken]

We freeze the blackberries. There were rotten berries on the bushes so I don't think we were taking berries away from other people, we only picked from 4/5 patches along a river, there were lots left.

I dont mean to sound patronising, I just don't understand why more people don't make use of this, collecting fruit can be enjoyable for all the family and also you get free food.

I live in Sweden, picking fruit and collecting mushrooms are very much part of their culture, I think I have become used to tge way tge Swedes use the food that grows naturally around then.

[bigkidsdidit]

Lol at hedgehog with cheese and pineapple

Here (in Scotland too) there are masses of them and we've been going out to pick and eat handfuls every day, my toddler loves it. But they're not exactly filling are they not even as a snack

[VerySmallSqueak]

Foraging is brilliant - food for free and all that jazz.

But....technically speaking I do believe that the fruit belongs to the landowner....

(just to chuck that in for shits 'n' giggles.....)

[LEMisdisappointed]

I would actually not pick blackberries from the roadside though - all the fumes from the car exhausts, no thankyou!

Saying that, i did make five jars of jam from blackberry's the other week - do i get some sort of reward?

[Mintyy]

Russianblu - presumably you aren't worried if the birds use them as a toilet.

[YouveCatToBeKittenMe]

My dog has eaten all the blackberries at collie height on our walk

should I be teaching her to carry a basket and make pastry?

[LEMisdisappointed]

And mushrooms - they can be properly poisonous those can!

[Florabeebaby]

Expat, you nailed it!! I come from Finland, we forage a lot...but we still have supermarkets and farms and stuff.
and food banks.
youo can't live on berries and mushrooms alone
Silly thread.

[bigkidsdidit]

We pick and est from the roadside with no washing. I didn't realise people didn't do that, tbh

[boschy]

I've still got last summer's blackberries in the freezer

Am leaving this lot the birds etc