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?

[OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly]

Road, not rude!

[GrrArgh]

Honestly the nicest way of eating foraged fruit is simply with a bit of cream. Cook down the greener/more sour fruit with a bit of sugar to taste, leave the puree to cool, eat with ice cream, natural yogurt, cream.

Yes you can make loads of tarts too, and bought pastry is pretty cheap so it's not a lot of effort. Simplest way is to cut into squares, fold the edges up and pinch the corners, fill with fruit, bake. (It has a French name but I can't remember it right now.)

Or cook berries down, with sugar, half a lemon maybe, and make into cordial. Not like shop bought cordial: even when strained it'll have bits in. However it's totally delicious. Can be a pouring sauce for ice cream.

I think the point of it is not that you collect things in order to completely feed your family, but that you see it as an extra which hopefully brightens life with minimal financial outlay, and as a source of pride as well. I collected this, I processed it, we are enjoying it, and it cost pennies. That is a good feeling. It doesn't involve being exploited by the food and retail industry, it's autonomous, independent action: this is now a bit subversive.

[Guiltismymaster]

Why die of starvation when you can die of the diarrhoea resulting from the 9lbs of blackberries you live on?

Or would you suggest that we start hunting the local cats?

...but yes, I do wish people would pick them and freeze them. That's the spirit!

[squoosh]

I've just picked some blackberries in Glasgow city centre. They are delicious indeed although not sufficient to fix this city's social and health problems.

[Feminine]

op has been so earnest in her posts, I can only imagine she is really coming from a good place.

[TheFallenNinja]

There's a run over pigeon in the road just outside my house, it's sort if still moving so must be fresh will it go well with blackberries?

[GrrArgh]

Nice recipe here.

[0utnumbered]

I don't think healthy food is that expensive? I get my fruit and veg from my local market, the other day I paid £2 for a big bag of satsumas and 2 boxes of strawberries that have lasted us all week, I get a lot of frozen vegetables too since I learned that they are just as healthy as fresh! A huge bag of frozen peas for £1, another bag of mixed veg for £1!
I do love blackberries though, if I knew a place near me where I could pick some I would definitely take my eldest son to do this!

[OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly]

If you're only buying a bag of oranges and few handfuls of strawberries, of course you're not going to find it too pricey. But neither are you eating hardly any fruit. I need to buy 20 times that to feed my family, and there are no markets where I live.

[swallowedAfly]

2 kinds of fruit over the week week is plenty if you're also eating lots of veg. veg is far more important than fruit. this obsession with fruit (nature's mars bars as i said earlier) is odd.

how much sweet shit can you eat?

[OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly]

Its not nearly enough, even with lots of veg.

Sweet shit? An apple is now sweet shit by the weird food police?

Cop on.

[BoffinMum]

Ninja

[defineme]

Vegetables give you absolutely all the vitamins and minerals -you don't actually need fruit.
Very budget eating plans (I think boffinmum used to link to one ages ago) often only have vegetables on because fruit is expensive.
My son has asd and food issues, he recently had blood tests to check he wasn't deficient in anything. He is fine-it woud seem that spinach, kale, carrots, tomatoes and so on suffice.

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

FallenNinja - yes, it may be a bit gamey so a fruity sauce would go well. Make sure you save all the feathers. You could make an elegant fascinator for a wedding.

[defineme]

I meant to say-the only fruit my ds eats is blackberries!

[swallowedAfly]

it's plenty enough the idea we need a ton of different veg is a marketing nonsense.

fruit was meant to be a treat in the diet - ooh sweet stuff - at one point of the year. really if you're aiming for 5 a day you'd want 4 of them to be veg not sugary fruit.

[swallowedAfly]

i had a friend who from a young age was overweight - she was very active, she tried all kinds of diet and ate in a way that she thought was really healthy. she ended up with dieticians and allsorts and having food allergy tests etc. one person she saw said 'stop eating fruit' - the weight was gone really rapidly and according to the specialist he'd seen a lot of people the same.

a lot of fruit is really not that great. sure an apple for some fibre or some citrus fruit for vit c boost but it doesn't do a lot of other good and any good it can do can be sourced better from vegetables without all the fructose.

[AthelstaneTheUnready]

I'm pretty poor (bobbing around the disaster line) so I thought I would take this good advice and pick as many blackberries as I could.

I now have 23 litres of blackberry wine fermenting away in the kitchen.

I feel healthier already.

[OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly]

Fruit wasn't meant to be anything, food isn't designed it just is. And as for all this you don't need malarkey, there are lot of things we don't need...like sugar and bread and pasta and cream and wine and salmon etc etc ad infinitum. We could live rather well on a bag of grains, some bear meat and an endless supply of spinach...but fuck that for a game of soldiers.
Why so bloody po-faced about fruit of all things?

[VaultFullOfTwizzlers]

"there are lot of things we don't need...like sugar and bread and pasta and cream and wine"



Try telling that to Athelstane with her 23 litres. Good luck with the new healthy regime, ATU

[defineme]

because someone said you need fruit for a healthy diet and it's expensive-we were simply pointing out it's not.

[OnTheBottomWithAWomensWeekly]

Actually nobody said that.

[SolidGoldBrass]

Actually, if the only blackberries near you are too near a road/too low to be anything other than a wildlife urinal, if you have any kind of patio/windowbox/garden pick a handful and plant them. Then you will have your own blackberries next year and the year after. My back patio is overrun with the things, and we do eat lots of them (though this year we are definitely sharing with the wildlife as there are a) too many to eat and b) simply can't reach some of them).

And it's no bad thing to point out to people that blackberries in parks/up the top of an embankment away from the road are edible and nice and a bit of fun for DC to pick. Because some people don't know - walking home with DS and another DC from his class and other mum, DS was doing his usual thing of diving into the bushes for blackberries and his friend was stunned and the mother a bit unsure...

[swallowedAfly]

i'm not 'po-faced' about fruit i was defending someone against the po-faced-ness of someone trying to make her feel shit for only having two types of fruit in the house for the week. bashing someone who says they're skint for not having a fruit aisle in their kitchen is not on or necessary in my book.

and no food wasn't designed but 'we' did evolve in environments and in relation to resources including nutrition.

[swallowedAfly]

SGB people always look a bit stunned my labrador clearing the low hanging fruit