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?

[NoelHeadbands]

Ahh froken if your OP had asked why people paid ££ in supermarkets for berries when they were available for free a mere 5 mins away, I'd have probably agreed with you

[expatinscotland]

'So that's the reason they're killing off the badgers! Keeps the farmers happy and feeds the feckless.'

AND fuel the next food fraud scandal. And people thought a little horsemeat was bad!

[LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti]

Thanks big.

I feel mean now, cos I cross-posted with froken.

I think the thing is, loads of people do know about blackberrying, but it's probably not top priority if you don't happen to live somewhere convenient, I reckon. It seems to be a very trendy thing at the moment, the back-to-the-land stuff, and it's great fun but it is a bit Marie Antoinette.

[PlentyOfPubeGardens]

I just don't understand why more people don't make use of this

You have a point here, to be fair. I was once in a pub garden which had blackberries growing all around the edges and some kids were having a great time picking and eating them until their mum told them off because they were poisonous

However, surely you must realise that to link this with the issue of people being so hard-up they're reliant on food banks is really fucking ignorant and offensive? 'Let them eat jam' is spot on.

• Most things you can do with them involve a big pile of sugar - hardly a balanced diet.
  
• They are in season from round about now (depending where you live) until the first frost, which some years, and again depending on where you live, can be a matter of days.
  
• You're assuming that people in poverty all have masses of free time to go foraging, whereas the majority of children living in poverty actually have working parents.
  

It looks like a really good year for blackberries (and elderberries - the trees are literally weighed down with them round my way). Personally I've not been able to stand them since I made a big blackberry and apple pie the same day my hyperemesis kicked in when expecting DD. I'm tempted to dig out the wine making equipment though.

[KirjavaTheCat]

A splash of elderflower cordial, a drizzle of manuka honey and you've got yourself a delicious free meal. I don't know what the poor think they're playing at with all this winging!

[LadyBeagleEyes]

They're not ripe here in the Highlands yet, but we get then in abundance.
I'll then make some delicious crumble.
How long can one human being live on blackberries OP?
We also get lovely chanterelle mushrooms, and my cats have been known to bring in the occasional rabbit. Oh and sometimes people have been known to run over a stag, so venison too.
I've got it made this year haven't I?

[JoinYourPlayfellows]

Bowlers - are they cookers?

[expatinscotland]

'I really have fond memories of those times.'

Bet she doesn't. 'Oh, darling, it was so fun bin raking to feed you! I really enjoyed worrying about where your next meal would be from.'

FFS.

And they aren't ready here. Last year, they were underripe one day and rotten the next. Not very tasty, or edible.

[expatinscotland]

Wot, LBE, no bins to rake?

[KatyPutTheCuttleOn]

Stop being a fucking idiot and get with what life is really like for people living in poverty.

[swallowedAfly]

god knows bowler - i can't give them away fast enough.

ds and i have a snack on the blackberry bushes when out walking but i really wouldn't want to pick them and bring them home to mush up in a bag and rot. they're nice as a fresh off the bush snack but not exactly a resilient or lasting fruit and neither of us can stand 'puddings'. i'm a bit lost as to how blackberries are considered 'really nutritious too tbh - water and sugar? really nutritious?

what the hell does someone do with 9lbs of blackberries?

[northernlurker]

Bowlersarm - pick them all, turn in to gourmet baby food, sell to trendyu
food shops and build a nationwide premium brand that you can get offered mega bucks for but turn it down to live in the country with your cute adopted baby and VERY cute vet boyfriend........sort of a babyboom

[Bowlersarm]

Join yes! Any ideas?

[expatinscotland]

And that last statement, well, thenceforth, I am treating this as a bit of a joke, a bit of fun.

[swallowedAfly]

you beat me to it expat must have been ha bloody ha jolly to be the single mum raking through bins to survive. how lovely that it made jolly memories for the child. naive mayhaps?

[LegoDragon]

In desperate straights, you can always resort to creeping into Pets At Home in the dead of night and munching on a few gerbils See how many options are out there if The Poor only tried?

[Pachacuti]

Bowlersarm, if they are picked carefully (not bruised) and stored properly apples will keep for months. You can Google the specifics of how to store them (because I know if I try to summarise it I'll forget some vital detail).

[expatinscotland]

I got it, LBE, you and I can set up a blog with a map of Highland Supermarket Bins to Rake. We will be RICH! I'll take the lower West and lower Western Isles.

[swallowedAfly]

ah i have such fond memories of my poor broken mother churning through tips to feed her child. grow up!

[NoelHeadbands]

Bet she doesn't. 'Oh, darling, it was so fun bin raking to feed you! I really enjoyed worrying about where your next meal would be from.'

Agree with this. And I have childhood memories of lining up for food banks and other stuff- fond is not a word I would use though

[VaultFullOfTwizzlers]

Sweet chestnuts are bloody lovely - that isn't a bad idea.

How long do they take though, I'm on a meter.

[Bowlersarm]

Oh thanks northern need to get my money making hat on. There's a plan there somewhere...

[friendslikethese]

threads like this one put me off posting here. I agree with you OP, it is a fair point that if people are hungry, why is free food ignored?

that is not the same as saying all people should eat is blackberries!

[swallowedAfly]

well if any 'poor' people want bramley apples do let me know - they're falling on the floor and rotting here.

it's shocking really that i dare to claim tax credits when i could be living on cooking apples.

sadly neither ds or i can stand cooked fruit.

[HavantGuard]

Blackberry-Picking

Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

Seamus Heaney