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?

It's virtually impossible to get the sweett chestnuts before the squirrels do.

Unless you eat all the squirrels that is ...

Thanks pachacuti I really do need to save them, it's so wasteful if I don't

Because a diet of blackberries along will send me into debt on account of how much shit roll ill be buying.

Also, imagine what it must have been like having to feed your family tins of unwanted beef during the BSE crisis. I bet the OP's mum was absolutely delighted.

Havant - thats a fab poem. I think Mr Heaney missed a trick though - blackberry wine anyone?

My thrify blackberry diet;

Breakfast - Scrambled blackberries on blackberries. With blackberry tea.

Lunch - blackberries served in blackberries. With blackberries in a blackberry dip.

Supper - baked blackberries served with mashed and steamed blackberries. Fresh blackberries for pudding.

It's not ignored. My local blackberry bushes (and there are plenty, we're semi-rural with lots of wasteland) are stripped bare. You see adults head over with buckets-in-hand.

OP - if you really did grow up in poverty, can you not see how insensitive your thread title really is?

Yes, I would have agreed with you if you had posted about what a shame it is that more people don't take advantage of free food - but to try and link it to people who 'complain that they don't have enough money to feed their family healthy food' is really insulting.

I forage from supermarkets, I believe some folk call that shoplifting, but not me

friendslikethese

If you want a serious answer, the "free food" is not near the people who need it, it is eaten by animals and birds (who really do need it), it is picked by people to make into shabby chic jam, it is picked by people who actually make a business out of it, or the people aren't entirely sure what's poisonous and what's not.

give them away bowler. that's what i need to do but they're falling and being attacked by wasps faster than i can collect them. my dad popped by tonight with a little bag of plums for ds because his trees are dropping them.

yes people could make jam and my dad will but short of being retired, owning huge pans, having plenty of space and a ton of jam jars at the ready really how is it worthwhile? jam costs like 30p in the value range of supermarkets. there is literally no way on earth you could make it for cheaper than that and realistically how much fucking jam can you eat? it's hardly part of a staple diet.

Well if you live in Scotland you should be able to shoot deer as was the suggestion on another thread a few days ago.

Both suggestions are equally as

Not really, Bowler's, although it is true that if you pack them well they will last all winter.

We got months out of a full tree of eaters a few years ago (haven't had such a great crop since).

DH is always banging on about making cider. Apparently that's a great way of getting rid of loads of apples. They used to do it when he was a kid.

Although you need a press, so it's not really an easy option.

I must also say I don't think blackberries should be instead of help ( financial or in the form of food banks) I just feel that if you can provide for your family even in a very small way whilst having a fun day out then families should do that. ( maybe my idea of a fun day out is a little skewed)

I do live in Sweden but I am English and in the UK for a while ( they don't really have wild blackberries in the part of Swedenwe live in)

There's some lovely rosehips in the hedgerows.
You can make rosehip syrup which is apparently great for vitamin C.

It's funny - does anyone else find that if the kids eat blackberries straight from the hedgerows,they stuff them in as fast as they can regardless of manky bits and bugs,but if fruit is from the shop,they turn their noses up at the tiniest blemish?

I went picking on weds after school and they weren't ready, it bucketed down here last night and all morning so by the time I get the chance to go again Saturday they will all be Rotton.

:o Netto

Hence the name?

'I really have fond memories of those times'

I doubt your mum does.

Oooh, delicious Meglet, and so varied.

I think this must be a joke.

Jessie, fair enough, I don't really, personally care all that much.

But I don't think it warrants "oh fuck off" and pages of piss-taking either. When my dad grew up in poverty in the 1950s they did pick blackberries and plums and apples he still does and would also eat parts of animals we probably wouldn't today. I don't want a return to those days but I think it is a fair thing to wonder.

I don't think the OP is disputing that people are hungry or that times aren't hard.

Blackberries are great for a snack while you're out on a wander but I wouldn't call them filling unless mixed with a ton of sugar and pastry for pie!

Wait until it snows, OP, then you can start a thread asking why all the poor people aren't making snow ice cream! sighs wistfully remembering her youth

old smug face JO is probably reading and thinking of a way to get another book out of this....

The yellow snow ice cream is the best...

Blackberry wine recipes

Wilkinson's sell all the kit you need. Once you've invested in a couple of demijohns it's really cheap.

Personally, I can't understand why the 'squeezed middle' are not making their own wine - 6 bottles for the price of a bag of sugar and a bit of foraging.