To wonder if I'm the only weirdo still picking blackberries?

[DrSeuss]

I grew up in a village forty years ago where it was perfectly normal to go blackberrying, now I live in a suburb where there's a massive bramble patch about fifty feet from my door and another two a short walk away. Every time I go out to pick them, firstly it's clear from the volume that no one else is bothering and secondly I get lots of comments from passers by about what will I do with them. Not unfriendly comments, more surprised and unclear as to why I would bother! I suggested to several that they should combine dog walking and foraging but they never do. Most years I get a freezer shelf full. One year I made blackberry vodka for people as Christmas presents and had requests for more. This evening's haul are in the microwave right now turning into jam. Am I the only weirdo or do others do it too?

DS has been out everyday picking them as they ripen in the garden. Crumble for me this weekend.

SW Wales here and semi-rural. Picked some this evening and going back tomorrow. Very small fruit this year. A lot cheaper than supermarket blackberries, though. I think it's quite common here.

Our village name translates from the Anglo-Saxon for bramble hill. Blackberries are everywhere, it's been lovely over the last couple of weeks there have been so many people out picking them. Every time we walk the dogs we are picking and eating as we go along!

I picked a kilo today. Chucked half in some vodka half in some whiskey.

we will pick more as they ripen (no jams or anything tho) also the pears are starting to drop. (my favourite are the wild raspberries though but they are not around for long )

We used to when the DC were little. But truth is nobody in the Sparkling family likes blackberries very much. I really hate the seeds.

Thanks for this thread. Every year I plan to go blackberrying and every year for ages I lose track of when they are ready to be picked.

Please start a similar thread around the same time next year

The only thing about blackberries is the little maggoty things you often find inside them. Kind of puts me off...

Lots of pickers (including myself) have been out in Wimbledon common picking!

I do it with my teenage children. Nice family activity and they get blackberry and apple pie every time.

Just pick above dog www level:)

'aren't allowed'? I'd love to be arrested on a charge of illegal blackberry picking...
Doing it in Herefordshire...

Omg reminds me of my childhood, nothing tastes nicer than freshly picked

Every bugger round here seems to do so. It gets harder and harder every year to get enough to use/freeze although one of the highlights for me and the DC this term is always to pick & eat blackberries on the way home.

Very jealous of the poster upthread who has a secret sloe spot - those are nigh impossible to get here, especially if you wait for the first frost. Although blackberry whiskey is even better than sloe gin.

Rose hips freely available still though - lovely syrup on ice cream and a vit c hit too.

I do.

Well the kids do. I chuck them out with a bowl and enjoy the peace

Lost you don't need to wait for the first frost for picking sloes for sloe gin, just pop them in your freezer for a day or so and that does the same job of splitting the skins.

I've always loved foraging but sadly where I live is being increasingly built on. Where we used to have green fields and country lanes around us 25 years ago, the housing estates are now starting to take over.

The sloe bushes have been decimated in one of the lanes so I've had to wave goodbye to the sloe gin this year. Elderberries are greatly reduced and only a few decent brambles left so I leave those for the wildlife.

If I lived in a more rural area then I'd definitely be out foraging again.

It was a family tradtion when we were kids and now it's an annual event for my little ones. We all love it.

Fewer people seem to pick nowadays. I think it's the worry about lack of sell by and use by dates that scares some off picking!
Friend visited BG who'd moved into a flat in an old Victorian house. She found an overgrown garden full of soft fruit. He was very nervous of eatimg anything made with the lovely fresh raspberries and red currants and kept asking how she knew they were all right to eat!

I did but this year's are all seed and no berry. Reminds me I must sneak ou for sloes soon. And finish last year's sloe gin off.

Picking all these here now :) Blackberries, Damsons, Plums, late Tayberries, to be turned into chutney, jam, cordials, fruit vodkas, cake etc ingredients :)

Another weirdo here picking blackberries - in London for crumbles and jam - mmm

One of the small benefits of working in the middle of nowhere is that I can go out at lunchtime and pick brambles. Yum!

Noooo I love picking blackberries. I live in london and even then it's not hard to get them - loads along the nearest canal path.

This is the downside of having the garden tamed - far fewer blackberries; I used to be able to get a freezer drawer full. I'm considering asking my neighbours if I can have a rummage in their wilderness. The other side has elderflowers and now elderberries but i don't know what to do with those (the berries).