To not want to buy blackberries in the supermarket as I think of them as 'free'

[Cinammoncake]

When I was a kid we often picked them, they just seemed to be everywhere. I don't see them where I live now, and I do like them, but feel like it's a rip off to buy them, and they always seem expensive. Anyone else? AIBU

I see them all the time, I never buy them

They are expensive and you don’t get a lot in the packets (where I am at least), I grew up picking them too and they taste so much better hand picked !

Well you’ll struggle to get them free at the moment!

I much prefer the taste/mouthfeel of the wild ones.

Absolutely loads where I live, I don’t think I could bring myself to buy them - hmm maybe I would if they were loose, but they’re packaged in a load of plastic too.

Sloeberries, Wild garlic, there is a lot to be found from foraging, you can do courses on it.

They don’t taste as nice either

They’re only in season September/October so if you want them at this time of year you won’t find them for free.

I'd never buy them as they're so plentiful where I live. I can live without them when they're not in season.

Oh god are you me? I’m like that with raspberries, gooseberries, rhubarb, apples... we had a huge garden when I was little and these things (and others) grew wild.

The old canal and disused railway track was lined with berry bushes and we would collect them and make jam with my grandma.

I still think ‘how much??’ When I see a tiny punnet of berries or rhubarb selling for £££.

Yes I know the farmers have to make a living but when you had all these things wild when you were a kid...

Well it does everyone better to eat seasonally anyway so perhaps if we bought fewer things out of season, the Earth and environment would thank you for it

Totally agree

I always pick them when they are in season.

YABU, if your children go without. I wasn't allowed mangos as a child because they grew wild where my Dad grew up (SA) and him and his classmates would throw them at each other.

I never brought mackerel because they are so easy to catch.

Agreed!!

Can you get Blackberries for free in January?

I agree, but it is the wrong time of year for them, so if you want them now, then you will have to pay. I never buy them in season (or other berries such as strawberries and raspberries). I just go pick them wild when I want them.

I get this.

Weirdly I feel like this about stamps - I completely begrudge buying these tiny pieces of sticky paper, and they have never been free in the wild.

And still I begrudge it.

It's not a surprise that a fruit totally out of season in this country would be expensive though and the blackberries I've seen in supermarkets are nothing like hedgerow ones

They don't taste like the real thing! I'm always shocked by the price of rhubarb, though; it grew like a weed in our garden when i was a child. Trouble is, it took 40 years before I could look at it without shuddering.

Are great free in January?

I buy them occasionally, despise picking them - horrible thorny maggots things!

Yep I don’t buy them because it just seems wrong! But also feels wrong to eat them any time other than when they’re in season anyway, they don’t taste right at any other time of year.

Morrisons once labelled them as ‘exotic fruits.’

DH buys them. I’m with you OP. Pick ‘em.

I grow my own, end up making tons of smoothies in the summer and gorging on them. Never buy them in the shop. So expensive and half the time when I have they taste bitter not sweet