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

Makes a wonderful cordial to pour on ice cream, or put in gin or vodka, or fizzy water. Make enough for a year.

I can’t imagine buying them. Pick and freeze is way to go.

Growing up we had huge wild blackberry bush at the bottom of our garden.... lived on blackberry pie in autumn 😁

Unfortunately we have lost so many bushes near me due to seemingly runaway house building

I’ve never bought them. Mostly because they’re plentiful near me in season and we always pick loads. I think because I pick them myself it drives home their seasonality to me and therefore would somehow feel wrong to buy them out of season. Interesting how actually seeing / picking the fruit changes my attitude towards buying out of season, as although I try to buy other / fruit veg seasonally I’m often quite lazy about it.

Am with you. We actually had apple and blackberry crumble tonight from our large stash in freezer. We go mad and pick lots at end of summer at a local park, there are lots. People look us like we are mad with our ice cream tubs and the dog thrower - handy for pulling branches. My children love going picking. I cant work our why we never see anyone else picking, though never pick those near the ground! And those in the shop just don't taste the same!

Chestnuts as well. When I was a child DM and I would collect chestnuts off the ground in the woods, it always seems strange seeing them in the supermarket.

As a child we had apples, pears, strawberries, rhubarb in our garden. That's no longer the case so I've been used to buying these for years.

It’s easy to grow thornless blackberries if you have a bit of garden space. Freeze them, pull them out in January, and you just saved the planet from more stupid little plastic punnets.

Thanks for all the responses, I've really enjoyed reading them. And want some of that blackberry gin

Where can you get a blackberry plant makingmammaries?

I voted YABU since you're not really paying for the actually blackberries, but for someones labour in picking them, and the stores costs in stocking and displaying them.

Same way that the air for your tyres isn't "Gods air free" when someone has to pay for and power a machine to pump it, and "Gods water" isn't free when someone has to build reservoirs and a distribution system to get it to your tap.

Lazy thinking is unreasonable.

Well if I needed/wanted them in January I'd certainly buy them however we pick to our hearts content in late August and I live very near a city centre (must be washed before eating 😆) surely you must find them somewhere close by when in season?

YANBU and also it is literally illegal to eat blackberries in January. Plus the ones you get in the supermarket are weirdly huge and bulging. They look like the bulbous black eyeballs of an evil Dr Who monster. So I don’t buy them.

Plus the ones you get in the supermarket are weirdly huge and bulging.

Hardly surprising when they are sold by weight ... all water, no flavour (see also: tomatoes).

They are pretty much everywhere where I live durning the autumn. I definitely see them as free food and won’t ever buy them in the supermarket.

Best place to pick them is off the back of a tolerant horse
No walking, you get to reach all the decent ones, horse eats the low down ones and none that dogs have weed on. Win win
May have done that once lots of times

Sounds great ClientlistQueen

Totally with you on this. The blackberries from the supermarket don't even taste of much. We had a prolific blackberry bush growing in the garden when I was small as well as miles of hedgerows to pick them from. We also had raspberry bushes so that's another fruit I resent paying for but do because they don't grow wild.

I eat some but usually make wine out of the majority. There's a bit of a backlog of wine (never thought I'd say that) this year due to a glut of damsons from the tree in the garden so any I pick this year will probably be saved for Christmas dinner instead of cranberry sauce.

@Moonflower12 - It really annoys DP when I insist that, since he is agnostic (I am atheist), he cannot deny "The Devil Wees On The Blackberries Day" may also be true. I always thought it was 10th or 12th October, though? Anyway, a couple of years back, to wind him up further, I staged a mini-feast in its honour, complete with blackberry hats and pudding pots and a garland made out of those blackberry jelly sweets.

I really read this as in you wanted them to be free as in unconstrained and not bound to packaging and supermarket environments. I had visions of you grabbing boxes, running from the shop and releasing them into the wild!

Well, they're free if you've got the time to pick them.

Also maybe I'm being paranoid but with "wild" blackberries, you don't know what they've been sprayed with.

(We have brambles in our garden actually, but ours just seem to grow thousands of vicious thorns and hardly any berries. I'd need a suit of armour to get a decent crop!)

Gosh @SerendipityJane you sound a barrel of fun! 🙄

I picked tons back on August, still got loads in my freezer. DS practically lived on them. You just need to find a patch near you. I think they are like rats, you are never far from a blackberry patch.

And yes yes to every one saying come on, eat seasonal/local

You can get British apples and pears at this time of year. Plus if you must buy imported, Clementines etc from Spain rather than stuff from Latin America or south Africa.

This summer I had strawberries, mulberries, cherries and apples in my own garden (which is NOT huge), blackberries picked from wild shambles locally, plus plums & pears from neighbours, and I've got neighbours who grow grapes & raspberries too. I made lots of it into portions of compote & froze it to add to our porridge all winter. Win!

@suggestionsplease1

FREE THE BLACKBERRIES!