Have you noticed more people picking apples and blackberries?

[autyspauty]

And is this a good thing?

I pick loads of both and freeze, process or store as much as I can for the coming year. This means I am at the bushes and trees basically every day or every other day.
I have noticed this year loads of people coming with boxes or bags.

For blackberries you always see someone but not many people go for the apples. I've seen loads of people with bags and boxes, and not just the old couple I always see or people with children, people are coming on their own and staying for ages. it's quite nice.

But aibu to think this is most likely because of the increased price of food and, well, everything?
It seems like the value of these free fruits has gone up with the cost of everything else.

@Bubblebubblebah I've just googled it and yes it is a rosehip!

They are great. I think they are early this year as well. They are best after first frost but mine here are nearly done and I don't think we will have frost next week!

Yy to the hair. Use gloves always

Anyway, remember there are only nine more days to pick blackberries because on the 29 th September the devil spits on them( or pees on them depending which version you believe in).

He pees on them. Scientific fact.

@ohfook wild blueberries are also called bilberries, and they grow on generally knee high shrubs in acidic soil, so either on moorland or woodland. It doesn't grow in hedgerows.

Sloes are the berries of the blackthorn tree, which has vicious spikes and does grow in hedgerows.

No, there’s a few folks like me that i know that pick out hedgerows but I’ve always done it. It was a bumper crop this year and despite my best efforts there were still loads that ended up rotting on the bushes.

Apples and plums near me are dropping but they are in peoples gardens so not available to be foraged. The elderberries are ready but they take too long, my Dad will have those for his wine. Sloes aren’t done yet.

We have loads of bushes going up a hill behind my house (lots of what I think are blueberries) interspersed with heather. Really low growing (that might be to protect themselves from the wind) Does that sound right for blueberries?

Once you taste wild blueberry, you will never pay for any again.
Just please, don't use brushes when harvesting them, they are not good for the overall plant.

I make jams and chutneys as well as stewing bags of fruit for the freezer, so that in the months ahead there will be plenty of opportunity to make pies and crumbles.

And soon there will be mushrooms to forage! (We have some good mushroom books and always check re edibility.)

I've always foraged for blackberries, I take a bowl then make pies from them. We have a community orchard too, they request you don't take more than 5kg per family.

Leave the produce for the birds and beasts. You will upset the eco system

There are shitloads of blackberries that have gone past their best near where I live. There are clearly more than enough for both birds and humans alile.

We freeze a couple of bags of blackberries and have done that for a few years now, but certainly not enough to get us through a whole year. There is a wood near us with loads of blackberry bushes so we go and forage a few times and there's also a small bush in our garden which is good for berries for breakfasts. Our neighbour has an apple tree and we've foraged a few apples from there but we don't take more than enough for a few crumbles. I haven't noticed more people foraging while I've been out but I do have the kind of friends where foraging for fruit and preserving/freezing it is quite normal so it doesn't seem odd to me to hear of people out looking for berries. I think it's something that's just becoming more popular with people, not necessarily out of a need for a free source of fruit.

Yes, mixed with heathers sounds exactly like wild blueberries/ bilberries. I hadn't realised they had such a long season though - when I've picked them it's been in July.

I haven't, no, but I wish they would. Picking blackberries and apples in the autumn to save for the winter is no new middle class trendy thing. People have been doing it for generations. How do you think people had fruit during the winter months before you just go to Lidl and buy it flown in from South Africa? We always have, same with parents, and grandparents.

Yes, I've been picking loads for the freezer and for crumbles/pies. We have so, so many blackberries on our hedges (yes, we own them) and they are all just going mouldy if no one picks them. Part of the hedge is even on a footpath and you'd think people would stop to pick some, but they don't. There is more than enough for the wildlife.

Our neighbours (second home owners) also have about 10 apple trees. No one ever comes around to pick any of those either. So I've started filling the fruit bowl and picking some to take to our local community fridge. No sense 10 trees worth of apples going to waste because no one lives there and bothers to pick them. I think lots of people are in for a tough winter ahead and we all should minimise food waste where we can. It's how people have been surviving for centuries.

To be honest I saw them last year and thought they might be blueberries. Then forgot until this thread. It's a tough climb but I might make it up at the weekend to see if they are still there. The sheep completely ignore them. Scotland so things ripen a bit later than normal.

Apples. You can preserve them grated in jars for later use in strudels 😁 grade them on the side eoth the biggest holes and use firm ones.

Oh and you can freeze pressed apple juice!

@Bubblebubblebah how do you preserve them in jars?
in syrup?

Scotland is where I picked them too! If you are there and have bilberries, you might get wild raspberries too. Those are definitely early summer only but are very good.

If you do grated ones you grate them, squeze some juice out then stuff in jars and sterilised like with normal canning. You just have to make sure to press them in well so no you have no air bubbles.
Bonus is that not only you have apples for later, but also juice now😂
I am sure there will be manuals in English somewhere

Lots of wild raspberries they grow along the paths so tiny but so full of flavour. I made a wild raspberry and rhubarb jam one year. Almost sherberty with tartness but a sweet rhubarb finish it was delicious.