Topic: fruit for free

[aquilegia]

There are quite a few blackberries developing (and some which are ripe) near my riding school. Trouble is, they grow along the side of a road. It's not at all busy (just used for accessing the riding school). Would they be alright to eat or would they contain too much stuff from exhaust?

[jennym]

I'd just give 'em a good wash - then eat.

[redimp]

Is your avatar a Wainwright sketch by any chance Terracemax?

The man himself...love his books.

Love his books, and his routes, too.  Where are you from Max?

[Amazin]

Aqui,I'm with Jennym on this one - just give 'em a rinse if you feel it necessary.

To be honest I'd be more inclined to wash supermarket-bought stuff!
I live right beside a road and I have the Euston to Glasgow railway line next to that, so exhaust and diesel dust get on my fruit & veg (and in my lungs) every day. I'd still back 'em for healthier eating any day. Now, if they start glowing in the dark...

 ;D ;D ;D

[jennym]

There is a book you can buy called Food for Free. I've got a really ancient edition (circa 1975) but I know it is still in print. The author is Richard Mabey.
I used to be one of these 'How would you survive after the nuclear holocaust' types and this was one of the recommended books.

[terrace max]

Love his books, and his routes, too.  Where are you from Max?

Mainly Yorkshire, but went to school in Keswick. You?

There is a book you can buy called Food for Free. I've got a really ancient edition (circa 1975) but I know it is still in print.

Yeah, I've got the glossy new version. Everything by Mabey is worth reading, I reckon...

[HeartOfWales]

I wish my neighbours would plant apples trees :P

[Mrs Ava]

I do cheddarpaul.  It is amazing how many people don't even see the fruits around them!  Around our kids school playing field is an incredibly high fence smothered in brambles, plums and rosehips.  Alsorts of different fruits growing in the hedges around our allotment and also in Danbury common.  We are in quite a green patch of Essex where the council seem a little slow at holding up the traffic and butchering the hedges, so I can normally fill me freezer and preserve cupboard with goodies, all for free!  Also, locals around our neighbourhood and around our allotment know I am a keen cook, so I tend to get given lots of surplus fruit from their fruit trees!  ;D  (Mind you, couldn't give away some surplus courgettes today!!!!)

[Robert_Brenchley]

From now till October I'll be having a handful of blackberries every time I walk down the lane to the site. Once I'm feeling up to it I'll nip down the canal on my bike and get enough for a crumble.

[Amazin]

It is amazing how many people don't even see the fruits around them!

With you on that one, EJ.
Where I was raised (Dumbarton in Scotland) us kids thought it was perfectly normal to stuff ourselves silly with hedgerow produce - brambles, elderberries, the lot. And we knew what to eat and what not to eat as well (e.g. toadstools).
We also collected wild rose petals to mix with water for 'perfume' and rosehips (or itchycoos, as we called them!) for fun and games! And we knew about using docken leaves to rub on nettle stings.
I guess we learned all this as a matter of course, whereas many people don't have that chance, so it doesn't come naturally to them.
If I had your hedgerows round my way I don't think I'd buy any food all summer! Go for it, girl!  ;D

PS -  what about slicing up your spare courgettes and pickling them?

[katynewbie]

Lol...I do all these things too!!
EJ I love that, "a scrabble of blackberries"  :) :)
Where I worked we had a contest for the most appropriate collective noun, my fave was the one for a group of louts......" a bruise of lads"  ;D ;D ;D

[Mrs Ava]

hgeheheheh katynewbie!

I used to love making rosepetal water when I was little Amazin!  Happy days!

Now, I try to educate the sproggles, as we walk to school, I am constantly pointing out plants, naming them, telling them the nicknames of them, showing them the flowers and fruits and it is amazing how quickly they pick it up, and makes me laugh how blase they become when other kids get all excited about the conkers, they are so cool....'oh, you mean horsechestnuts do you....similar to the sweet chestnut but not to be eaten.....'  ;D  At the moment they are admiring the baby acorns and number one daughter gets a real kick looking for the ones that have been deformed by the gall wasp.  She loves to brag about that one!

[jennym]

EJ - my youngest son is doing that too. He's taken to bringing the occasional friend over to the allotment (it's close to our house) and proceeding to quiz them on what the various plants are that are growing. Mind you, it shocked me when I realised that most of them don't know what a potato plant looks like, and the last one actually inspected the leaves and announced that he couldn't see any growing yet. (12 years old!)

[Mrs Ava]

It is a worry jennym.  I have always gardened and allotmented, so the kids are used to it and know what is what, but some of their chums, and frighteningly, some of their parents, have no idea!  I am frequently quizzed whilst on the school run by parents who have a fruit tree in their garden, or a mystery plant or are trying to grow pumpkins for halloween.  The great thing is, as Amazin said, mine know not to munch on anything, they touch, but wash their hands, or come and ask, and there is no feeling as fab as watching them scoffing fresh strawbs and rasps in the summer sun straight from the plants! ;D

[jennym]

Yes. I had 3 kids over the plot on Saturday while mine was elsewhere. These were only little, 7 or 8. I let them pick some runner beans and dig up some spuds. They live over the road to me.
Today, (Tuesday) the eldest girl came and knocked on the door and said 'Mum wants to know if the red potatoes are the same as ordinary ones' (red Duke of York, I suppose they are a bit bright) and when I told her they were, she said that her Mum was 'going to have a go at cooking them and also would try to do the beans but she'd never done beans like that before because they like baked beans best of all'.
I have yet to find out if Mum 'had a go'.

[Mrs Ava]

It is a worry isn't it!  My step daughter used to think spuds only came in plastic bags and from my allotment!

[Svea]

i hope you sent her off with a 'how to cook beans' receipe , jenny :)

[jennym]

 ;D

[Amazin]

Jamie Oliver's School Dinners backed up what we've been saying. For many kids these days, the only fruit and vegetables they see are pre-packed in supermarkets. How many even have the chance to see loose veg at a greengrocers?
And even if they're shown fresh produce, many are appalled that the vegetables are 'dirty' - the result of another unnecessary obsession these days: the anti-bacterial generation.
In my day (oh blimey, I've turned into a codger!) we used to go digging in the dirt, making mud pies etc, and there's a certain age at which the temptation to try a spoonful of your own 'home-made' pie proves irresistable - and no-one I know died of it.
My brother's palate was even more advanced in his formative years and I believe he was the first (and only) member of our brood to eat 'live' spaghetti...
 

[shaolin101]

Svea,

There used to be so many derilict overgrown areas and gardens in Southwark that you could fill a stack of Ice cream tubs with the berries - as I used to!

With all the new development there is nothing here anymore - and the odd one you do see is low down so I dont risk it as its probably had a dog wee on it - normally a nice stained floor or fence surrounding it!