General Chat

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When my son was young we used to go into the countryside and pick blackberries and make blackberry fool, or apple and blackberry crumble. A friend used to pick elderberries to turn into a cordial Do people still do such things? Dee x

Dee I have Elderberries in my garden am gonna make some champers with it, I also have a bush over from my driveway that grows slow berries. I make slow gin from it.......mmhh I would pick the berries on the other hedges but no wossit in my house would eat them!!:)

Oh, just to add, the slow gin and the champers is the only time when I drink.........:)

oooohhh, sloe gin, sounds good Shirley-Ann ;-))

my daughters friends mum picked some blackberries and made jam....got a jar last night.....yummy on my croissant this morning :-)))

Yes of course,I go out on my bike and collect Brambles(Blackberries to you southerners) and make pies and jam.And I use the green tomatoes,that won't ripen, out of the green house to make chutney!! OMG my halo has slipped

Karen, I might pop by for breakfast tomorrow ;-)) Ann, it took me sometime to work out what Bramble Jelly was when I saw it in the shops, it's scrummy though Dee x

Yes i take my kids out for walks in the different woods and fields in our area picking blackberries, hazelnuts, elderberries, damsons, wild strawberries (boos' fave) mushrooms not magic ones though lol Being a rural area it is something that we have always done gets us out and the kids enjoy it then coming home and making stuff with them.

i do i go out picking and make jams and sloe gin/vodka pies ect great fun and im not that old but its what we did when we were young (ties in with the other thread about being born in the 50's 60'70')

Does this mean I will have to cook? I'm so bad at it! I'm lucky to have plenty of sloes, apples, crab apples and elderberries in my garden, if I can beat the birds to them! The fields behind have an abundance of blackberries. Tina x

I pick blackberries, for blackberry and apple pie. They are also good with your cereal for breakfast. I would just like to add, I love laverbread it is full of minerals so good for you. Joy

blackberries freeze really well and all you do when you want them is cook from frozen with a bit of apple now how easy is that

Grandson and I usually go out blackberrying....Why are the lovely big juicy ones just out of reach? Nobody here is that keen on too many but it's almost an expected thing now that we will go together and we both keep a lookout for good bushes, when we are out in the weeks before they are fully ripe. As a child we used to go each year to south Wales to see my grandmother. On some visits we would go to the beach to pick laverbread - a type of seaweed, which grows on the rocks. It was important that we picked as carefully as possible so that we didn't gather too much sand. A wicker basket was used to hold our collection then later this was taken to a particular pool and washed, - the water running through the holes in the basket. Back home the laverbread was washed many more times in fresh water before it was ready to be boiled with a piece of fat bacon....the smell was dreadful. When fully cooked and cooled it was kept cool to be made into small pats, rolled in fine oatmeal and fried for breakfast. This was very labour intensive but the result was so much nicer than the sloppy watery product usually sold now in the town markets. Gwyn

Yes they do Dee......all around the countryside where we are there are blackberry bushes......and on the farm nearby where I used to go every day, I used to pick the blackberries, they also had an orchard and we could have the apples.....so blackberry and apple crumble.....also in the horse fields mushrooms would grow, so we picked those as well... When we left London and came here, Dad and Mum would take us into the Forestry Commission land and we used to pick sloes for sloe wine/gin.....blackberries, and hazelnuts.....Dad and I used to go over to the fields before they built the factory estate and pick mushrooms, and we were once chased off land because Dad would put me up into the tree to scrump apples, and the man chased us off.... Short answer, they still do around here....

Dee, you'll have to be quick cause half the jar has gone already....its sooooo yummy, Karen

Loads of blackberries - make blackberry & apple pies etc. Had tons of damsons a couple of years ago and made loads of jam. Tons of cooking apples last year - gave loads away and used loads! This year our small greengage tree is laden - greengage jam anyone?

We usually pick blackberries, although they have built a bypass on the best place we used to pick. haven't been this year though, can't get used to them being ripe this early, I am sure it always used to be nearer september. Ann Glos

Does anyone collect chestnuts these days? We used to walk miles when I was young, at October half term, and come back with decent sized chestnuts but whenever we took our own children, the miniscule results once we'd got through the prickles weren't worth the pain. Gwyn

We gather Chesnuts - we have found a particular tree that produces huge glossy ones - store them really cold and enjoy them at Christmas! Lovely with the Christmas dinner - or on our open fire in the evenings - hysterical when they burst! (Keeps the Dyson busy tho!) It's really easy with a pair of wellies, if you squish the prickly outers - they give up their treasures more easily! Jules Xx