General Chat

perhaps someone will post a recipe for champers Izzy, fingers crossed ;-))

Ee you southerners it's Brambling!!!!!!!

Ann - those green tomatoes which will not ripen - place in brown paper bag and leave in drawer - they will!

I went on a scumping mission yesterday, my neighbours garden has a wonderful big apple tree, some fab rhubarb and a lovely blackberry bush wo make with nice juicey big berries on it. Anyone for crumble or pie!!! I should add my neighbour passed away a couple of years ago but his son lets me rescue the treasures from the garden. would love to know how to make champers, my all time fav juice!! xxIzzyxx

Hi Caz, I must look him up, I guess he is Irish ;-))

I love blackberrying dee, i did it as a little one and have with all my kids, Those ' glossy purple clots ' in the words of Saemus Heaney, Caz xxx

Well it's good to know so many people are still out there harvesting the free foods of the countryside A couple of people have mentioned laverbread, and I must admit it is something I have never tried We have cobnuts in our garden, and I hope we will get to them this year before the squirrels. Sadly the chestnuts I see round here are very inferior Dee x

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

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 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

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?

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

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....

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

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

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

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 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')

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.

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