It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

GreyQueen

I'm absolutely gobsmacked to hear of this agressive tresspass and theft to harvest blackberries and fruit from people's very own gardens, well off the beaten track. It beggars belief that there are people out there who have been so badly brought up that they think this is the way to behave.

Here, in the city, we have urban "commons" of brambles and even some stray wild plums and sloes along cycle paths, and I have had some in the past although not this year yet. Some of the parks have been deliberately planted with edible fruit trees and these were intended to be community orchards for the populace to use.

I would never in a million years think of helping myself to someone's personal property, it's sorrowful just to think of that kind of behaviour in conjunction with something as gentle as foraging.

It's a quiet grey day here in the city, distinctly Septemberish in feeling, and I learn for the local rag's website that officers from the counties which surround this city have been drafted into help the Met. Just hoping that they are OK down there; must be such a worry for their families.

((hugs to everyone)) I'm going to quietly live my life and count my blessings today.

juliettet

EDIT: Scottish Minnie - thats awful to hear that people are deliberately trespassing onto private land to steal stuff!!!! Sorry to hear this has happened. Must admit I would be wondering about what gadget would pierce their car tyres in those circumstances - and whether I could find out where their car was kept....

Maybe next year - if you feel the stuff will be stolen anyway before you can get at it - then is there something "natural" you could spray the bushes with that wouldnt damage the bushes but WOULD make anyone picking from them just for that one year get...errr...rather ill? Hopefully that would solve the problem and they would be put off coming stealing again in future years and you could resume "business as normal" and pick them yourselves?[/QUOTE]

This will keep me laughing all morning.

ceridwen

a. If food all vanishes literally from one day to the next and the second that its ripe - then its most likely that its one Greedyguts that has been in there and not a number of people sharing.

b. Guess it depends where one learnt about foraging from - in my case I've learnt it basically from "professional" foragers (ie ones who do it for a living) and from a wide variety of foraging books. The foragers code frequently comes up from a variety of these sources.

c. If someone gets ill from having committed a crime - then that will teach them not to do it again. Birds are a valid consideration - but thieves and their relatives arent. The thieves wouldnt be ill in the first place if they hadnt gone a-thieving.

sammy_kaye18

Guys how would I go about cleaning brambles to put in a crumble?
we have lots ripe here and unpicked so I feel a picking spree coming on soon I think..

HariboJunkie

ceridwen wrote: »

c. If someone gets ill from having committed a crime - then that will teach them not to do it again. Birds are a valid consideration - but thieves and their relatives arent. The thieves wouldnt be ill in the first place if they hadnt gone a-thieving.

I had hoped that we lived in a civilised society where we don't take the law into our own hands. If we decide to start poisoning people or recommend criminal damage to their cars if they steal wild blackberries, I despair for us all. As do you really think that it's tough luck/ "not a valid consideration" to you if a child gets ill from eating poisoned berries picked by someone else??? _pale_

I realise that foraging has seen a recent trendy revival and there are now such things as "professional foragers" but that does not take away from the people who learned their craft from the generation before them and passed it on to mine. That's the Old Style way after all.:)

ETA. Sammy leave them to soak in a basin of water util all the creepys float top the surface and then rinse. x

mardatha

Brambles here have a long way to go before they're ripe, and the rasps and tayberries are very poor this year. We have 11C and torrential rain AGAIN so it has been a really horrible dull wet summer here.

catznine

Good morning!

Just woken up to find out London, certainly where my dd and sil live stayed peaceful last night! Phew! Only problem they had was getting food as all the shops, restaurants and pubs had closed and boarded up early!:( I am working on her to keep an emergency supply in!

Churchmouse - hope your son had an easier time of it on duty last night! (((hugs))

So sorry to see that the troubles escalated in the midlands and north! How we got to this I really don't know! maybe too many do gooders etc., we have spoilt a whole generation making them materialistic monsters! They are not deprived - look at the iphones and fancy trainers!

Hoping they bring out a water cannon or two soon or whatever it takes, talking won't work they are too ignorant to listen, an example needs to be made of them! Stocks maybe? Yeh bring back the stocks and rotten tomatoes! Now that is an old style solution to the problem!

[Deleted User]

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HariboJunkie

kittie wrote: »

I am having an easier day today as I have a cough,

Hope you feel much better soon Kittie. your waffles sound amazing. :T

Chilly with torrential rain today here. Will do some baking with the girls and continue my knitting and hopefully not have to set foot over the door (if I can persuade OH to feed the hens )

We are planning a few days away next week so I am frantically exchanging Clubcard points and collecting vouchers in order to make it as thrifty as I can.

ChocClare

Appalled to hear about your trespassers/thieves, scottishminnie! Honestly, you get a handful of evil so-and-sos and they ruin it for the rest of us, as we've been seeing on the telly lately!

Have to agree with HariboJunkie though - tempting as your suggestions might be, ceridwen, in terms of pure getting one's own back and assuaging one's sense of outrage:rotfl:both ideas would actually be VERY illegal. And would only bring you down to their level after all.

I'm off to forage some wild plums this morning, and I'm having the lot. I've never heard of the forager's code either. Common sense dictates what you should and shouldn't take, doesn't it? In this case, if I'm the only one who has ever taken any plums from this particular tree in the last - oh - ten years, and it doesn't bear MASSES of fruit, then it makes very little sense to leave stuff to rot, surely? When I say the lot, obviously there are some on higher branches which the birds can have, but the carpet of bruised windfalls around this particular tree and the fact that I have to crawl (literally) through overgrown branches into the copse where this tree is makes me pretty sure I'm not depriving anyone else

As for blackberries - I am always amazed at people who stand there with HUGE bags of the things. Generally older people round our way, who must make TONS of jam, as the blackberries in the bottom of their ice-cream containers etc must be totally squished. I haven't got the patience and generally just get a bowlful when I'm walking the dog. Still, as they say, "if reasons were as plentiful as blackberries", so hopefully you'll get another flush of them in a few weeks' time before the rain spoils them

Anyway, happy (legal) foraging everyone! I want to hear about all the pies/jam/booze/healing things you've made!