Preparedness for when

thriftwizard

I have to admit, the first time I saw blackberries for sale in a supermarket, I stopped in my tracks and had a !!!!!!?! moment, thinking they'll never get away with that! But, seemingly, they can.

I used to go blackberrying along the sides of the Metropolitan Line when we lived up in The Smoke. Several times, people stopped me & asked, in all earnestness, "'Ow d'you know they really are blackberries? What if they're just some other thing that looks like blackberries? You might get poisoned!" And my ex-sister-in-law was flabbergasted to be told that the exuberant leafy growth along the fence, that she'd demanded my BiL remove instantly before it gave someone a rash, was actually a very healthy rhubarb patch. If people don't feel confident enough to identify something growing in the "wild" they'll buy it from a supermarket to avoid risk, whatever the expense.

Years ago I used to lead foraging walks for the local Brownies, something that had been done here since Brownies existed. But one year, my friend the Brown Owl told me sadly, "We can't do it any more, in case the kids pick something poisonous when they're out on their own... we just have to tell them never to pick anything from the hedgerows now." So, how will they ever learn? It's tragic, in an area like this where there are apples, hazelnuts, walnuts, blackberries, sloes, elderberries, raspberries & red currants growing wild in one hedge alone.

[Deleted User]

thriftwizard wrote: »

we just have to tell them never to pick anything from the hedgerows now."

Because, as we know, children always do exactly what you tell them.

GreyQueen

That's frankly sad, thriftwizard.

This culture of the elimination of all risk, at all times, drives me mad. It's also usually counter-productive in that youngsters who are cotton-wooled tend not to learn appropriate risk management and then do incredibly stupid (even fatally stupid) things later. I've known a few young men who died of crass stupidity.

I can still recall being shown deadly nightshade as a child in our back garden, by my Dad, (just before he pulled it up), and being told that the black berries on it are poisonous. And never to eat snowberries off the shrubs. Or anything which I was unsure of.

However, blackberries aren't liable to be confused with other plants, an elder is a pretty distinctive tree and there are a number of other trees with edible fruits which don't have any closely-related cousins with toxic fruits to confuse them with.

Very few native plants are actually poisonous. The vast majority are unpalatable to humans but won't make you sick, and you're unlikely to do more than a taste of the unpalatable ones. For example, there's nothing that looks like giant hogweed and you need to be told that the sap on your skin can cause a rash, but that's something you only need to be told once. We used to have great fun with the wintertime dried-out stems which make fabulous throwing spears...........

Assuming that a child is developmentally-typical for their age, I would say that a child old not to be under constant close adult supervision is old enough to not be putting random plant items into their mouths. And old enough to be taught some very elementary botany, too.

jk0

Morning folks.

GQ mentioned something along these lines a couple of weeks ago, but I have recently been finding it more & more:

As you guys know, I make a lot of use of timeswitches for money saving, and taking advantage of Economy 7 hours.

Now, for years, my favourite brand was Timeguard mechanical ones, similar to this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Timeguard-5012483004586-24hr-Electric-Timeswitch/dp/B0001NPZAG/ref=pd_sim_diy_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=15BZWEWZE476P8DMC1Y9

I like these because you can manually switch the item on/off as well as automatically, and you can see at a glance which state they are in. Also, you can just use them to turn items off after turning on manually.

What on earth has happened to them? I bought one about two years ago to switch my TV, freeview box, vcr & dvd player off at 1am. This packed up (jammed) just before Christmas, so I bought another. This new one is now making very loud clicking noises every 15 minutes. It hasn't stopped spinning yet, but I think it's only a matter of time.

Yes, of course, I know what's happened to them. The manufacturing has been outsourced to China, and the workings made as cheaply as possible.

I'm now scouring Ebay for a 2nd hand one. I have been doing this more & more lately particularly for kettles. I now have one made in 1974 and one in 1989. The trouble is that when people catch on that new stuff is crud, they won't sell their old ones any more.

Any one else prefer 2nd hand even if they can afford new?

Cheapskate

My parents must have taught us at a very young age what was safe to eat outside and what wasn't, as I don't remember a time when I wasn't foraging brambles, rasps, etc. All our children have been taught the same. A friend was horrified when she saw my daughter eating brambles straight from the plant in our garden, and muttered darkly about prickles, germs, septicaemia, etc - I'm afraid I had to laugh at her and explain. She knew what they were, she's just paranoid about stuff that doesn't come nicely packaged from the SM, bless her.

We went picking sloes one October, lots of passersby were fascinated by what we were doing, and some started picking as well, but one lady got a bit bolshy with us, saying she'd been on a foraging course where they'd told her that any slight !!!!! from thorns could give you blood poisoning, how did we know they were really sloes, we were irresponsible to let children (then 5 & 3) pick "wild things" - I had to bite my tongue and just carry on!

A xo

thriftwizard

We went picking sloes one October, lots of passersby were fascinated by what we were doing, and some started picking as well, but one lady got a bit bolshy with us, saying she'd been on a foraging course where they'd told her that any slight !!!!! from thorns could give you blood poisoning, how did we know they were really sloes, we were irresponsible to let children (then 5 & 3) pick "wild things" - I had to bite my tongue and just carry on!

Been there, done that, have had to explain to good friends that no, I wasn't going to poison their kids! (or give them chicken flu, come to that) and that was just nettle soup, grown in our own garden... I think it's all down to perceived & current levels of risk; there is indeed a slight chance of infection from an untreated scratch & whilst food is abundantly available that may seem unacceptable. But if food was NOT easily available, for whatever reason, and you didn't know what was or wasn't safe to eat out there, there's a huge chance you'd eat the wrong thing if desperate enough, like all the folks who made themselves very ill down here in the 1850s, eating acorn bread without washing the tannins out first. It's kind of like teaching your kids to swim; they may not like it and it may be a lot of bother & occasionally actually risky, but it's a potentially life-saving skill no child should be without, if at all possible.

mrsmortenharket

I've eaten apples directly from the tree. I was told by a horrified family member that I might get poisoned as it would be dirty.
I've had people asking me what I'm picking while picking brambles.

I'm not the worlds best forager but the ignorance of people does astound me. And none of the people who questioned me were particularly young.

pineapple

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I saw it more as showing respect, for those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Probably most people felt that way. Different strokes for different folks eh?

pineapple

mrsmortenharket wrote: »

I've had people asking me what I'm picking while picking brambles.

Are we talking blackberries? I'm a bit of a wuss in that I like to get them home for a bit of soak in mildly salted water before eating. It brings out any grubs that might be lurking :eek:. But yes - every autumn I pick loads and it astonishes me that more people aren't doing likewise. In fact I am currently eating from the freezer to make room for the harvest. Free fruit - fresh and untainted with pesticides (unlike those expensive little supermarket punnets). What's not to love?

mrsmortenharket

Pineapple, I always soak them in salted water as that's what my gran did.