Have you ever seen anyone picking them up?

by pageunresponsive

26 comments
  1. They’ve grown next to a large source of pollution – I wouldn’t recommend them. They birds will get them, and that’s no waste, it’s nature:

  2. There are blackberries growing near me, in South London, but I’ve seen them wither on the vine, the squirrels and birds are leaving them alone.  So I’m a bit scared to eat them.

  3. The birds will get them, and rodents

    Plus before fruiting, their flowers will have sustained many bees 🐝

  4. Wildlife will work their way through most of them … and some of those that get away will seed future plants

  5. I genuinely believe too many people don’t even know they’re blackberries and that they can just pick them when ripe

  6. People were picking them on the Greenway the other day even though they aren’t quite ripe yet – I’m sure they’ll get picked up by everyone

  7. Any decent sized ripe blackberries that can be reached tend to get picked. But many are tiny or dry up before getting properly ripe. Or are too high up, too low and subject to dog/fox piss, or are behind fences and you can’t get to them.

    Ones near me are only getting red so far, but I’m hoping to get a good amount this year.

  8. Hampstead Heath has vast reserves of blackberry bushes that mostly go unpicked. 

    My favourite London autumn activity is to go running on the heath with a plastic bag, and come home with a huge supply of berries. As long as you avoid the low down ones they are clean and tasty. Much better than the tasteless frankenberries from the supermarkets. And free!

  9. ‘waste’ is maybe a questionable term,

    those that fall on the ground and rot will be good fertiliser for the ground (pollution considered, it’s probably the most preferable place for them)

  10. I pick blackberries and make simple syrup for cocktails. Blackberry mojito is good!

  11. I wouldn’t suggest walking along an active tube line to try and pick berries so as to avoid “waste”

  12. Such an enormous bush between Leytonstone and Snaresbrook under the roundabout

    None of them were ripe yesterday

  13. Playing 5 a side last Friday in the boiling sun and found some on the side of the pitch. Was a big international group and we just sat in the shade for a break picking and enjoying blackberries. first time some of them had ever just eaten stuff “in the wild” 😂

  14. Last year I ate a bunch. This year we have a quite a few in the garden, but they are mostly quite tart. Being the driest spring in over 100 years probably effects wild berries overall quality.

  15. Ate some along the canal from
    Camden to Kings Cross this weekend. Verrrry tart.

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