You really couldn't make this up ...

[spikey]

Yesterday, I was out brambling in a nearby hedge when a young mother walked past pushing a buggy.  She was accompanied by a sweet little girl of perhaps four, who asked mother what that man's doing.  Mother explained that I was picking berries to eat, and as they passed me, the little girl said "Can we pick some too?"  "No darling" says she "It's not really safe to eat things you don't buy from a shop."

 

This morning I was scrounging jam jars from the glass recycling bins in town, when a bloke of the very-comfortably-off type arrived in his Merc with his empty booze bottles.  Seeing me furtling in the bin with my grabber, he says "Do you work here then?"  "No" says I, "I'm just recycling these jam jars."  "What do you do with them?"  "Put jam in them."  "Surely you can buy glass jars somewhere?  Amazon maybe?"

 

The sad thing is, I very much doubt if people like him will ever join the dots ...

 

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

6 minutes ago, spikey said:

Yesterday, I was out brambling in a nearby hedge when a young mother walked past pushing a buggy.  She was accompanied by a sweet little girl of perhaps four, who asked mother what that man's doing.  Mother explained that I was picking berries to eat, and as they passed me, the little girl said "Can we pick some too?"  "No darling" says she "It's not really safe to eat things you don't buy from a shop."

 

This morning I was scrounging jam jars from the glass recycling bins in town, when a bloke of the very-comfortably-off type arrived in his Merc with his empty booze bottles.  Seeing me furtling in the bin with my grabber, he says "Do you work here then?"  "No" says I, "I'm just recycling these jam jars."  "What do you do with them?"  "Put jam in them."  "Surely you can buy glass jars somewhere?  Amazon maybe?"

 

The sad thing is, I very much doubt if people like him will ever join the dots ...

 

 

 

I see so many numpties driving expensive cars. Always wonder how they earn the money to pay for them.

 

One of our local kitchenware shops sells jam jars. They are nearly double the price of the same jars with jam in them at Tesco.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Joseph_Pestell
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[Fat Controller]

It's not just in the UK; In France, Auchan tend to have big stocks of jam-jars at this time of year. I can't see the point, unless you're entering them for a WI competition. Sadly people extend the same thinking to all sorts of packaging, as well as to repairing things; they then wonder why they're skint.

[Kingzance]

Having just moved to this area and not knowing the best spots yet it seems brambles are not yet delivering ripe fruit wherever I look. I am a fan of damson, plum, rhubarb and ginger flavoured preserves in addition to the good old blackberry, not necessarily mixed in one. I also make marmalade in a kilt at the start of the year and mincemeat at the harvest period. Jars, bottles, lids etc all recycled and new sources saved for later jamming.

[colin penfold]

20 minutes ago, spikey said:

"It's not really safe to eat things you don't buy from a shop."

 

That actually seems like pretty good parenting to me. Do you really want a small child eating random berries not knowing which ones are edible and which ones are poisonous? I wouldn't.

[Fat Controller]

2 minutes ago, colin penfold said:

 

That actually seems like pretty good parenting to me. Do you really want a small child eating random berries not knowing which ones are edible and which ones are poisonous? I wouldn't.

No, but you could try teaching them which to avoid.. Part of the problem is, I suppose, that grandparents often live away from the current generation, so can't impart their knowledge of what is, and isn't, comestible. Certainly, as a child, I recollect it was always my nan who took us looking for blackberries, as mum was in the kitchen, preparing the next meal.

[Damo666]

10 minutes ago, colin penfold said:

 

That actually seems like pretty good parenting to me. Do you really want a small child eating random berries not knowing which ones are edible and which ones are poisonous? I wouldn't.

 

That's why a good parent says to their child / children "This is a Blackberry, they are good to eat. This is a blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, ........ they are OK to eat. If you don't know what type of berry it is, then don't eat it."

 

This is what my parents imparted to me when I was a kid.

 

Similarly with mushrooms, I was told which one (singular) was OK to harvest, I didn't know what others were OK so I never picked them. It was much later in his life that my father, in his pension years, learned what other mushrooms were OK from a golfing colleague, and he passed this wisdom on to me.

 

It's how we learn, from our parents, not from Tesco.

 

Edited August 4, 2019 by Damo666

[Brinkly]

We have become such a disposable society now. 

 

When we used to go black berry picking when I was little, the rule was don't eat them until we got home and mum had washed them! I pick tons of black berries from the hedges where I live. For a long time, I seemed to be the only one, but more recently other people seem to be getting in on the act. 

 

The only thing I worry about is taking food the birds might eat; although, I have several bird feeders in the garden to supplement their diet throughout the year.

 

Regards, 

 

Nick.

[jonny777]

Is it my memory, or did we never go blackberrying in early August because they were not ripe? 

 

I always associate that fruit with September/October. 

[Fat Controller]

3 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

Is it my memory, or did we never go blackberrying in early August because they were not ripe? 

 

I always associate that fruit with September/October. 

These days, they seem to be a month or so earlier, though drier summers mean they're not so juicy.

[petethemole]

The large-berried early ripening variety seems more widespread now than say 60 years ago; I think they originated as a cultivated variety for commercial and garden growing, but you can't control where the birds drop the seeds. Here in the South I can usually pick a few before mid-July, and they are flourishing now.

Edited August 4, 2019 by petethemole

[colin penfold]

19 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

No, but you could try teaching them which to avoid..

 

Aged 4?

 

Plus, if mum doesn't know??

 

Safety first

 

[jonny777]

At 4 years of age, the best policy to teach them is 'Yes, you can eat them, but always ask first; and if we say no it means NO'. 

 

I think that is not too much of a concept for 4-year olds to grasp. 

 

 

 

 

[Gibbo675]

50 minutes ago, spikey said:

Yesterday, I was out brambling in a nearby hedge when a young mother walked past pushing a buggy.  She was accompanied by a sweet little girl of perhaps four, who asked mother what that man's doing.  Mother explained that I was picking berries to eat, and as they passed me, the little girl said "Can we pick some too?"  "No darling" says she "It's not really safe to eat things you don't buy from a shop."

 

This morning I was scrounging jam jars from the glass recycling bins in town, when a bloke of the very-comfortably-off type arrived in his Merc with his empty booze bottles.  Seeing me furtling in the bin with my grabber, he says "Do you work here then?"  "No" says I, "I'm just recycling these jam jars."  "What do you do with them?"  "Put jam in them."  "Surely you can buy glass jars somewhere?  Amazon maybe?"

 

The sad thing is, I very much doubt if people like him will ever join the dots ...

 

 

Hi Spikey,

 

It would seem that state ejumucashun is delivering as intended, that being of compliant proles that will not question the nature of the universe around them and only accept information, and not knowledge, from supposed sources of authority.

 

Those same types of compliant prole are the ones that will likely jump on comments such as the above after being somehow triggered to lambaste me as some sort of tin foil hat wearing conspiracy nut job.

 

I don't make jam but I do pick and eat Blackberrys, the tin foil hat keeps the sun off my head while doing so !!!

 

Gibbo.

[PatB]

I certainly knew what a blackberry looked like when I was 4, and that I could eat them, but that I couldn't eat what didn't look like a blackberry. 

[JDW]

I hope you're eating blackberries, Gibbo, not Blackberries, otherwise people might well be calling you a "nut job"!

 

   -v-     

 

[Porkscratching]

26 minutes ago, Gibbo675 said:

Hi Spikey,

 

It would seem that state ejumucashun is delivering as intended, that being of compliant proles that will not question the nature of the universe around them and only accept information, and not knowledge, from supposed sources of authority.

 

Those same types of compliant prole are the ones that will likely jump on comments such as the above after being somehow triggered to lambaste me as some sort of tin foil hat wearing conspiracy nut job.

 

I don't make jam but I do pick and eat Blackberrys, the tin foil hat keeps the sun off my head while doing so !!!

 

Gibbo.

Totally...and of course make 'em buy into it all..and i mean Buy, Buy, Buy...

Edited August 4, 2019 by Porkscratching

[Fat Controller]

At 4 years old, I would be entrusted to pick blackberrys; a couple of years later, I was flogging them to the neighbours....

[spikey]

1 hour ago, Kingzance said:

... I also make marmalade in a kilt ...

 

Sorry, but I have to ask ...

[Gibbo675]

1 minute ago, Porkscratching said:

..and buy into it all..and i mean Buy, Buy, Buy...

Hi Porkscratching,

 

May I add; all the stuff they don't need, with money they haven't got, all borrowed at interest.

 

We live in a strange world.

 

Gibbo.

[spikey]

49 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

Is it my memory, or did we never go blackberrying in early August because they were not ripe? 

 

I always associate that fruit with September/October. 

 

It's not your memory.  I've never before picked 10lb of plump ripe brambles in July (albeiot the last couple of days thereof).  In this neck of the woods, that's 2-3 weeks early.

[spikey]

41 minutes ago, colin penfold said:

 

Aged 4?

 

Plus, if mum doesn't know??

 

Safety first

 

 

So would I perhaps be right in assuming that when you see small children with scooters (old-fashioned type) and they're wearing plastic helmets, you don't shake your head in wonder how any of us old folk managed to survive childhood?

[kevinlms]

39 minutes ago, spikey said:

 

Sorry, but I have to ask ...

Beat me to it!

[Phil Parker]

31 minutes ago, spikey said:

 

So would I perhaps be right in assuming that when you see small children with scooters (old-fashioned type) and they're wearing plastic helmets, you don't shake your head in wonder how any of us old folk managed to survive childhood?

 

 

Not all folk did survive childhood, and the childhood you remember didn't involve anything like the amount of road traffic kids today deal with. You won't find many doctors who think getting kids into the habit of wearing a helmet is a bad idea. It might not make (I don't have numbers for this) much difference on a scooter, but in a few years time, then wearing one on a bike might just save a life.

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, spikey said:

  "No darling" says she "It's not really safe to eat things you don't buy from a shop."

 

Sometimes that doesn't work out either.

 

People do from time to time die from professionally prepared food, from nasties like salmonella.