Blackberry picking is a dying art

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.

There's a real disengagement between the public and nature, these days ("these days", says he sounding like an old fart) which means that people have forgotten how food gets on their plate.  Even those who buy 'organic' food are largely unaware of the processes it takes to produce.

For all the TV series by the likes of Ray Mears, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey, trying to remind us where we are in the food-chain, there are far too many people who just don't care.

It'll only take one more generation of townies, and people will have forgotten that berries exist in the wild - there'll be a whole generation who think they magically appear on the shelves of Tesco.  And the idea of actually making jam, will just be alien to them.

What a tragedy.

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's yummy yum yum!  But the video did not linger lovingly enough over the fruit and I was hoping for a juicey morsel to be put in front of the camera.  I LOVE blackberrying.  But I have to time since in London most of the sites have regular pickers and they get there as soon as the rains have finished.  Blackberries are simply DELICIOUS and they freeze well too.

Gerry

My grouse is that local authorities should plant fruit trees around housing estates rather than flimsey playequipment that kids dont use!  Think of all the gooseberry bushes that could be grown around city centres!

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff. I've never picked berries but I imagine it's real fun.

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff. valid points raised by all other 'NPists' (by the way, what are we called?) i know how different my one-year old grand-daughter's life is going to be from my own childhood or her father's for that matter. she is growing up on the 30th floor of an apartment in shanghai. any kind of berry-picking in the wild seems like an adventure waiting to be undertaken!

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.

LotusFlower, wonderful story! It's SO true that children in this fresh generation of youth have no clue as to where the real stuff comes from, nor care to learn because they're too busy playing video games. I have two adult daughters that were always thrilled to be outdoors growing up. They used their imaginations in play rather than letting a battery operated toy dictate the format. I remember taking their toys away because they couldn't keep their room clean, and they got sticks and leaves to play with instead. A week later when I gave their toys back, they weren't even all that excited. After all, they had whole "families" of stick people and huts made in the yard and were engrossed in playing with them.

It would be great to educate children in the fine nuances of fresh fruit picking as well as making things from it. Great fun! Nice article. Thanks for inviting me to share my photographs in it.

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.

important that these facts are getting on table! a lot of people are so lazy about food. they don't even take the time to cook with fresh ingredients. but no wonder, the knowledge gets more and more lost and the supermarket is near and cheap!

as an environmental scientist i am myself engaged in projects with kids and environmental education and i am sometimes shocked that kids nowadays know not a hell of a lot about food. but they are the future! if they don't esteem natural resources how shall they support sustainability in all its aspects!

so go on and bring these facts under people and kids. it's important.

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.  Blackberries, strawberries, morels, apples, cherries, and tomatoes are all wonderful things I have picked this year.  Grocery shoppers don't know what they are missing until they have tried these things when they weren't mass produced for supermarkets.

Another week and the pears should be about ready.  I can't wait.