Aug 17

Aug 17 Ambling through the Brambles

I’m an enormous fan of free food …

So Autumn (yes… let’s just accept that Summer didn’t happen this year and it’s Autumn already) is just paradise for me.

But I am surprised by the number of people who don’t engage in ‘Ambling through the Brambles,’ as I call it. Rather, it’s the dirty looks you get as you pick the fruits of the field and forest which are begging to be collected. It’s an ‘Are you mad, and anyway, how do you know what to pick,’ look.

I look enviously on Blackberries. I adore Raspberries. I am obsessive about Damsons. I am furtive over Nettles, Dock and Dandelions leaves.

The system of picking blackberries as always for me is ‘One for now, one for later,’

This year the harvest is incredibly early. Like me, Nature seems to have decided that Autumn is here. However I notice that, in comparison with home in North Wales … see the handful of North Walian berries above … the local blackberries of south Devon appear to be a little smaller. Why should this be?

Coming south is always a bit of a time machine for me. Somewhere along the way I seemed to have skipped the Elderflowers, and yet … I can’t find any elderberries. I think I spotted some Sloes here, but they were almost totally absent from the hedgerows in North Wales. And where are the Damsons in either place. Maybe some fruits follow the traditional calendar.

If I had a garden… then it would be full of the incredible and edible. I like flowers, but prefer them if they presage the arrive of fruit and veg.

Ah now - Edible Flowers - Discuss.