Picking your own fruits

My grandparents earn a living by selling fruits that they are harvesting from their land. That is their source of income. They had many fruit bearing trees like mangoes, banana, star apple, jackfruit, avocados etc. I remembered when I was still young and still not yet married when it is harvest time we are going there to pick our own fruits that we want to bring home. It is really a great experience doing that and the fact that we will not buy anymore the fruits that we want to eat. But now I am already far away from home since I got married and migrated here in another country and I do miss already picking fruits with my family.
 
When I lived in Eritrea, you would see people by the side of roads selling prickly pears. A few of these were excellent if you were on a long journey and most road travel in Eritrea is pretty long. The best way to get around is by hitching lifts in lorries and trucks and you could jumps out, buy a heap of prickly pears and pass them around the fellows in the trucks. Result: thirst quenched and a bit of social connection.
 
I am from the Czech Republic and when I studied in America, it really surprised me that when you want to pick fruit, you have to go to a picking farm!:D Here in Czech, the fruit is just freely in the nature, in the woods etc. In summer, you can just go for a walk and pick blueberries, apples, strawberries etc and you don't need any picking farm! So yes, I do pick my fruit rather than buy it but of course in winter for example, I have to buy it..:)
 
I only pick the local fruit that grows around my subdivision it's mostly chico trees (great for desserts) and star fruits that are great with a bit of salt and vinegar. I also ask for some apples from my neighbors garden-- they're always willing to give some away, neighborly kindness and all. I miss living in the country though when mangoes and rambutans were free to pick in public property.
 
Last summer my kids and I found blackberry brambles growing in our neighborhood. We also found out about a blueberry bush growing at my sister's job, but we never got an opportunity to pick those blueberries, but we collected enough blackberries in our neighborhood to freeze some for later use. Finding those blackberries was so exciting for me and my children. For myself, it brought back fond memories of growing up in North Carolina and staying with my grandparents that had a farm. The adventures of finding fruit in the woods close to the farm was always a great find and then helping grandma clean up the fruit, cook and preserve the fruit and to also make fruit pies. I always told my children these stories from my childhood and they always admired that lifestyle. Finding those blackberries just gave my kids that opportunity to finally experience finding fruit out in nature....not only in our backyard garden or at the you pick farm. But I'm just glad that my kids have experience of eating fresh food and they know that food doesn't just come from the supermarket.
 
I live in the 'Blueberry Capital of the World', as it's been called, lol. It should have been named 'Sudberry', instead of 'Sudbury', but alas, it was named after an English city I believe? :) All of the rocks here, plus the mining effects (ugh) add wonderful minerals to the soil... hence, the blueberries prosper!

Since I was an itty-bitty I have picked the beautiful blues and I continue to do so every year. Getting better with experience. Never put berries in to plastic or tin, they sweat. Always cardboard. Never put berries in to the fridge until you have to: once again, they will sweat. When freezing, DO NOT WASH FIRST, the moisture will cause your berries to freeze altogether in one or two solid lumps. Even better, freeze them all on a cookie sheet, one layer, as few touching as possible, and THEN transfer in to ziploc bags or tupperwares for further freezing. And the less you handle berries, the better (especially the blues - they will turn black within 5 seconds of rolling around in a well-meaning hand).

As far as the picking goes, many people can't handle the deerflies and horseflies, the mosquitoes and blackflies, the sunburns if you don't dress properly and are picking after noon, the cold if you don't dress properly and are picking in the morning after the dew evaporates, the sitting on rocks, the crouching, bending, kneeling, the fear of our Canadian bears attacking us pickers to 'steal' our berries, lol....but, I say that all of the blueberry pies, blueberry buckles, blueberry cakes, muffins, loafs, smoothies, blueberries in cereal or oatmeal, or even just in a bowl of milk with a bit of brownsugar sprinkled or maple syrup drizzled on top, etc., are well worth the hassle. I will continue to pick until I can't anymore. :) I grew up doing it, and I love it. I'll walk a mile to a favourite patch, bring my blanket and baskets, suntan lotion, bugspray, sun hat, proper clothing, and then it's just me, the birds, and the berries. I have encountered a few bears throughout my years of picking, but none of them have attempted thievery, lol. They are more scared of us than we are of them (unless they are sick, starving, or rabid... and in that case you can usually tell... that's when you grab your basket and book it! RARE!)

Then, there are these silly things that the 'money-makers' use (the ones that pick blueberries soley to sell them in bulk to grocery stores and other BIG buyers) called 'Blueberry combs', and they look just like they sound. A big plastic comb with a small bucket on one end. I have always refused to use one. If you know how to pick and if you can pick well, you don't need one... you will yield more berries picking by hand. More importantly, the stupid things tear the bushes to shreds, leaving very little promise for next year's berries, while mangling the ones they do harvest.

It's not just us that eat berries, the wild-life does too. Cursed blueberry combs.

We also have blackberries, raspberries, strawberries over this way.... but none as plentiful as the blueberry.
 
atlmom5 said:
Last summer my kids and I found blackberry brambles growing in our neighborhood. We also found out about a blueberry bush growing at my sister's job, but we never got an opportunity to pick those blueberries, but we collected enough blackberries in our neighborhood to freeze some for later use. Finding those blackberries was so exciting for me and my children. For myself, it brought back fond memories of growing up in North Carolina and staying with my grandparents that had a farm. The adventures of finding fruit in the woods close to the farm was always a great find and then helping grandma clean up the fruit, cook and preserve the fruit and to also make fruit pies. I always told my children these stories from my childhood and they always admired that lifestyle. Finding those blackberries just gave my kids that opportunity to finally experience finding fruit out in nature....not only in our backyard garden or at the you pick farm. But I'm just glad that my kids have experience of eating fresh food and they know that food doesn't just come from the supermarket.
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:)! You brought a smile to my face, atlmom5!
 
I am fortunate to have blackberry bushes in my back garden that produce lots of juicy berries in the late summer.early autumn. I get pounds and pounds of the things and use them to make blackberry pavlovas, blackberry jam and more recently wonderful blackberry wine. The berries produce fantastic wine that rivals grapes for flavour with a slight hint of blackberry at the finish. Here's some of the berries on the bush and one of the bottles I produced with the same berries I picked last year.
I planted some strawberry bushes a couple of years ago but I think it will be a while before I see any fruits.

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Duck59 said:
Our local wild raspberries seem to be a bit late this year. Normally by this stage of July, we are a good two weeks into picking them, but we have just got our first little crop. Is anyone else in the UK finding a similar thing?

Here we are...before and after:

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Unfortunately we don't have wild raspberries round here, but the cultivated ones in the garden have been cropping well for the last 4 weeks. I think the bushes may need some attention though, as the fruit is plentiful but mostly far too small to be useable. We have some Autumn fruiting bushes that are much newer and they tend to yield much larger fruit. The blackcurrants however, are huge thus year.
 
Perhaps the mild winter last year put a break on berries this summer. Obviously, these things come a bit later up here in the frozen wastelands of Scotland than the tropical paradise of more southerly parts, but everything seems a bit behind this year.
 
Duck59 said:
Perhaps the mild winter last year put a break on berries this summer. Obviously, these things come a bit later up here in the frozen wastelands of Scotland than the tropical paradise of more southerly parts, but everything seems a bit behind this year.
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I don't have wild or tame raspberries anywhere in striking distance and I'm jealous!
 
Perhaps we need a summer special raspberry recipe challenge. With a glut of (free) raspberries around, all sorts of concoctions have been springing from oven, hob and fridge. I'm not keen on freezing things, so it's been a test of invention. There is only so much jam one can make. Here is the latest creation:

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Duck59 said:
Perhaps we need a summer special raspberry recipe challenge. With a glut of (free) raspberries around, all sorts of concoctions have been springing from oven, hob and fridge. I'm not keen on freezing things, so it's been a test of invention. There is only so much jam one can make. Here is the latest creation:

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Well the current challenge is onions and I don't think onions and raspberries are a match made in heaven... on the other hand, if you entered a raspberry and onion smoothie @classic would probably go for it! :laugh:
 
Duck59 said:
Perhaps we need a summer special raspberry recipe challenge. With a glut of (free) raspberries around, all sorts of concoctions have been springing from oven, hob and fridge. I'm not keen on freezing things, so it's been a test of invention. There is only so much jam one can make. Here is the latest creation:

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Looks delicious by the way.
 
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