A friend and neighbour called round today and left us some of the surplus of blackberries she had just picked. She had discovered that there is a superb growth of these no more than 300 m. from our house. Although we have lived here for more than twenty years, and gather berries regularly elsewhere in the locality, we had never encountered this particular “colony” before. So, this afternoon we set out, armed with suitable containers and a walking stick to control any branches which might become either too aggressive or insufficiently accessible, and investigated for ourselves.
The discovery was quite startling, as the bushes just run around the perimeter of the local football field. Although it is so close to the house we have never included it in our repertoire of local walks, I suppose because it doesn’t go anywhere. Within half an hour we came back with our containers full. The quality of the fruit was first rate, although I have to admit that reaching it often demanded a fair degree of stoicism!
Walking back to the house we were wondering how it can be that such riches seem to be so completely neglected by the local residents. It can’t be that nobody knew of their existence, as the field is not only frequently visited by people taking part in football, but also it is a very popular dog-walking area. It occurred to us that few people these days know about wild food. My wife and I grew up in the years after the 1939-45 war, when food was rationed and people became used to exploiting wild resources of a variety of kinds. (I can remember collecting the fruit of hawthorn bushes with my mother.) This ignorance is a pity, because the press is full of reports of the hardship currently being suffered in many areas because of the current economic crisis. Perhaps people have simply lost the knowledge which was once common about both exploiting and cooking these freely available foods.
Talking of “lost knowledge”, I’m working steadily at the moment to revive my knowledge of Italian, which has been rather neglected over the past couple of years. The pandemic has made it impossible to visit Italy, but we are planning a visit in the near future. Added to this is the incentive that I have taken over the position of President of the regional Italian Circle, the regular meetings of which recommence at the end of September. I suppose that I ought to be able to set some kind of minimal example.