NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

No, not that kind of Neighbourhood Watch…we’re all watching each other’s fruit trees. In the spirit of neighbourhood barter we have been plundering each other’s gardens in search of windfall apples and plums. In return for our fruit we have received jam and with other people’s apples we’ve made excellent pies.




It is also time for blackberrying. We love cycling to our local park to pick blackberries. Sadly this year’s crop has been very disappointing. Not because of a lack of fruit – but because of the number of new foragers who have got there before us. For years we were the only ones out with our old ice cream boxes filling up with fruit for the freezer. But I suspect that the current media obsession with GYO, Digging In etc is encouraging more people to get out into the hedgerows. Good! The more people who get to enjoy autumn blackberries the better!