Or not exactly that. But thinking about wild blackberries reminded me of other wild fruits.
Round here we really have only the blackberries, and sloes. Sloes are delicious as the fruit that goes into the gin-based liqueur named for them, but if you eat one plucked from the hedgerow your mouth and eyes screw up instantly. All the same I believe the sloe is part-ancestor of some cultivated plums.
Further afield, or perhaps a-wood is more accurate, I have eaten wild strawberries and raspberries in many places. I've also consumed many crab apples; usually jellified, but also crisp, sharp and raw, fresh from the tree.
Crab apples vary a lot, and may often I think have some cultivated genes in them, either crossed from regular apples, or perhaps from crab apple cultivars grown for jelly making.
All these fruits are probably members of the rose family, and rose bushes produce their own fruit - rosehips. These are supposed to be a good source of Vitamin C. If you are about the same age as me you may remember Delrosa Syrup.
Fruits of the Forest
Or not exactly that. But thinking about wild blackberries reminded me of other wild fruits.
Round here we really have only the blackberries, and sloes. Sloes are delicious as the fruit that goes into the gin-based liqueur named for them, but if you eat one plucked from the hedgerow your mouth and eyes screw up instantly. All the same I believe the sloe is part-ancestor of some cultivated plums.
Further afield, or perhaps a-wood is more accurate, I have eaten wild strawberries and raspberries in many places. I've also consumed many crab apples; usually jellified, but also crisp, sharp and raw, fresh from the tree.
Crab apples vary a lot, and may often I think have some cultivated genes in them, either crossed from regular apples, or perhaps from crab apple cultivars grown for jelly making.
All these fruits are probably members of the rose family, and rose bushes produce their own fruit - rosehips. These are supposed to be a good source of Vitamin C. If you are about the same age as me you may remember Delrosa Syrup.