Berry good year

 

It's been a very good year for Blackberries, quantity wise anyways, unfortunately not so much on taste, with quite a number having a disappointingly bland taste. Maybe as a consequence you've seen more folk out gathering; weirdly though, even with the widespread abundance of blackberries, most of the people I've seen collecting were doing so on the sides of roads; what's that about? According to folklore today's the last day to collect blackberries, or least one of them, I've seen a couple; since Christianity' arrival it's been said that when the Devil fell from heaven he landed in a bramble thicket and cursed the bush, before that though it was a puck or malevolent spirits which rendered the berries foul. That in one form or another a similar story has existed for such a long time suggests there's a real world reason for avoiding late in the season blackberries, which if you've tried them is evident.