Childhood shout-out

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moonshadow
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Childhood shout-out

Post by moonshadow »

Shout out if you know what these are and you have childhood memories combing fields with cousins and/or siblings seeking them out, eating a few, and bringing some home in a bucket to have for summertime snacks...

If you did... you had a real American childhood!

I'm happy to say I did!

And thanks to my recent survey I found out this little gem is right inside my property...! Sweet!

Ps... yes I know most aren't ripe yet... but I've ready enjoyed a few that were... yes they were quite tasty!
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crfriend
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Re: Childhood shout-out

Post by crfriend »

Good ol' blackberries! I remember them fondly -- and their sweeter, redder cousins, raspberries. I had those where I grew up, and they were a part of the general landscape where I lived for better than a quarter-century (longer than where I did growing up!) a few miles to the west.

There are none here. alas, but that also means that I'm not getting my skirts caught on the brambles...
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Happy-N-Skirts
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Re: Childhood shout-out

Post by Happy-N-Skirts »

We used to live near the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers and black berries grow along the rivers for miles. We used to pick them from a boat and could have as many as we wanted. We made jam, pies, smoothies, etc.
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Jim
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Re: Childhood shout-out

Post by Jim »

I, too, picked blackberries as a child. Mom would make pies, jams, and jellies with them, and, of course, we liked them fresh with ice cream. I'll probably be picking some in the next few days. We've just had a few ripe ones so far.
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Fred in Skirts
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Re: Childhood shout-out

Post by Fred in Skirts »

My current place only has wild blueberries which are much smaller than the cultivated kind and if taken to early are very bitter. When they do get ripe the animals clean up the bushes so fast it is almost impossible to get enough for other than a taste.
When I was a child I would go to the country and pick buckets full of blueberries for mom to make pies and buckles and for jam. Along with elder berries we had enough jam and jelly to last the entire winter. In fact I got sick of eating elderberry jam I would trade off my PB and J sandwich for something else with my class mates. :D
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Sinned
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Re: Childhood shout-out

Post by Sinned »

Ah, brambles, as we used to call them. There was a pathway alongside a railway line that was festooned with them, late summer. Black and red berries so we had red hands and mouths. Brings back memories. There were also allotments that we used to "raid" for rhubarb. No sugar to dip the stalks in. Just twist off the leaf and tuck in. Then there were the orchards, apple and pear. We were sensitive enough and had the agreement of the orchard owner to be able to pick the fallen ones. Finally goosegogs, gooseberries, we had a supply of them an' all. We were never without fruit when we were kids.
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Re: Childhood shout-out

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They used to be rampant pest weeds where I grew up growing along creeks and big patches in paddocks. Yes as kids we could fill a bucket to take home to be processed into pies and jam, taking a long plank with us to access the biggest and juciest ones.

Now I know what an American childhood feels like, very much like an Australian one in that respect.

Quince trees grew wild in the area as well. I have tried growing them since but were never as good as the variety that grew wild.
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moonshadow
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Re: Childhood shout-out

Post by moonshadow »

denimini wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 12:13 pm Now I know what an American childhood feels like, very much like an Australian one in that respect.
Indeed, I'd say childhoods across the globe had much more in common than we may realize.... the innocence, the imagination, etc.

I miss my childhood sense of wonder and imagination. I'm actively working on trying to get some of that back.
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Re: Childhood shout-out

Post by Kirbstone »

Re. childhood: One sure-fire way of getting all that back & working on it is to have a resident grandchild long-term. For some 4-5 years now we have one such called Lulabelle and at age 8 she has no trouble transporting us right back into our childhoods. She's the same age as Peter Pan, who has been eight for about 100 years now.

Our whole leisure-time activities are geared to doing what she likes to do and picking berries is just one activity. Right now it's raspberries, goosegogs and black currants. Later on it'll be blackberries & apples &c. Plums & damsons too. We have one very productive loganberry 'bush'. They're bit later than the raspberries. Veggie, too. L'belle goes for the peas/beans/mange-tout...greens and also very sweet little tomatoes and carrots. We won't starve, that's for sure.
Beach activities are bucket-and-spade, rock pools and swimming in a shortie wetsuit (cold North-Atlantic water). Grandad just paddles through the inches-deep water at the edge.

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Fred in Skirts
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Re: Childhood shout-out

Post by Fred in Skirts »

Kirbstone wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 6:16 pm Re. childhood: One sure-fire way of getting all that back & working on it is to have a resident grandchild long-term. For some 4-5 years now we have one such called Lulabelle and at age 8 she has no trouble transporting us right back into our childhoods. She's the same age as Peter Pan, who has been eight for about 100 years now.

Our whole leisure-time activities are geared to doing what she likes to do and picking berries is just one activity. Right now it's raspberries, goosegogs and black currants. Later on it'll be blackberries & apples &c. Plums & damsons too. We have one very productive loganberry 'bush'. They're bit later than the raspberries. Veggie, too. L'belle goes for the peas/beans/mange-tout...greens and also very sweet little tomatoes and carrots. We won't starve, that's for sure.
Beach activities are bucket-and-spade, rock pools and swimming in a shortie wetsuit (cold North-Atlantic water). Grandad just paddles through the inches-deep water at the edge.

Tom
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"It is better to be hated for what you are than be loved for what you are not" Andre Gide: 1869 - 1951
Always be yourself because the people that matter don’t mind and the ones that mind don’t matter.
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Re: Childhood shout-out

Post by 6ft3Aussie »

The wild blackberries...
I remember those from when I was a kid in the early 1980s, they grew wild around creeks, parks, around the bush areas, there was a large area near the main railway several kilometers from home that we would frequently strip bare, and either stuff ourselves with or bring home to mum, who would make blackberry pies, and blackberry jam.

Those were also the days when as 10 year old kids, we'd be gone after lunch, and return home around dinner time, after forming tunnels in the gorse on the hills, making tree huts in the trees in the reserve, swinging from ropes halfway up said trees, catching tadpoles in creeks and unfenced ponds....

Glad I had those childhood experiences.
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