Quick! Before the Devil spits on them!!!

[smallblueplanet]

Notes on nature : Blackberrying

Old folklore says that you shouldn't pick blackberries after St Michaelmas Day - 29 September - because the devil spits on them, but the real culprit is the flesh fly, whose saliva makes the fruit go squishy.

We've just started off three lots of blackberry gin! Will have a last look around for more blackberries this weekend, beat the Devil!!!

[SlugLobber]

Oh yuck! Ok, I'll get the bags and baskets out!

[HeyWayne]

The blackberries round by us were starting to go "grey" and slightly furry even before we went on holiday.

[Polly Fouracre]

Have picked a measly five pounds of blackberries this year,all gone in bramble jelly. I eat it on toast in the darkest, most dismal days of the year and smell summer!

[Nicos]

Never heard of that phrase SBP!!....a new thing every day what!!?

[kernowyon]

my grandad always used to say that the devil used to p**s on them after summercourt fair (end of sept), guess that is just a cornish thing!

[Flummery]

Now up in Manchester we used to say that on October 10th the devil trails his coat tails over them. (They ripen later ooop north!)

[Snadger]

Just tried a few today and they are still taste juicy! Gave the dog one and she just left it lying on the ground, when I next looked she was eating them straight from the bush!

Just had a de ja vous..............THAT will be the spines OH said she had pulled out of her mouth?

[Alison]

Thought that only applied to wild brambles. Have already picked loads of cultivated blackberries at home but still more to go.

[SarzWix]

The first lot of ours 'went over' a few weeks ago from all the rain, but the second wave are just ripening now. Like Flum says, they're a bit later Oop North

[shirlthegirl43]

Bit later down here too this year. We have finally had a couple of weeks of sun and I was going to find an hour to pick brambles today - it has just started to rain again

[SarzWix]

it has just started to rain again

Oh no Shirley I know it's 'Wetter in the West', but it's way beyond a joke now! Put your waterproofs on and go anyway if you can bear it, if you get em straight in the jam-pan/demi-john it shouldn't matter if they're wet!

[shirlthegirl43]

Oh no Shirley I know it's 'Wetter in the West', but it's way beyond a joke now! Put your waterproofs on and go anyway if you can bear it, if you get em straight in the jam-pan/demi-john it shouldn't matter if they're wet!

We usually stick out too far west to take much notice of that saying. We haven't had such a rubbish summer for years.

[Twinkle]

the ones that've actually ripened here are all tiny and pippy - there's loads of unripe ones still on the bushes...

[shirlthegirl43]

Well, I went into the garden yesterday evening to pick the brambles - they were rubbish. Gave up and chucked them. Will see what is available in the orchard I get to plunder later today. (Hope I find some as I just ordered 50 jam jars from ebay)