Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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dpack
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brambles, how are yours?i know this could also go in forage but i have a managed bramble perimeter to the yard so mine get watered and fed and pruned for fruit but they only have a limited root space with competition in a deep raised bed of home made soil with a slot to the urban sub concrete clay
it seems a good year, today was first proper pick, i took about 4kg off 8m linear, the next harvest will be twice that and depending on weather might be a week or so
i must have a look at the other side of the wall. 
good quality / super quality was evens by wt which is excellent with very few
as it is now that season how do you rate this years crop where you are ?
the wild ones round here were looking a bit thin and dry which is normal for york ,i still have not found a really nice wild patch although ours were originally bird sown and produce ace fruit ( unless it is cold and damp ) .
i know it is super fed soil ( how many guinea pigs ? and lots of other stuff ) which normally would be better spread out but the area is tight and the aspect is W line N face on the inside ,half between houses so making barbed wire with bonuses seems a good idea.
as more things get introduced and established the more wildlife shows up for dinner. overall a nice use of a darkish narrow space and some wall tops.
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Mistress Rose
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Ours are doing well in the garden. The bit of rain over the weekend made all the difference. I have already picked quite a few, and must pick some more tonight. We have Himalayan Giant, which is a vigorous, large and well flavoured one. Downside is the thorns which are large and vigorous too. We got it as it was one our old lady had in her garden, and we wanted something by that wall to deter scrumpers.
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gz
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Our local foraging supplies are just beginning to ripen.
I've got cultivated thornless in pots for the garden, I've been bringing them on before planting out...the soil isn't brilliant here...and the fruit is developing well on them.
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sgt.colon
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Down one side of my allotment there are lots of blackberries growing. Possible a row of about 8-9 meters. The fruit quality is excellent this year. Big and juice and they taste yummy. I've got about 3lb so far but there are plenty more on their way.
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dpack
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interesting , if i was starting a garden i recon i would go for a cultivar , the type we have is pretty good even if it is a wilding but it is a bit rust prone in a damp year and it does need proper fruit pruning to get a good crop, left to it's own devices it heads off for ripon and flowers about half way there 
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gregotyn
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I have a glut this year too. As it is I have more than I can cope with even in a bad year. They are taking over a bit in places, but lovely fruit, big and juicy. I was thinking of doing a garden gate sale but don't want to sit
round all day hoping that someone else wants them and can't be bothered to pick them from the hedgerow.
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dpack
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an honesty box might work.
iirc you dont drink much ( i ferment fruit gluts ) but a glut would make bramble jelly or pastilles for winter.
bramble jelly makes a nice hot drink on a cold day as well as being great on toast
bramble is one of the fruits that improves with being concentrated.
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Mistress Rose
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Reading this thread reminds me that I have the blackberries I picked last night to put in the freezer. I also managed to transfer the wine to demijohns yesterday. Is there an easy and clean way to do that? I end up using a ladle to transfer the juice while trying to avoid the pulp going in by lining the funnel with cheesecloth.
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dpack
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Reading this thread reminds me that I have the blackberries I picked last night to put in the freezer. I also managed to transfer the wine to demijohns yesterday. Is there an easy and clean way to do that? I end up using a ladle to transfer the juice while trying to avoid the pulp going in by lining the funnel with cheesecloth. |
i use a cylinder made out of a square of stainless steel fly screen and pop the syphon tube inside it.
not quite mess free but pretty tidy.
in the past i have used a pulp bag to hold the ferment until time for a squeeze, quite messy
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Mistress Rose
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Thanks Dpack, I might try that. I find the syphon tube gets blocked with bubbles though, so will still have to use a ladle or something, but keeping the pulp out of the area of extraction is the most important thing.
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sgt.colon
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The last time I made some blackberry wine, it was either Nick or Sean said to put my fruit into a pillow case and then put it in to the water in the brewing bucket. It made it a lot easier to syphon off when I was transferring to the demijohns.
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Mistress Rose
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That is an alternative. It would have to be a very old pillowcase though, as the stain would never come out. 
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dpack
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a pillow case will work but the squeeze stage is hard work (and can pop the cloth if it is an old un ) a proper pulp bag of fine nylon mesh is easier and less than a tenner, they last pretty well making it a sundries cost of pennies per gallon.
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Mistress Rose
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I have always left the fruit to sit on the top of the wine as I though that was the best way to get the yeast to it. I often make a couple of gallons at a time as I only tend to make wine when I really have a lot of fruit so it would have to be a pretty good size pulp bag. The one I have for jam making wouldn't be anything like large enough.
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Behemoth
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Good berries this year. Slightly earlier than usual.
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dpack
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4 kg top quality frozen and bagged, 10 lt of mashed fruit fermenting.
a good year and a perfect day for getting scratched, the wildlife was very accommodating and nowt bit me that i have noticed
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Mistress Rose
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I picked some more blackberries last night. There was a young blackbird on the ground near the bush which scuttled off under cover when I arrived. Not sure how much I have picked, but all in the freezer for now.
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dpack
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it is a good year for em so long as they had their feet in something at least a little damp. the ones round here in dry spots look more bushfire than fireside port.
i still have a lot ripening fast and some that will depend on the next 3 weeks or so.
it will make an early end to the season which has been very compact this year.
that can be a good thing as an early trim n prune gives chance for next years flowering stems to pop out a few leaves and spurs ti get ready for spring.
they have been around since the miocene so thriving on very rough fruitpicking by mega fauna be that a ground sloth or me with sharp secateurs seems sensible as do their stratagems for getting ones stems trashed by frost or fire etc.
bad weed ace friend 
there is a hypothesis that that are deliberate opportunist carnivores in that anything seeking shelter or blundering in can find itself tangled beyond hope if it is too weak to struggle free. having entangled myself with vigour or gravity a few times and having seen quite a few fallen sheep in bramble it does not seem too far fetched.
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gregotyn
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Only the one frost that I know about and the black berries went almost over night about week back. I did pick a few in a nearby woodland yesterday but only a mouthful!
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Mistress Rose
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I haven't looked at mine lately, but suspect the ones on the north side of the garden are pretty well over and the ones on the south side still going. The ones in the woods seem to be well and truly over.
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dpack
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mine are at the last gasp. the early and main crop was spectacular, the later weeks i have left for the wildlife
in about a week or so i will do trim which gives a bit of autumn growth ready for a flying start in spring.
it is very ecosystem rich at the mo but i do need to trim as soon as seems decent to keep it that way.
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Mistress Rose
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I had a few more blackberries yesterday, but on the whole they seem to be over on the north side of the garden. I agree with you about cutting back; mine needs a really good cut this year as we want to try to train it a bit. At present it is making rather a lot of itself. Very good variety, but rather too vigorous.
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sgt.colon
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A few left down at the allotment but like DPack I'm leaving them for the wildlife. I got plenty early in the season so I don't want to be greedy.
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