Bramble Ramble

While I sat drinking my tea and eating my porridge full of blackberries, that we had foraged for when we where camping, i smiled because the itv news did a piece on foraging for fruits and veg of the British countryside, Sooo I thought this would make a good blog post, sooo here you goo :) ....

The British countryside is the best supermarket of all, healthy, sustainable and free!

Every year since I was a young, as the summer begins to wind down and autumn begins, we go foraging! Early autumn is one of the most productive times, from apples and blackerberries to the last of the plums meeting the first of the pears and we collect the lot, walking down the country lances, baskets, buckets and containers in hand ready to fill to the brim.

Once we even found and entire field of pumpkins! It was so beautiful iv never forgotten it. Bright big orange, shiny pumpkins as far as the eye could see. We grabbed a few and used our jumpers to craddle them in, to carry them back home.

The caravan's are packed up and the jumpers are pulled on as we leave the country side after the summer holiday's and the buckets and bags of berries, apples, plums and pears are pushed in to the car boot ready to come home with us..... then though tout the year mummy bennett pours blackberries in our porridge every morning, and the apples and pear's are pulled out of the freezer ready to be peeled and chop and put in to a hot pie ready for the Sunday roast.

So go for a walk, take a basket and keep your eyes open. Any trees or brambles hanging over a footpath or right of way are yours for the picking.

Camping and Scrumping

Ever since I was kid we have spent most of the summer holidays camping, when we was young there was a whole gang of us cousins, that explored the entire day, riding round on ours bike, fishing on the lake, making a lemonade stand to sell on the beach, crabbing off the pier and then saving our pennies up so we could run along the beach to the shop to buy prank jokes and plot our next trick on the grown ups.

And even the days when the rain poured and the mud tracks would fill up with water and create puddles that were deep enough to reach our knees, we loved it! and once the rain had stopped and the mud would start to dry we would be lined up one by one, taking turn's to stand in a baby bath while my mum hosed us down.

It will always be the fondest memories of my life growing up, even now all us cousins have grown up we are forever talking and reminiscing about it. 

I was so determined that my girl would also have this up bringing, to be a real kid with no electronic's, and mud across her face.

We've spent the last few weeks there, strolling down the country lanes, pick apples from the apple tree's, black berries from the bushes and potato picking in the fields. The little ones love it, I love watching them fall in love and make memories with camping like we did when we were young. The plan is still get out there and camp throughout the autumn and the odd winter day to get the most out of this year as we can because we not quite ready to say good bye to camping and getting away from the rat race for this year just yet.