Forum Topic

Picking Party! Tuesday 17th August 7.15pm - Bitterns Field, Brent River Park

West Ealing Abundance is arranging a Picking Party on Tuesday 17th August at 7.15pm at Bitterns Field, Brent River Park, W7.  For those of you who know where the blackberry bushes are see you at the bushes overlooking the field around 7.15ish. For those driving the easiest way to find Bitterns Field is Bridge Avenue W7 where it meets Brookbank Avenue.  I will see you at the entrance there at 7.15pm.I will also bring containers, but if anyone wants to pick for themselves too feel free to do so!Any queries please let me know.Diane

Diane Gill ● 5723d31 Comments

The easiest way to find it is the entrance of Bridge Avenue/Brookbank Avenue W7.  Walk stright up the path (don't hang a left) and you will come across this massive field.  If you follow the footpath round you will see the blackberry bushes at the end - there are literally hundreds! To your right are some steps, walk down these, turn left and carry on walking long the path where you will find more bushes.  If you want to see herons carry on walking and keep right.  You will then come cross Mayfield Bridge.  The often fly low across the river.  Not seen any Bitterns myself though!

Diane Gill ● 5713d

Thanks DianeI would be surprised if fruit plantings would be agreed for a Park such as Walpole. But in places like the Brent Park and what I would call the wilder open spaces, such as Horsenden Hill, I think there is a good case for increasing fruit producing plants/trees; for instance cherry trees which provide fruit which is not horribly bitter.Forgive my ignorance but where is Bitterns Fields? Are there any Bitterns there anymore?Hope your cherry tomatoes, like any tomatoes had their shoots removed this year and are a success. Last year I grew some orange coloured cherry tomatoes and they were especially yummy. Make sure that someone with nicotine on their hands does not touch the tomatoes. Not good.

George Knox ● 5714d

BTW small and unripe pears are great for making chutney....

Diane Gill ● 5714d

Hi George I agree with you regarding planting more fruit trees in the borough and WEN have supported Ealing Transition Towns proposals to plant more in the local parks.  Unfortunately the proposal was turned down in relation to Walpole Park.  Admittedly it was the previous Council so I am unsure what the reaction would be if the proposal went in again.Where we picked yesterday in Bitterns Fields whilst a lot of the blackberries were small they were tasty and plentiful apart from mould on a fair few!My cherry tomatoes are ripening nicely this year. I had a major problem last year but that was down to ignorance on my part by not taking off the shoots. There were too many leaves and the sun couldn't possibly get to the tomatoes to ripen them!

Diane Gill ● 5714d

Ithink the fact that we had a very cold winter has impacted on all vegetable and fruit growing. Most of my tomoatoes this year are still green and show little sign of ripening, the only vegetable that seems to be happy with the weather we've had recently is the lone runner bean plant I have. However on a positive note, I have noticed that there have been more bees around this year than last.

J Smith ● 5714d

DianeIt's been a bad year for fruit. The blackberries are fairly tasteless now.  Along the canal there seemed to be little sign of a later crop - 3 days ago. The few plums disappeared very quickly, which I think was a shame, but there were few any way and they were small due to the weather. The damsons are tiny and bitter after cooking.The bullace now virtually over, seemed good, but I just could not reach them.The pears are tiny and surprisingly unripe. The apples are half the size of last year.However if more and more people know about these things then there is less for the immediate locals.However, the real point is that I would like to see more fruit trees in the borough (where the fallen fruit does not create a nuisance), because people appreciate these things. Not everyone has a garden, quite a few of the allotments are all taken up, and as you, Eric and so many will know, in the time it takes to grow some more fruit trees, Ealing will be an elongated 8 storey housing development - with more people hunting for wild fruit.

George Knox ● 5714d

George the fruit that goes to waste is ridiculous. There isn't one location I have visited so far where there is nothing left and often I have been the only one there. People have back gardens with windfall left to rot so we also get involved picking their fruit as they have contacted us begging to take the fruit off their hands.Many blackberries yesterday had infact turned to mould due to the rain so even if there was an army to pick a lot of it had spoiled of it's own accord before anyone could get there.What is exactly wrong with people knowing about where to pick so the fruit doesn't go to waste?  As with anything you have to get there early and not be greedy - I can't account for other people but as part of our project we NEVER strip the fruit tree bare.

Diane Gill ● 5714d

I think WEN should campaign to get Parks to plant a lot more fruit trees in open areas especially as all readers now know where to go.There is barely anything worth retrieving now that so many have had their share

George Knox ● 5714d

My pleasure!  There will be more for sure as we will have a stack of Apples to collect...

Diane Gill ● 5714d

Many thanks for organizing this Diane, it was fun and worth getting a few stings and scratches for such a good yield... I think we took home over a kilo ourselves in the end!Please keep us updated on any future gatherings you organise.Cheers!Nathan & Loukia.

Nathan Brown ● 5714d

Many thanks for organizing this Diane, it was fun and worth getting a few stings and scratches for such a good yield... I think we took home over a kilo ourselves in the end!Please keep us updated on any future gatherings you organise.Cheers!Nathan & Loukia.

Nathan Brown ● 5714d

click on this link and our map will tell you where damsons are in the area.  It may be a little late as I picked some a couple of weeks ago form near Mayfield Bridge - BRP and last night we went to have a look and they had all gone but for the really high branches!Damsons do make lovely jam; I am making a small batch so if you can't find any let me know and I will sell you a pot!http://www.westealingneighbours.org.uk/abundanceMap.html

Diane Gill ● 5714d

I am afraid I wasn't able to make the picking party last night, but would love to know where you can get damsons (apart from a shop!) as I know they make lovely jam.

J Smith ● 5714d

A big thanks to everyone that turned up tonight for the blackberry picking party.  Whilst I have yet to weight them as they are now in 3 separate locations we probably picked around 10kg of blackberries.  We had to stop as we ran out of containers!

Diane Gill ● 5715d

If it's me you're on about I aren't in 'The Green Army' though strongly share some of their concerns. Just thought I'd provoke a thought or two  -  not a hysterical paranoid overreaction!I do think though that a lot of cold food is underrated relative to cooked hot food; albeit I enjoy a lot of the latter (in the sense of quantity as well as range and variety).BTW what's an 'LBD' and what 'plant' does it and its little friends reckon to be 'poisoning'? Oh I think I just got it  -  Little Black Dress? - whatever, my second question remains to be answered -  pray enlighten?

Chris Veasey ● 5716d

Perhaps when we are all back in caves learning how to use fire. The wheel will then be reinvented and some ingenius person will create a public transport system that doesn't vibrate or impact on the environment.Being green is one thing, taking it to the extreme as some people tend to do, is another.

J Smith ● 5716d

re: I can't believe we are discussing the merits or otherwise of making homemade jam and chutney using fruit local to Ealing. The alternative is  shop bought where you have no idea what is in it, or the amount of air miles it took to get on the shelves!--------------------------------------------It never fails to amaze me how the green army can twist things to make it look like we're doing wrong, in some ways just like religion.  We've already heard how handbags, shoes and LBD's are poisoning the plant.  Now we can't use our ovens for cooking and something like jam making using local produce is turned into the new evil.  Where will it stop.

G Lord ● 5716d

My stainless steel preserving pan was £40 and it is the best for jam and chutney making. Making jam is surprisingly quick when cooking, it is often the prep that takes an inordinate amount of time - de-stoning cherries, topping and tailing gooseberries etc and that is after you have actually picked them.I can't believe we are discussing the merits or otherwise of making homemade jam and chutney using fruit local to Ealing. The alternative is  shop bought where you have no idea what is in it, or the amount of air miles it took to get on the shelves!Our jam and chutney is made in small batches to very high standards and it is of excellent quality hence why our demand is always outstripped by supply.  We take nothing from the sale apart from our costs.  I personally don't think you can get better than that, but then I am biased....

Diane Gill ● 5716d

Too much information, Chris!

J Smith ● 5716d

Not cooking, but I can remember being bathed in the classic tin bath in front of the fire as a toddler before graduating to the proper bath upstairs. I think there's even photographic evidence somewhere.

Chris Veasey ● 5716d

You would be surprised to learn that the pans used to make jam, especially the large ones, can be quite costly, especially if they are copper bottomed. Some pans can go for in excess of £60, whereas a slow cooker can cost about £35 for a large one.I, too have memories of my mother making all sorts of jam and to be honest it was never lated that long - mind you utility bills were a lot cheaper then in comparison to today.Regarding the right century, from the way you were talking Chris it felt as if you belonged to the time of a huge cauldron over a fire.

J Smith ● 5716d

Depends what you call the 'right' century! I certainly seem to be living in the current one for what it's worth, but my extensive first-hand memories of family jam making in huge open two-handled brass (or whatever metal) jam boiling pans go to well back in the previous.Anyway, what size are those 'slow' cookers compared to the old boiling pans, and what order of magnitide of cost to buy?

Chris Veasey ● 5716d

I think you may be having a bit of a laugh Chris. Are you sure you are living in the right century? You can make jam in a slow cooker which although may be on for a long time doesn't use as much energy so therefore is greener in the long run.

J Smith ● 5716d

All very laudable -  just thought it right to flag up and get people to think about the heavy consumption of fuel in making jam, as proposed to other ways of consuming the fruit. I love jam too, though don't eat it much nowadays  -  not because of the foregoing concern.It's a bit like buying some of those non-microwavable cheap (and often nasty) mass-produced meals or snacks, which require an oven to be on and burning fuel for 30-45 mins to cook.Going back to blackberries, there's huge amounts grow on the various large open spaces along the canal corridor in the Greenford/Northolt/Perivale areas of the borough. Although lots of people can be seen picking them, there's so many that a lot just go to waste decaying on the bushes.

Chris Veasey ● 5716d

Wow that looks impressive! It makes me want to grow them myself. I wonder how he manages to do it? I would agree that it is a shame that the vermin (foxes and squirrels) have seen fit to destroy the crop.

J Smith ● 5716d

Take a look at this guys blog, looks like he's been busy:http://www.ealingpumpkins.blogspot.com/Seems there would have been more if the squirrels and foxes hadn't dug them up for no reason.  Mindless vandals, still guess its better than mauling little children....

G Lord ● 5716d

Chris it isn't just wild fruit we pick, we also go into back gardens and pick fruit people can't pick themselves (and give them some of their own produce!)as well as fruit that people simply have no need for as there is too much or they have no time to pick it.We give away fruit (St Johns Soup Kitchen and O'Grady Court) and we make it into jams and chutneys to sell to plough back in the project.Those that come along tomorrow can help themselves and eat fresh and give us a couple of punnets for our project.All I am praying for is that the blackberries have not gone mouldy with the rain!

Diane Gill ● 5716d

Did I suggest otherwise?

Chris Veasey ● 5718d

Chris, this is something that is going to happen.

G Lord ● 5718d

Ah, but think of your carbon footprint making the jam  -  all that fuel for the endless boiling etc, plus the energy used by the glassworks in making the jars, etc etc. May be better just to eat the blackberries fresh, and give away what you can't eat?

Chris Veasey ● 5718d

oooohhhhh the jam!

Emma Daniels ● 5718d