[dmg]

Opposite my new house there is a small in shot that leads to a small council office along the fence there are loads of wild blackberries. I have only seen a couple of cars in the drive as the customer parking is on the opposite side, my road is very quiet except for the school run which is directly opposite and even then it is only about a dozen or so cars.
The distance from the blackberries is about 20ft from the road and the fence runs for about 20-30ft, would they be safe enough to eat?

Thanks
Dmg

[RJR_38]

I eat ones that are only 6-8 ft from a busyish road. Taste amazing and have never got ill yet....

[mumofstig]

I make jam from the ones growing at the end of the terrace where everybody parks, so yours will be fine IMO

[diospyros]

So long as they look clean and not dusty and aren't hanging at dog leg height I would eat them!

[Nobbie]

I think it used to be more of an issue when there was lead in petrol as this is a dangerous poison and could accumulate in roadside plants.

[devonbarmygardener]

I pick the ones in the lane just up from my house.
It's only wide enough for 1car in places and they are fine.
As someone said before - don't pick at animal height!

[richie3846]

I agree with Nobbie, fuel is a lot less noxious than it used to be, plus when you are walking down t'road, or driving in your car, you are breathing diesel particulates all the time. As long as you aren't eating of a busy roadside theres nothing to worry about. Think, even those with a little contamination don't contain pesticides and can truly be called organic.

[gobs]

I'd agree, pesticides could be more harmful. Everybody eats and picks them, all over the place.

Just think: how much further is my back garden than my front garden from the road?

[Kristen]

Think, even those with a little contamination don't contain pesticides and can truly be called organic.

We get contorted plants in our garden from [herbicide] spray drift from surrounding agriculture [in Spring before the boundary hedge is properly in leaf], so I wouldn't be too sure about no pesticide contamination - I I perceive that part of the problem is having no way of knowing if something was sprayed in the field behind the day before ... all depends on each person's paranoia I suppose.

Just yesterday Mrs K and I had a conversation in the car about making more effort to grow more of our own to know its provenance ...

I believe that Potato haulms are "desiccated" before harvest, in this country, using acid but abroad still using Gramoxone (banned in the EU for half-a-dozen years or so) - if I buy a bag of spuds at the farm gate they might actually have been imported and contain traces of Gramoxone (or gawd knows what ...).  For many years we haven't bothered to grow main crop to store because they sprout by Christmas ... going to change that policy.

We eat, in the main, only crops that are in season.  We are going to be more rigorous about that, so that we will eat out of the garden rather than weakening and buying a punnet of flown-in-strawberries in mid Winter (and then regretting it as they taste of nothing ...)

But we are definitely going to reduce, to as close to nil as possible, all foreign fruit and veg purchases, and be very selective about what UK food crops we buy.   I can see how people decide to pay extra to only buy Organic ...

The conversation ended up with Mrs K asking "If you had another greenhouse could you grow Peaches and the like? We have far too much veg in the greenhouse and not enough fruit. What about Kiwi's too?"

Now I know the economics of this are not good but ... Hey! ... as a project it sounded good to me  . On Beechgrove (TV) they have greenhouses for all sorts of fruit, and they are a long LONG way North of me

[mumofstig]

Sounds like it will be onwards and upwards then kristen 

[Kristen]

Just need to find a nice little multi-span greenhouse on eBay now ... how hard can that be?

[mumofstig]

you mean a nice big multi-span, I think 

[Kristen]

 

I'm sure my catch phrase of "couldn't afford not to have it" will go down a storm with Mrs K