Thursday 26 June 2014

How do you Pick Yours?

Posted by Rosie

Fruit!  How you you pick your fruit? What did you think I meant?!

Fruit harvesting is getting into full swing here at Eco-Gites of Lenault and I am spending more and more time picking fruit and processing it for use throughout the year.  

After an early start the strawberries are almost at an end but everything else is coming to the fore - redcurrants, whitecurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries, tayberries, loganberries and rhubarb are all ripe for picking .... soon it will be the gooseberries and worcesterberries and then blackberries.  

Redcurrants

Tayberries

Blackcurrants

Whilst picking raspberries I got to thinking about how people pick fruit.  Take my friend J - she will start at one end of the fruit bush and work her way assiduously along, picking everything  in sight in a completely methodical fashion.  It's a rare berry that escapes her diligent picking.  She's a stripper!  Me?  Well I'm a flitter!  I start to pick methodically and then my eye is drawn to that large berry up there , oh and look, a cluster behind those leaves that I must pick now in case I miss them later.  Generally this leads to me picking all the biggest fruits first leaving the small ones to the end and finally abandoning the most tiny ones tp the birds!  I wish I was a stripper!

So, are you a stripper or a flitter?  Do you pick every single berry or do you leave some when it all gets too much? 

Finally for Mammasaurus and anyone else who likes a challenge, I thought it was time to show you another mystery plant that is starting to fruit here.  Any ideas what this fruit bearing bush is?

Mystery berry

30 comments :

  1. I am a flitter, and I like nothing better than to take my kids out for ages and drive them mad as I go back for just one more! I inherited it from my mother. Visiting via Mammasaurus!

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  2. Hmm, I'm a stripper, I think! Our strawberries are still in full swing here and we're just waiting on some raspberries.

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    1. LOL - bet you never thought you'd write that in the Internet ;)

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  3. Oh I am a flitter for sure I get far too distracted. Lovely fruits by the way xxx

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  4. Late read this AM as all work has to be done before heat! A stripper eh! I am also a methodical plucker what are you? A flittly plucker? much love J xx

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    1. I am a very flitty plucker indeed but I get therein the end :)

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  5. Lots of lovely fruit you have there. The only fruit I've grown is strawberries and I tend to be a stripper. Most of them end up in smoothies anyway so it doesn't matter if they are a bit small. No idea what your mystery berry is I'm afraid.

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    1. It's a Jostaberry - a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry.

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  6. the only fruit i get to pick these days are all the mangoes falling from our mango tree and a few strawberries that actually made it from the little potted pots. yours looks lovely!!

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  7. I'm definitely a flitter like you-I get distracted by the large bright fruit! No idea about those fruits though, sorry :)

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    1. Hello flitter friend. It's a Jostaberry - a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry.

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  8. Flitter for sure. No clue as to what your mystery berry could be. I do love all these fruit pictures though - must be amazing to go out and pick what you've grown.

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    1. It is amazing but takes ages to pick and process. The mystery fruit is a Jostaberry - a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry.

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  9. Crowberry ?! Blackthorn ?! *crosses fingers and prays*
    I too am flitter - I tend to pick what I fancy eating! Pick it, lick it, roll it, flick it - yes? Oh hang on that's something else....
    Thanks for joining in again sausage! x

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    1. If only the sloes on our blackthorn were as big and thorn-less as this one. It is in fact a Jostaberry - a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry. Wanders off to see what a crowberry is though ....

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  10. I am a stripper! ocd tendencies, lol.

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    1. Yes, I do believe OCD and fruit stripping go together!

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  11. I only have potted plants here in the UK but in the Philippines I help my grandmother in picking fruits and veggies. With the rootcrops we get them by the rows. Let the soil rest and a stem will be planted again there. With trees my grandmother go up there to pick up the ones she can hold on too. Or we use ladder. Then we pick the ripe ones. and let the unripe to be picked up the next week or when its ready. We only have trees. Ours is a tropical country so no berries. #hdygg

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    1. I can't imagine not having berries but then thinking about it there would be all those wonderful tropical fruits to gorge on instead!

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  12. Are they Jocasta Berries? J x

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  13. My favourite thing to do is sit in a chair in the garden on a summer day in the sunshine topping and tailing gooseberries. later in the year I adore blackberrying.

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    1. Me too - which is just as well as my gooseberries re almost ripe for picking ...

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  14. I'm a flitter and desperate to know what that berry is!

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    1. It's a Jostaberry - a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry.

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  15. Oh I am definitely a flitter and an eater lol I cannot help nibbling as I go x #HDYGG

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