Foraging for wild food? Nothing tastes sweeter! Exercise, fresh air and free grub costs nothing and does your body wonders. Why aren’t more people switched on to this most obvious of pleasures?

We seem a little scared of anything that moves these days and many people fear produce not grown on a farm is simply unsafe to eat. I’m much more concerned about pesticide residues on farmed or processed foods than having snail on a leaf or an ant on a berry.

Did you know wild foods can have more antioxidants and beneficial compounds in them than farmed foods? A few studies have suggested this; one in particular compared antioxidants in wild and cultivated strawberry and blackberry bushes and found three to five-fold more beneficial compounds in the wild berries.

These beneficial plant-based compounds are seriously good for us. Wild foods can have more of these antioxidants in them because they typically have harder-working immune systems which produce these compounds to protect themselves from pests. Farmed plants which tend to be better looked after and hence a little lazier, not working their immune systems as hard.

Thanks to our fantastic summer, blackberries are ripening early all over the University of Roehampton’s beautiful campus, as well as around the country. Now is the time to get picking so I took a group of Roehampton students on a blackberry tour of the University’s Whiteland site. My tips for best blackberry picking:

1. Berries growing in a fully exposed sunny location will typically be larger and sweeter. Prioritise these for eating fresh while smaller ones can easily be cooked down into a fruit compote or jam perhaps.

2. Aim to pick berries that are firm and black (not red or soft). The berry should easily pull free from the vine with just a slight tug.

3. Don’t pick berries that are too low to the ground as they may have dog pee on them and don’t pick from the side of busy roads either.

Joel
Joel Williams is the Grower for the University of Roehampton Students’ Union’s Growhampton project

Top Tip for the week:

Keep your berries in the fridge after harvest and if consuming fresh, only wash them just before you about to eat them. Next week I’ll be talking about what can be grown for dinner in just four weeks.