A few weeks back when visiting the secret sunflower field in Biggleswade I tasted one of the wild blackberries growing on surrounding bushes. At that point in the summer we’d had a lot of rain and I suspected that the blackberry would taste quite insipid because of this. Which sadly it did. But after all the sunshine and heat we’ve had in the last couple of weeks I’m wondering if those brambles that remain now taste a little tarter?
I better be quick though if I want to harvest some wild blackberries, and not because everyone else will have picked them, but because of the various superstitions from around the UK and Ireland about when you should start and stop picking blackberries.
Blackberry Folklore
I first came across this superstition when I lived in Newquay in Cornwall in the mid to late 80s. There the kids all said that you mustn’t eat wild blackberries after the Summercourt fair, because after the fair the devil will have weed on them. The Summercourt fair which is still going and this year falls from 20th – 25th September, is Cornwall’s biggest funfair. There’s also a street fair on the last day Monday 25th, and it’s from this date onwards that blackberries should be off the menu.
In 1988 my family moved to Doncaster and I discovered that a similar tradition was passed down in South Yorkshire, except this time the story was that you shouldn’t eat blackberries after the St Leger festival. There was a fair associated with the racing, and it’s always around the middle of September. This years St Leger race is Saturday 16th. The reason for not eating wild brambles after the Leger was the same though, the devil had weed on them! That pesky old devil.
It got me wondering if these stories were nationwide and so I took to social media and just asked if anyone else had heard of stories like these and if so, what were their local cut off dates and what were the reasons given.
So many of you shared your stories it was amazing! Thankyou!
So lets look at dates first, and then the reasons given.
When to start and stop eating wild brambles
It seems most dates tie in with the old September Fair calendar, which sadly over the last 70 years has dwindled. Though some are being resurrected and reimagined, like the City of London’s Bartholomew Fair which kicked off the season on the 31st August and dates back to the 12th century. The biggest September fairs were undoubtedly Michaelmas Day fairs, which fall at the end of the month. This date cropped up in my podcast episodes about Sarah Dazley the Potton Poisoner. Michaelmas fairs were held all around the country and were an opportunity for everyone to relax and celebrate after the difficult months of summer harvesting. Farm labourers and agricultural workers would meet at these fairs with landowners to renew their contracts or find better ones. So I wasn’t surprised when many said that the cut off point for eating blackberries in their local area was the end of September and Michaelmas.
What surprised me though was that someone from the Hertfordshire / north London area said they’d always been told never eat wild brambles after the 1st September! That really doesn’t give you very much time at all, especially when you consider the folklore that says: you must always leave the first ripe berries for the fairies and other various fair folk. But it kind of makes sense that in the south east the blackberries would ripen quicker, than further north where the majority of the late September dates came from. It appears that the South East is the earliest date with the 1st September maybe tying in with the old Bartholomew fair, we then have Sunny Doncaster coming in with mid September, Cornwall with the third week of September and the north and Scotland sticking with Michaelmas.
In Ireland however it appears they have much longer to harvest their wild brambles, all the way until Halloween! Maybe the extra time given for harvesting isn’t just weather and ripening rates related but because the belief in saving the first crop for the Fae was more widely believed in Ireland. If you’re starting your harvest later it makes sense to give yourself more time.
And who could deny such delightful creatures their fill first?
Devils and Witches Oh My!
The reasons for not eating blackberries after a certain date, do all follow a familiar theme. The majority of reasons involve the devil. It seems Old Nick likes to wee on the fruit or in more polite society he spits on them.
There was one other reason given which is both more romantic and palatable than the thought of the devil gobbing and peeing his way through the hedgerows. This story went, that you must avoid eating wild blackberries after the end of September because during October witches passed their cloaks over the bramble bushes.
It makes a kind of sense if October is the month of Halloween and spookiness. Tales of witches on brooms flying low over the brambles, their cloaks swirling behind them, casting shadowy spells over the fruit, is quite a compelling one. I am sure it is a tale the middle class Victorians found more appropriate to share with their children than that of Lucifer’s bodily fluids.
Whichever you prefer, an incontinent devil or a spooky witch, it does leave a question. Why try to prevent children in particular, from eating the last of the blackberries?
They will of course be past their best as autumn rolls on. I wonder too if they are more likely to be worm or insect ridden when old? Or is it just that the longer they’ve sat on the bush the more chance there is that birds and small critters have weed on them? Or nibbled at them? Generally interfered with them. They won’t taste as good that’s for sure.
So I am guessing that these tales played an important role in preventing childhood tummy aches and sickness by persuading little ones not to gorge themselves on older fruit.
One responder on insta had another idea though about why these rumours started. Maybe those in the past, who put about these superstitions were laughing all the way to their jam pans because they were out harvesting fruit that others feared to touch!
Weird In The Wade 