A question about picking blackberries

[meriad]

My mom and I went to a pub for lunch the other day, and right where I parked the car was a bramble with some blackberries and I commented to my mom that we should pick them when we leave; to which she replied "oh but you need to be careful and not pick the ones lower down because of fox tapeworm". Apparently most foxes have it (well the German ones at least ) and it is transmittable to humans; so in Germany the rule of thumb is to only pick berries growing higher than your waist because a fox cannot wee that high.

Does the UK have a similar problem; do you know? Or do you just pick what you see?

[Diflower]

I've no idea but we tend to avoid the lower ones too - because we tend to think of dog wee, plus down on the marshes, where there are tons and tons of blackberries, there are also cows, so no doubt splatters of cow poo too
We forgot to take bags today, but actually they looked as if they needed another few days at least.

[JoM]

Like Di, I only pick from above waist height because of dogs and foxes. I've googled about the tapeworm and it does throw up a lot of German sites. I hadn't heard anything about this before

[Kaz]

I'd never heard about the fox thing, but like Di avoid low-lying fruit for the same reasons

Becks and I were eyeing up the blackberries on the public footpath by Sainsbury's just now - I will definitely be taking a plastic bag with me next time to collect some, as the bushes were heaving with amost ripe fruit. Bumper crops this year, I reckon, and what with the bags of apples I'll have shortly from D's trees, I'll have lots to freeze soon Blackberry and apple crumbles and pies all winter.........

[debih]

I've never heard of that Ria but I'm another one that avoids any blackberries that are low down.

I don't pick from the side of the road either because of car fumes - but I am spoilt as the moors that back onto us are full of blackberries.

[saundra]

when we lived in germany we picked blackberries every year
all over never above waist high
to be honest it never occured to us and i wouldent have givenit a second thought
if i hadent seen this post

[JoM]

I've never heard of that Ria but I'm another one that avoids any blackberries that are low down.

I don't pick from the side of the road either because of car fumes - but I am spoilt as the moors that back onto us are full of blackberries.

There are a lot over the common at the back of us - I have a feast whenever I walk Billy, there are lots of bilberries too I never pick from the roadside either.

The fullest bushes I've ever seen were at the farm last week, unfortunately though they needed another couple of weeks to ripen They're never usually that full but they're usually ripe when we go.

[Diflower]

I guess it's the long, long winter that never got to spring Jo. Although we've had - and are still having - a wonderful summer, it was quite late getting started.
There are zillions though, weighing the bushes down - but Bb picked one specially for me this morning, really big and plump it was, but actually quite tart, and most of them are definitely not ready yet. We've noticed before that strangely, others further north have been picking them earlier than us

[JoM]

That's what surprised me Di because the blackberries on the farm are usually very ripe and sweet and we get there, yet we've been picking them now for a couple of weeks here but the bushes here are nowhere near as full as those we saw down south.

[cromwell]

We have tons near us - we've already had two blackberry crumbles.
We do soak them in salted water after we pick them for a couple of hours and then rinse them well before using them.