Wild and tasty.

While out walking, these days, I do my fair share of eating, courtesy of Mother Nature. Wild rasps are so much sweeter and tastier than the cultivated type found in the shops and the brambles, now just coming into season, are delicious. My fingers, and probably around my mouth, are usually stained an unbecoming shade of purply-pink by the time I get back home.
We do not, of course, eat the rosehips but we used to gather them when I was at primary school, where we were paid 3d.(old money) per pound. I never made much. I think the most I ever gathered, and it looked a lot to me, was 3 lb., but one family in the local village, Scotlandwell, did , on an almost commercial scale, turning up at the school on Mondays in August/ September with sackfuls. The whole family, and it was a big family, went gathering all weekend and put the rest of us small time kids to shame.
The rosehips were then gathered by someone and sent to a factory, I have no idea where, and Rosehip Syrup was the end product. We were given this as children, every day as it was a good source of vitamin C but nowadays it is sort of frowned upon because of the sugar content. Some people, especially the "health police" are such spoilsports!
Gathering all three of these fruits comes at a price as their stalks are furnished with extremely sharp, annoying barbs. A walking stick to hook round the strands is a useful tool when gathering brambles. However I was merely a casual browser!