Snapshot Saturday: An (almost) free sweet treat

Windfall apples.

This photo appeals to the part of me that can’t resist a good scavenge.  The part of me that as a four year old, willingly got up at four o’clock to go mushrooming with my mother on the abandoned wartime airfield near Sandhutton.

The part that went gathering rosehips at school in the autumn to send away to be made into Delrosa rosehip syrup; and has always gathered blackberries in season, to jam, jelly or quite simply devour whilst picking.

We discovered that the inhabitants of rural France think just the same way.  Nobody ever leaves home without an ‘au cas où‘ bag – ‘just in case’ they find some walnuts, almonds, mushrooms, wild cherries or mirabelles.  And neither did we- that bag was often full by the time we got home.

Now we’re back, we hunt down the biggest, purplest sloes to lay down bottles of sloe gin for winter evenings.

And in autumn we never walk through the village without rescuing windfall apples from the path, disregarded by the trees’ owners because they quite simply have too much fruit in their own gardens.

Here’s some of last autumn’s haul, being transformed into blackberry and apple jelly to spread on toast after a chilly winter walk.

In response to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge: Sweet.

Click on any photo to view it full size.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and living in North Yorkshire, where I walk as often as I can, write, volunteer, and travel as often as I can.

30 thoughts on “Snapshot Saturday: An (almost) free sweet treat”

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  6. I love this, the ‘free’ gathering, the challenge of making something out of ‘what you’ve got’, the freedom to be creative…. wonderful – I’ll be scavenging my kitchen for a juicy apple 🙂

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    1. It’s my age you see, Kiki! Just post-war, it was all ‘make do and mend’ at our house, and most others too. I love it though. You’re right. It IS a challenge.

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  8. OK, I have a question. What are mirabelles? We also are blessed ( some say cursed) with an abundance of blackberries on Vancouver Island. Along roadsides, paths and even in our back yard. Yummy. Apparently they are considered and invasive species here. We could do a lot worse. Cheers.

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    1. Not a chance. Particularly in winter, they’re rarely above seven miles. And yes, scavenging is lots of fun. And you should see my husband when there’s a skip to be investigated…. You too. Have a good week.

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  15. There’s not much scavenging here at the moment but I’m trying to identify the bare trees and shrubs in case they’ll be useful later in the year. Scavenging to me is the same as using up ‘leftovers’, it’s the challenge of making something delicious out of the unwanted.

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