Blackberry

There is evidence that blackberries were eaten in England in Neolithic times, for blackberry pips were found in the stomach contents of a Stone Age man dug out of the clay on the Essex coast. A generation ago, blackberry-picking time was an event on the calendar almost as significant as that of Christmas or Easter. Entire families from town and city, armed with buckets and ‘tilly’ cans, descended on the countryside and plundered the roadsides, hedges, woods and waste ground. There is a taboo against eating blackberries after Michaelmas Day, because during that night the Devil goes by and spits on every bush. In fact, the fruit does tend to become watery and flavourless at about this time because of the night frosts. Michaelmas celebrates the primeval war in which St Michael the Archangel hurled Lucifer out of heaven and down to earth.