"NT" wrote in message
...
Brambles are prolific croppers, the fruits are of good quality, they
freeze raw perfectly, they make great pies, and you can put them on
cereals straight from the freezer, no need to defrost, and kids like
eating them stright off the plant, and can be persuaded to pick lots
extra while eating. Some children are happy to jam them too. On a good
sized plot like yours I'd surely keep some brambles - but not 15x50
yards

Nettles are also good food with a wide range of uses including several
curries, flans, tea, soups, sandwich filler, risotto, rarebit, nettle
chocolate pudding, nettle mint sauce, a mild version of pesto, in
blackcurrant nettle pies, in lasagne & other pasta dishes, dried &
mixed as stock cubes, and even for kids to tie dye with. But
harvesting and washing require some basic mechanisation to be
worthwhile.

Brambles succumb to persistence. But so, often, do gardeners. A way to
improve the fight is to cover the ground with cardboard, then without
light the new shoots die quicker. I presume fire would get an initial
clearance, but I've not yet cleared a large amount of brambles, I tend
to treat them as friendly, even in quantity.

______
I agree about brambles and nettles - but you really can have too many and on
my paddock, due to my neglect, we have a bramble thicket, sneering from it's
position "the digger didn't get me yet"
But it will..
Tina