Pick Your Own is an invitation and an injunction.
An invitation - to the allotmenteer who has been waiting all summer for the raspberries ripening in sun and shower. Now is the moment. Pick your own to bake crumbles and make summer pudding. Pick them from the hidden places underneath the leaves before they turn and rot and fall to the ground. Pick daily, so that the next fruits in succession continue to ripen and swell. Pick them before the pigeons.
An injunction - as you walk past other plots where raspberries hang, ungathered; past grapevines whose young tender leaves are perfect for dolmas, past bright marigolds and scented sweet peas, past jostaberries on uncultivated plots smothered in weeds.
All is open to view on an allotment. Plots are unfenced, paths are communal, Entry gates are locked. Obvious thieves will come over the fence or squeeze through the weak spots on the railings. These instructions are for those on the inside too. Gather from your own plot. Do not steal; Do not covet.
Forage like a bird - good for you.
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