FROM holly in the field hedge to guelder rose at woodland’s edge, from rowan on the moor to buckthorn beside the shore, the land is bursting with autumn fruitfulness. By all anecdotes and estimations, it is a bumper year for berries, a ‘soft mast’ year, when the berry-bearing trees and bushes produce a glut, when the hawthorn cascades red with haws and the bramble is clotted with blackberries. The sloes are as big as grapes.
The wild berries of Britain rarely fail, but, every so often, there comes a bonanza crop. The reasons for such a berry rush are opaque (Nature-bounty are occasional, not habitual.
