Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Some Red Berries Edible

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "bluestem_farm@juno.com" <bluestem_farm@juno.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Some Red Berries Edible
  • Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 14:29:25 GMT


Berries red, have no dread,
Berries white, poisons in sight
I'd never heard this little jingle before, but it refers I'm certain to
sumac; poison sumac has white berries, while staghorn and other non-hazardous
sumacs have red berries. At least around here. Folk wisdom works well as
long as you take it in context.
By the way, I've never heard of anyone eating the red fruits of nightshade
and living to tell about it. I've heard (but never dared try) that the BLACK
nightshade berries are edible.
Muffy Barrett
Title: All Red Berries Edible???
   Jerry, in a letter to Deb (yesterday) wrote:

There is an old saying:
Berries red, have no dread
berries white, poisons sight.  

   Apparently whoever coined that jingle never ate the red berries from Sambucus racemosa.  Who would suspect that elderberries might contain cyanide?  And then, there are white currants which are very edible.  There are alot more red and white berry exceptions so whomever believes in that "old saying" would pass up some good eating but soon die of poisoning.

Jim Fruth
Pequot Lakes, MN


Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page