North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>]

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

I have masses of poisonous red berries in my garden -  yew and daphne.

I trained my children, and now grandchildren, to browse my yard 
safely.  When they were toddlers, they could identify strawberries, 
and we would go around the yard (which has hundreds of alpine 
strawberry plants growing everywhere), and I'd point to various red 
berries and ask if they looked like a strawberry, and they would eat 
the safe berries.  As they got a bit older, I added other safe 
fruits, and then they were old enough to actually identify the 
poisonous ones. At this point, I would hear them instructing visiting 
children.

I thought about all the berries that grow in this area, both wild 
ones and garden ones, and came up with an all-encompassing rule for 
small children. "Bumpy berries are safe." This has been picked up by 
leaders of children's groups here, and the children are taught what 
they can safely eat in the woods.  It leaves out the smooth berries 
that are safe,(huckleberries and blueberries), but those can be 
taught to older children when they can identify the whole bush.

I don't know whether this rule applies elsewhere. Here, all the bumpy 
berries are members of the rose family: strawberries, raspberries, 
blackberries, salmonberries, thimbleberries. Does anyone know of any 
poisonous berries that could be considered "bumpy"?

--
Diane Whitehead  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8
cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually)
sandy soil