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  • From: list@ginda.us
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>, Bill Russell <shaman@pennswoods.net>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] What's safe to eat and what isn't
  • Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 21:54:10 -0500

Flowering dogwood berries can't be extremely poisonous, as I used to eat them from time to time as a child. They taste terrible, though - waxy, gritty, bitter, and otherwise pretty bland. That's the common flowing dogwood. The oriental one (cornus kousa) has big spiky fruits that look poisonous. They actually have a sweet creamy pulp between large seeds. I have eaten that, too, by sucking the pulp out through a hole I bit in the fruit. It tasted weird - like some odd tropical fruit - and I didn't care for it, but I expect that many people would like it.

I'll take a pass on yew - a slimy fruit surrounding a very toxic seed doesn't sound worth the risk. The other red fruit I wouldn't try is deadly nightshade. (Some plants have black berries, but many have attractive red berries.) I've read of people who cooked the ripe berries into pie and ate it without harm. And I expect that like tomato (to which it is related) the toxins in the fruit break down as it ripens. Still, personally, I would avoid it, and not encourage my children to eat indiscriminately of red fruits.

Ginda


On Nov 30, 2004, at 6:04 PM, Bill Russell wrote:

Yew fruit is edible, if you spit out the seed. Tastes pretty good, too, if
you dont mind slime.

Flowering dogwood berries are very poisonous.

Bill

----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Whitehead" <voltaire@islandnet.com>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] What's safe to eat and what isn't


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
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