"Your tongue will turn blue, shrivel up, and fall off," Adolfo warns. "Right. These haven't even been sprayed with pesticides," I respond.
"Well, those blackberries are on the side of the road. They're diesel-berries," he laughs.
"Yea, right. I'll risk the diesel fumes," I respond as I throw another blackberry in my mouth.
Thus started our discussion of the wild berries growing like weeds along campgrounds and roadsides. I've been amazed by these wonderful berries since I first spotted them in Hyder. Now I carry around a Tupperware container to collect them. The difficulty is getting Adolfo to stop so I can pick them. Does he really believe the berries are poisonous?
After I ate my first berry, Adolfo watched me carefully to be sure that I didn't get sick. When I made a cobbler with the berries, he refused to eat any for several days. I couldn't believe it. Adolfo never refuses cobbler. Again, he was testing my body's response. When I didn't kill over, he ate the cobbler. After all, the berries were washed and cooked. Perhaps all the poison was cooked out.
So, I decided I'd make jam because the berries are free and you can't just leave them there to rot on the vine. "Your insides will mildew and you'll wither away," Adolfo continues as I start working on another berry vine.
Whatever, These berries are going over my ice cream! I think as I pull off some nice ripe ones. Yumm!
I'd recommend Adolfo never check into exactly where grocery-store food comes from, then. He'd never eat anything again!
ReplyDeleteLast week Garine and Adrian jumped out of the Van, ran to a corn field an snatched 2 ears of corn. "Ha ha! I thought, we'll eat fresh corn!" tonight!. Turns out I was feed corn (hard). Must learn to choose our corn fields If In order to succeed with our veggie crimes.
ReplyDeleteBetter make sure you have canned or converted to preserves all berries and fruit from the northern states before trying to enter Calif. Our paranoid agriculture inspectors confiscate anything fresh being brought into the state...to preserve our 'pure' produce.
ReplyDeleteIgnorance is bliss...plastic wrapped bliss, that is what I get at the supermarket. Quite possible with some healthy pesticide goodness.
ReplyDeleteJust so your readers know...you eat those Diesel Berries (adolfo's trademark) without even washing them...you just jump out of the truck and pick 70% and eat 30% right there on the spot!
Then, we eat Diesel Berry Pie!