After sleepin in this morning...I jumped into my grubbys and strolled down to the river with my coffee to pick tomorrow's breakfast....
Last week as I was walking along I saw several people picking and eating berries from bushes that I assumed were just ornamental, since I didn't recognize them...and I wasn't gonna try 'em neither...you never know...BUT I stopped to asked both people what kinda berries they were....first gal didn't know but said she wouldn't be eating them if they weren't safe...and the father and son, who had been eating from these bushes for several years, told me they were "MULBERRIES" and "BOYSENBERRIES"...and that you can eat them if the birds are eating them....And I sure dont recall eating either...least of all FRESH....
Well so soon after reading the below mentioned book, it was exciting to be able to put some if it to practice...(being pretty broke these days, I cannot afford to buy fruit, let alone berries, at the market...and here was a bunch for free (several weeks worth..), and as far as I have seen "pesticide free"...
The mulberries are like a less complex blackberry...and the boysenberry, like a fluctuating plum/ apricot/ almond paste flavor...depending on how ripe they are...
It's pretty cool to be stepping outside the loop produce-wise even if it is for only a week or so....and learning about new things to eat right here in my hood....
In "IN DEFENSE OF FOOD" Michael Pollan talks about how thousands of years of intuitive learning, and food culture have been robbed from us and replaced with this belief that only a scientist and/ or the FDA know what's best for us to eat....HAH!! In the old days...we learned from our community and all the experimenting...trial...and error (eeek!),AND FROM OUR MOTHERS what was good to eat...trusting our instincts...(if it's sweet and smells good), it's edible....THAT IS WHAT OUR SENSES ARE THERE FOR...right?
It's nice to get back in touch with that, a little bit anyway, today....the animal side of ourselves...which still knows these things...but needs to relearn these instincts....
Standing there along the bike trail reaching out with my grubbin fingers...stained with juice...putting them one after the other into my mouth...I felt kinda like a grizzly bear...getting ready for fall...
2 comments:
hey nice bowl! we have a tree of those berries across the street and blackberries galore in the mountains soon, then blueberries in the mtns.
oh yah...didn't even think where those came from...(they have already secured a favorite status in my kitchen....off to pick more in a minute....
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