Christina Websell wrote:
"TerryJ" wrote in message
...
On Sep 26, 11:43 pm, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
"TerryJ" wrote in message

...
On Sep 26, 4:08 pm, "Roger" wrote:



"TerryJ" wrote in message

...

I wonder if anyone here could please help me to identify this fruit
before my friend, who has made jam out of it, poisens himself.
I think I have persuaded him to wait until we have some idea what it
is.

The bush is more than 15years old , possibly many decades old, in an
old garden near Nottingham.
Pictures are to be found he

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z...ry%20berries/?...

TerryJ

Ornamental crab apple, should be fine to use.

thanks for your response. The problem is that it has a single hard
stone , like a plum. i have put another pic on the same place.

___
It's not a crab apple, I do not recognise it and until I did I wouldn't
make jam from it, let alone eat it!

Tina

I agree. I do not eat things I do not know are ok.
There is an interesting episode in the journal of captain bligh after
te bounty mutiny when he sailed across the pacific in a little boat.
They stopped for a wile on islands of the gt barrier reef where they
found food by each adopting one item for a few days. if after 3 or so
days a man was still ok that meant his food was safe to eat. I have
never felt that desperate myself!

---
You have to remember that once, someone had to be brave enough to try all
the fruit/vegetables we now take for granted. I wouldn't have liked to be
the first person to try an aubergine. At first sight, it looks poisonous.

Tina

Most fruits are safe if only the soft part surrounding the seed(s) is eaten;
that's what the plant designed it for - the seeds were intended to be
swallowed whole and distributed later. Early man would have observed
animals eating fruit and surviving, thus making the usually correct
assumption that the fruit was safe for them to eat.

I feel sorry for the unfortunate observer who watched rabbits eating deadly
nightshade berries...

--
Jeff