Coincidence

Saturday 4th April 2009


Before last week I never knew how to tell whether a plant would be edible or poisonous. I don't think I ever gave it that much though - and why should've I?
One day last week we were driving somewhere - just one of the villages around here - when the subject came up, and Anna explained how this could be checked. I can't remember exactly why it came up, could've been one of my millions of little questions (I'm like a little child soaking up all kinds of information about the nature and the wilderness which I probably once used to know as a little girl guide but have long forgotten in my adult days).

A few days later, I was reading a chapter in the book that I'm reading called The History of Love (which is a lovely novel). In that chapter, on page 44, a girl called Alma memorises the Universal Edibility Test. To do the test, you have to first not eat for eight hours. Then you separate the plant into its different parts - root, leaf, stem, bud and flower - and test a small piece of one on the inside of your wrist. If nothing happens, touch it to the inside of your lip for three minutes, and if nothing happens after that, hold it on your tongue for fifteen minutes. If nothing still happens, you can chew it without swallowing, and hold that your mouth for fifteen minutes, and if nothing happens, swallow and wait for eight hours, and if nothing happens after that, eat a quarter of a cup's worth and if nothing happens after that: it's edible.
There you go. Now you know that too.