we found these baby pumpkin looking berries growing along our grape vine just after i moved in two weeks ago. they started with little white flowers and then all turned into green babe pumpkins.
after they ripen, they turn dark purple, almost black. if you look in the background on the right, you can see where the birds ate the ripe ones off the stem - that blurry bright purple spot - that's them. the black berry oozes fuchsia all over.
so naturally i was curious and pulled one off the stem and squeezed it 'til it burst. fuchsia color everywhere. my fingers are still pink-purple. then i licked it. (i know the one rule of the wilderness is to never eat shit when you don't know what it is, but whatever this isn't kryptonite). it tasted bitter so i spit it out and played around with the seeds a little bit, smushing fuchsia even more all over my fingers. then i came inside and asked twitter if they knew what it was.
fortunately - twitter DID know what it was!
unfortunately - it's pokeweed. poisonous to mammals when eaten raw! hooray! let's go back to that dont-eat-shit-if-you-dont-know-it's-totally-non threatening-and-not-poisonous. lesson learned.
yours in pokeberries, unless i die tomorrow.
