Jane Mulberry

It's possibly not a suitable plant or food for everyone, especially the leaves which I believe need careful processing and should definitely be avoided on nitrate rich soils as they concentrate nitrates. Like tomato leaves, which some people say are edible, I think the leaves need to be treated with caution.

The burning mouth  -- I get it with a huge range of things so it's not a reliable sign of toxicity or a sensitivity for me! Thee plant and the flowers look very like a chili pepper plant to me, so I do wonder if the ripe berries contain anything similar to capsacin. What I've read suggests that generally solanine levels drop as the berry ripens and there should only be trace levels in a fully ripe berry.

Though it possibly wasn't a good recommendation, as even it is completely safe and edible, a good reason not to plant it might be that it can be very weedy and if it likes the garden may pop up everywhere. Plus I'm discovering it's not simple to harvest. Berries in each bunch ripen at different rates and go from ripe to soft enough to disintegrate when touched in a day, so to get any harvest, the bushes need to be picked over daily to get a handful of berries. I've been storing mine in the freezer till I have enough to cook up a bottle of jam.

I was wary when I first saw the plant in my garden, but research suggested it was safe. White flowers not purple, berries hanging in bunches not on their own, fully ripe berries  (dull black, no green, not shiny). So I cautiously tried eating some. That was autumn 2022, when I first came to the house. I hadn't seen the plant in m garden since,so it's possible that what is growing now is from purchased Wonderberry seed, an American variety. But it looks identical to Solanum nigrum.

I think as long as the berries are completely ripe they should be safe, and cooking would make them even safer. I still wouldn't eat a huge amount at once, as I do get a slight mouth burn from the raw berries. More like a chili burn than a toxic thing. I saw mentioned on other sites that some people find the berries too spicy. I'm collecting them and storing them in the freezer till I have enough to make a sauce or jam from them.

In my Bulgarian garden, I've been surprised this year to find a patch of solanum nigrum fruiting prolifically under my walnut tree, where it gets very little sun.

I'm not sure if it's self-seeded, as there was a single plant of it on the one side of the garden when first came here  almost four years ago, though I haven't seen it anywhere in the garden since. Or it might be a selected variety, Wonderberry, because I do recall buying some seed of that and it may have been in all the out of date seed packets I dumped around the place in the spring to see what would grow with complete neglect. (Note to self -- next time I do that, document what I dumped where!)

I'm not sure how they would be in full-on drought conditions, however, as though we normally have very droughty summers with no rain at all, spring and early summer were wetter than usual this year and the summer drought has only just started.

It's not totally environmentally friendly -- all plastic and made in China -- but this giant salad spinner type works surprisingly well to both wash and spin. It can handle jeans or a double bed sheet. but probably nothing heavier. I've used ours for a couple of years now. It cost 26 GBP.

I used to just hand wash in a bucket but my arms got so sore from wringing clothes. A couple of minutes spinning in this (stopping to drain excess water every 30 seconds or so, switching arms so both get a workout), and it gets clothes dry enough I can hang them indoors in winter with no dripping.

Apparently this type is the edible grape hyacinth, but the bulbs still need to be boiled to remove the saponins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscari_comosum
Plants for a Future say it's cold hardy to zone 4, so maybe worth planting as a possible stealthy famine food?

I am so glad the kit is improving, Tereza! Praying it makes it!

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Is there ivermectin specifically for rabbit sized beasts, or a dosage chart? Think cat.

I've read that selamectin or imicloprid and moxidectin as spot-on treatments may be safer for cats -- apparently they can be sensitive to overdosing of ivermectin, and it's usually given as an injection with cats. I'm not sure what we used to treat one of our rescue cats who arrived with a nasty ear mite infection, but it was a spot-on treatment and took several months of monthly dosing as well as regular ear hygiene (no fun for us or the cat!) to get rid of it.

This Kickstarter needs more support to reach its goal. The ebook for $10 looks great value to me!

Is the monthly PIE price rising to $10 for existing subscribers? If so, a notification should be sent to them as it's quite an increase that some may find challenging to pay.

I see there's a toggle to allow one off purchases.

If my monthly PIE, basically a donation to the site, goes up to $10, unfortunately
I'd need to switch off the subscription and give $10 now and then, instead.