Is this bird cherry or damson?

[WildDave]

Hello. Can anyone tell me whether this is bird cherry (as I suspect) or damson (as I hope!)? That's a 2p coin with them. The photo of the bush was taken after I picked the fruit.

[Hedera]

Have you tasted them? If bird cherry they are very astringent. Damsons taste plummy and sweeter. The flesh is reddish near the stone which is round in the cherry.

[WildDave]

Originally Posted by Hedera

Have you tasted them? If bird cherry they are very astringent. Damsons taste plummy and sweeter. The flesh is reddish near the stone which is round in the cherry.

Thanks Hedera. The taste is distinctly plummy and quite sweet, the stone very definitely elongated rather than round. The flesh goes red towards the stone, but it sounds as though I do have damsons (part of a mixed hedge). Excellent! I'll cook them later today unless you advise otherwise.

[Kayleigh]

On WAB we are not allowed to say if anything is edible or otherwise..

I think you should read this...

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/fo...ty-plants.html

[WildDave]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

On WAB we are not allowed to say if anything is edible or otherwise..

But I wasn't asking if they were edible. Even if they were bird cherries, they wouldn't harm anyone. They just wouldn't taste great and would be a waste of time and other ingredients, if cooked - hence my question

[FungiJohn]

Originally Posted by WildDave

But I wasn't asking if they were edible. Even if they were bird cherries, they wouldn't harm anyone. They just wouldn't taste great and would be a waste of time and other ingredients, if cooked - hence my question

No, but you state you are cooking them later unless advised otherwise

WAB is not a culinary site and members should not be suggesting anything is edible on the basis of a photograph.

Whilst I appreciate that most plants and berries may be easier to identify than fungi, we can offer the following advise only:

If you are not 100 percent certain that something is edible then you should not eat it!

If you do collect 'food' for consumption take three samples:

One for yourself
One for your Doctor
And another for the Coroner

John

PS Future posts of this type will be removed

[WildDave]

Originally Posted by FungiJohn

No, but you state you are cooking them later unless advised otherwise

WAB is not a culinary site and members should not be suggesting anything is edible on the basis of a photograph.

Whilst I appreciate that most plants and berries may be easier to identify than fungi, we can offer the following advise only:

If you are not 100 percent certain that something is edible then you should not eat it!

If you do collect 'food' for consumption take three samples:

One for yourself
One for your Doctor
And another for the Coroner

John

PS Future posts of this type will be removed

Good grief. How pathetic. I suggest you read my posts more carefully. Where did I use the word 'edible' or even imply it? I didn't. YOU did. Read what I said rather than jumping to conclusions.

As I've already made clear, the reason I said I was going to cook them unless advised otherwise was purely to avoid a potential waste of time and other ingredients, not because there was any risk of their being harmful.

This is very silly and I won't be back - even if the fruit doesn't get me.

[FungiJohn]

Originally Posted by WildDave

Good grief. How pathetic. I suggest you read my posts more carefully. Where did I use the word 'edible' or even imply it? I didn't. YOU did. Read what I said rather than jumping to conclusions.

As I've already made clear, the reason I said I was going to cook them unless advised otherwise was purely to avoid a potential waste of time and other ingredients, not because there was any risk of their being harmful.

This is very silly and I won't be back - even if the fruit doesn't get me.

Yes, I did read your post carefully and came to the conclusion you wished to consume something unless advised otherwise.

Your reply to Kayleigh with respect to 'time and other ingredients' wasn't available whilst I created my post and therefore I had only your previous post to comment on!

It's your choice Dave, but we are only trying to protect people from harm. Surely that makes sense!

John

[WildDave]

John

Sorry if I sounded rattier than intended. Your reply just seemed a bit ott, given that I didn't ask if the fruits were edible. I did "wish to consume something" but knew that, whatever they were, they weren't harmful. I just didn't want to waste time/money cooking them, if they were bird cherries.

We have a garden of almost an acre, with mixed hedges almost all round. There is a lot of bird cherry of various hues but I hadn't realised there might be damson. When I spotted fruits that were darker and a little larger and later than most of the bird cherries, it occurred to me that they might be damsons but I wasn't sure.

We're lucky enough to have lots of wild produce - chestnuts (sweet as well as horse, I do know the difference!), walnuts, hazelnuts, crab apples, strawberries, etc. Lots of fungi too, not that I've ever considered eating them. But I'd never noticed damsons in the hedge, probably having trimmed it at the wrong time of year.

Dave

[Hedera]

Cats and pigeons come to mind! I said plainly "Taste" not "Eat". The tree and fruits in the photo seemed to answer the question to me, and the look of the fruit cut open and stone shape agreed. Having dealt with hundreds of pounds of fruit in my lifetime I would take a bet on Damson. Sorry if I started off a time-bomb.