In case you ever need to know:

0 Avoid having to do this. Make someone else do these things if at all possible. Have a “Mikey”.
1 Separate the plant into its various parts—roots, stems, leaves, buds, and flowers. Focus on only one piece of the plant at a time.
2 Smell it. A strong, unpleasant odor is a bad sign, as is a musty or rotting odor. Keep a special lookout for pear- or almond-like scents, which can be evidence of cyanide.
3 Test for contact poisoning by placing a piece of the plant on your inner elbow or wrist for 8 hours. If your skin burns, itches, feels numb, or breaks out in a rash, wash off your skin and don’t eat the plant.
4 If the plant passes the skin test, prepare a small portion the way you plan to eat it (boiling is always a good bet).
5 Before taking a bite, touch the plant to your lips to test for burning or itching. If there’s no reaction after 15 minutes, take a small bite, chew it, and hold it in your mouth for 15 minutes. If the plant tastes very bitter or soapy, spit it out and wash out your mouth.
6 If there’s no reaction in your mouth, swallow the bite and wait 8 hours. If there’s no ill effect, you can assume this part of the plant is edible. Repeat the test for other parts of the plant; some plants have both edible and inedible parts. Starting to feel sick? Time to bring it up.

Note: According to my MDs, allergies take two exposures for your body to freak the fuck out. So if you’re allergic to peanuts, the first time your body won’t react. The first time is your body developing antibodies or whatever the fuck it does to have allergic reactions. The second time? That’s when you swell up like Violet Beauregarde or whatever your body does. So there’s that going on too.

edit: it did’nt line break like i wanted

My great grandmother died eating moldy bread according to nana

Chatted with a friend about this at a sushi place, with how it applies to pufferfish. How many people died before we figured out the right way to prepare it? Also, why was it so important to get to the point where we could safely consume it rather than just stick with using the toxin for medical science use?

Then also how about a moment of silence for those who figured out how to melt and mix metals, imagine the unholy fumes in that OSHA nightmare, because there’s a more toxic way to make bronze before they figured out how to do it with a dash or two of tin as the second ingredient, the “seasoning” for the copper.

Probably mostly kids and dogs.

I bet they feed it to dogs first. Or maybe pigs. The dogs would just scarf it down and then, in most cases, throw up if it was bad. The pigs would smell it or maybe give it an exploratory chew, but skip anything they detect as bad for pigs.

How the hell did they decide that cashews were edible… Like every part of the plant is poisonous except the nut.

The ones who lived doing the same thing are pretty cool too.

https://youtu.be/SVWix8DjM4M

Great scene from the show Norsemen

Ah yes, the electric fruit.

Sola dosis facit venenum

The fact that our survival is so dependent on death is one of many reasons why I believe there has to be an afterlife.

And they goofed up. People now consume plant based drugs like caffeine, cocain, nicotine, THC, pyote, 'shrooms, and so on. These are all poisons. Also, aspirin is based on a poison. Most drugs are based on plants. I’m including mushrooms because those would be discovered the same way.

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