jmcquown wrote:

> The thread about Crab Legs, and also the one about 10 Foods it Takes Guts to
> Eat, leads me to post this.
> Here are a few of my thoughts which don't necessarily count for a hill of
> beans, as some will tell you
> I suspect people first decided to eat crabs because they saw sea-birds (or
> maybe even bears in certain areas) cracking them open on rocks and plucking
> out the meat. Probably the same with oysters, clams, mussels, etc.
> Drinking milk is rather a given; human women have always breast fed and so
> do goats, cows, sheep. Naturally it would follow, milk the cow.
> Berries and fruit I can also understand; watch the birds and the deer, they
> eat them so they must be pretty much okay.
> But what made that first brave soul pluck a mushroom from the ground and eat
> it? So many nightshades are deadly. What wild critters were they watching
> to determine this one was okay and that one wasn't?
> Please, discuss!

I remember a trip to the West Virginia mountain country where we went morel
mushroom (mollymoochers) hunting. My guide complained that the deer loved them
as much as we did. And how on earth did we get addicted to chiles?
Edrena