scarification: is this a joke?

[T]

Hi All,

Is this a joke?

Birds spread the seeds in the wild, so to start thimbleberry seeds, it?s essential to mimic this and use cold stratification and scarification to germinate the seeds.

When the seeds go through the bird?s digestive system, it damages the seed?s outer coating. To replicate this effect, use sandpaper or a small knife to damage the outer coat of the seeds.

We have a whole guide on this process, which is known as scarification, if you?ve never done it before.

Then, place them in a bag or jar and put them in the freezer for several months before planting outside. After that, it?s time to plant the seeds in six-inch containers. Put them in the ground when they?re 3-inches tall.

The process can be a bit of a pain, so most opt not to use this method

Thimble berry sees are really small too. Cut them with a knife?

-T

[songbird]

T wrote: ...

don't need to cut them but nick them a bit is all.

yes, it's not a joke, but most of what i grow here doesn't have such requirements.

songbird

[T]

You would need jewels glasses to see them! I think I will break down and spend the $30 and buy a plant.

[songbird]

T wrote: ...thimbleberries...

your conditions are likely completely inhospitable for them - i'd not waste the $.

i used to live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where they grew in the wild. they did not grow in an arid hot climate - i would find them growing in the woods and along the edges where it was usually partly shaded and cool and moist almost constantly.

where you are at i think they'd fry.

on top of that they have a very unusual flavor - i found it rather cloyingly sweet and just barely edible but i'd rather grow raspberries if given the choice (and i liked the golden raspberry variety the best - but that is my own personal preference :).

songbird

[T]

Not to mention the 7% humidity. They probably would not have a chance to call me any names before they withered.

You just talked me out of it. Especially the "cloying" part, meaning too high carbs for me. Most wild plants are not too high in carbs because they have not been hybridized.

Since you eat mostly whole food with some SAD (Standard American Diet) thrown in, you probably can not taste sweet things down as low as I can. I am on the Historically Appropriate Human Diet (A.K.A. Keto), which make me able to enjoy things like choke berries, where folks on SAD would instantly spit them out. So if you think thimbleberries are "cloying", I would absolute gag on them!

And being wild, most of that sugar would be coming from inulin, meaning farts. (Small amounts are fine. But "cloying" means ....)

I am really, really interested in those wild black raspberries you mentioned in another letter!

Thank you!

-T

[songbird]

...thimbleberries...

i've greatly reduced my sugar intake compared to my diet of years ago, also we do not add salt to our normal cooking so yes, i do notice when things are sweet very easily. i also happen to have very good senses of taste and smell. so i think you are assuming a lot about my diet that isn't particularly accurate.

got that covered in my previous post. i'm not sure they're available to certain areas as they may be considered invasive or pest species or it may just be too difficult for them in highly alkaline soils to even get started so perhaps they would not spread much in the wild. around here the birds will move them all over once they're growing (same as the red raspberries).

songbird

[songbird]

Bob F wrote: ...

haha! i could not do that to someone (i'd be worried about allergies and...).

songbird

[songbird]

Bob F wrote: ...

i could pick them and they were mostly indeed thimble sized. i made jam a few times using them and could not really like it as much as i would a red or black raspberry or blackberry jam.

i do know that some people do enjoy it and i for sure would not try to stop them from growing or enjoying them.

songbird

[T]

My sugar intake is zero, except what is naturally occurring in some of the fruit I can have.

I was basing my remark on what you are able to eat that I am not, such as potatoes, beans, winter squash, etc.. I do miss beans.

What is the same in our diets is that we both consume whole foods. You are able to consume things from the SAD that I can not, such as bread, wheat, rice, corn, potatoes, sweat potatoes, apples, oranges,etc.. I am not sure I presumed too much.

But, since you are now able to notice sweet at a lower level, which is awesome, you are not venturing into the SAD very much if at all.

Are you able to pick up the nuances in blueberries yet? that one really shocked me. I thought they were just slightly sweet.

[songbird]

Bob F wrote: ...

i picked them wild too, on a forested hillside. the very last time i went picking i'd gotten about half a bowl full and was reaching for a really nice big one when my foot slipped and i fell and dumped them all out. and then too were the nice ones you'd see and go to reach for them and they'd fall off the plant. grrr! :)

songbird

[songbird]

T wrote: ...

green beans are not too carb heavy.

hmm, corn isn't common in my diet and i'm also not much of a rice eater. i used to eat more brown rice but i would also cook it with lentils since they had about the same cooking time. regular potatoes are a once in a while item and sweet potatoes i could eat more often but we don't always keep them on hand.

...

Mom gets blueberries all the time and in the off seasons they come from places in Central or South America. many of them don't taste very good to me and sometimes they don't taste very good to her either but she'll eat them anyways. Michigan usually has a pretty good blueberry season so i prefer to eat them when they are local and fresh. as a kid we could go out into the fields behind where we lived and pick all we could eat. they were the shorter wild types.

songbird

[T]

They are fine for a T0 but not for a T2. With the whole foods that you eat, I would be extremely surprised if you ever developed T2.

[songbird]

some relatives are borderline T2 so i've been trying to take it more easy on myself and also to get my weight back to where i feel much better. another 10-12 lbs and i'll be good. hope i can peel at least half of that off in the next month or two before it starts to get cool again.

songbird

[songbird]

Bob F wrote: ...blueberries...

we've had some that were really good and then the next batch were bad, it really varies. also we've had some from prime growing places and they were tasteless. some that she had two weeks ago from Mexico were horrible, hard and tasteless. the ones she just got from New Jersey are good. all over the place...

even the prime MI season ones sometimes do not have great flavor.

songbird