[charrr]

Mmmmm! What a delicious pantry and garden you have planned, Stevenator! I had to look up muscudines and service berries, as I am always interested in little bits of information like that. They are beautiful and I could almost taste them. I am a little green, pun intended, with envy just at this moment! I do a little bit of urban foraging. I discovered some chokecherries and plums and many kinds of apples and cherries in my mid-western town. And people were just letting them fall and rot. I put some of them to good use, of course! Now, here is a warning to not read on if you are squemish! Warning! Nature can seem icky...
.....
.....
.....
I got to picking berries with a friend of mine, in her yard. We did this several times and we made preserves with several kinds of fruit. It's good fun. Well, we gobbled up almost as many berries, straight off the shrubs, as we saved to make preserves. Once, just as I was tossing another berry down the gullet, I squeezed it, and in that millisecond my eye spied a... WHAT!!?!! I tried to ignore it and chew, but my mouth spat it back up and demanded a very close examination of the once destined-for-my-belly black currant. To my absolute !!!HorroR!!!, I discovered that my once tempting berry was being occupied by a living, wriggling creature!!! I felt more than remorse! More than chagrin! I tried to encourage myself that it was just a little protein. My friend even more nonchalantly waved it off and continued the little game of gather and gobble, but I was shaken! It was not the first time that nature has rewarded me bonus nutrition; I had previously stopped munching on my parents' neighbor's wasted sweet cherry bush for the same reason. Aghast! I really do appreciate the cycles of Nature! The Creator/Source/Whatsoever of all this wonder is a genious! But, sometimes, .... Nonetheless, Thank you, so very much, Mother Nature/Gaia/Mother Azna for the delicious and nutritious bounty!