Yesterday was the feast of St. Michael and All Angels and from now on you are must not pick any more blackberries this season as the devil is supposed to have spat on them. But I was in the graveyard where there were some beautiful ones this afternoon, so I picked some. Here they are ready in the pan.
And this was a very peculiar sight in the graveyard, a toadstool or is it a wild mushroom? Anyway it was growing out of a stone flower vase, I actually had to go and touch it to see if it was real! It looks rather like a sun shade!
Hope to improve on the leaf in the next few days and will publish the result.
What is the malady of the 'devil spat on the blackberries'? Mom always had saying about rhubarb and horseradish, but I'd never heard anything about blackberries. Robert, in northern Iowa.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a Mycologist I know, it's a Macrolepiota. Either a Parasol or a Shaggy Parasol (if the flesh turns orange when it's cut, it's shaggy).
ReplyDeleteUnless it has green spores, in which case it's a False Parasol and poisonous!
So check if you fancy eating it! :)
Robert there is an old superstition that blackberries should never be picked after Michaelmas Day as the Devil was supposed to have spat on the fruit to spite his rival. Or another legend has it that the devil puts his foot on them, but either way they taste pretty good to me!
ReplyDeleteListicath - Your information on the mushroom is interesting and so I was not far wrong saying it was a sun shade! Perhaps small animals could shelter under this parasol. I have not got the heart to cut it and find out which type of parasol it is, and have no intention of eating it!