Always fun: how did we know we could eat whatever

The fiddlehead ferns post(s) got me thinking about this.

I think in earliest times we (humans, that is) watched what animals ate and decided they must be good or safe to eat or whatever. After all, who would have ever in current times watched a bear wack a fish on the banks of a shore and think, "ooh, that looks good!" Or a wild bird cracking open up raw mussels and oysters and think, "ooh, that must be good!"

Ditto crab or shrimp. Think about it: do they look particularly appealing? Not to me, but man do they taste good when cooked!

Tomatoes were thought for a long time outside of the Americas (north and south) to be poisonous. But native people were eating and enjoying them for a long time before they were introduced to Europe.

Who decided corn was a good thing to seed and harvest? At some point in the Americas corn (maize) must have grown wild but who looked at it and said, "hey, think I'll eat some of that"? I'm thinking probably because squirrels and other ground creatures loved the kernels (just a guess) so someone thought there must be something to it. Now we have cornbread, tortillas, flatbreads...

Food history is interesting to me. This is just musings and I don't care what Squwertz or Vomit Chik think about about it. Killfiled easily and automatically.

OB Dinner Tomorrow:: Simple tomato sauce using locally grown fresh Ripley tomatoes (I de-seeded and chopped them), slow cooked on the stove with minced onion, garlic, bell pepper, celery (mom used to throw the celery leaves in, too). Mom added a couple of Tbs. of tomato paste. I have some in the pantry but I'm not sure I should add to that this yet. I will take it off the stove in about an hour. I'll chill it in the fridge and reheat it tomorrow and I know it will taste better tomorrow as most homemade tomato sauce does. Then I'll make the adjustments.

Jill