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Folklore
Snow wrote (see)
Hi all,
I learned this the other day.
They say not to eat blackberries after Michaelmas day.....29th September as they'll be bitter. Folklore said as Lucifer was chucked out of heaven he was so angry he spat on them as he fell from grace.
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I heard that he did something even more unpleasant than that 
on the other hand the more polite people say 'he trailed his coat-tails over them'.
Other ones from my childhood were never to have lilac blossom in the house, and never to have red and white flowers in the same vase together = blood and bandages.
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The blood and bandages stems from the Crimean war apparently.
My exes granny told him that berries had spiders' eggs in them! She was making sure he didn't eat anything from hedges or ditches. Trouble is..he still won't!
I used to love eating cabbage stalks raw, my mum told me I would get worms!
when we took red and white carnations in the hospital for mum, one of the nurses dashed in, grabbed a pink flower from someone else's flowers and stuck it in the vase, that will be ok now she said.
I heard the red and white meant 'blood and a shroud' so that ties in with the hospital patients. I think, if I recall correctly, it was a friend or relative of my mum's who believed it, and wouldn't have red and white flowers in together in her garden!
The kids I used to teach weren't gardeners and didn't know many plants, but they all knew cow parsley, only they called it 'Mother-die' and were shocked that I would bring it in to show them!
Brollys put your eye out.
Lilac I don't know and dandelions are a diuretic.
Most "old wives' tales" tend to be based in truth. The old wives just didn't have the wherewithall to phrase it in todays mordern parlance.
My friend was warned by her granny against eating rhubarb during pregnancy and her "12" year old doctor poo pood it as old wives' tale.
As it happens the first cut of rhubarb is very high in oxalic acid which binds with calcium....a hugely important element for bone development.
I always thought that Michaelmas was a quarter day - therefore 25th rather than 29th. No matter - folklore certainly has it that the devil does unspeakable things to blackberries by the end of September! Mind you, the weather has been so upside down this year that the berries are still superb, so make of that what you will.
By the by I also saw that field poppies are currently in full bloom - unusual for the time of year (they are usually over by the end of August). Some people are hoping they will still be in bloom by Armistice Day - although that is highly unlikely. But it would be lovely if they were.
My mum was from Liverpool and she called cow-parsley mother-die. My own thoughts are that because it is very similar in appearance to hemlock it was a sure way to deter children from picking it ???
My fennel is still flowering blithely too, not a sign of any seeds!
My rowan has come into flower!!!!
Yes Snow, I remember that one - Ma used to say
'Where parsley thrives they're ruled by wives'
and she was actually quite proud of her rather sparse parsley patch - although she was undoubtedly in charge!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.