Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Finding 'Food'

Admit it, they would fool anyone!
First, a little insight into the 'Diane' thought process . . .
But they look like peas!
They open, like peas.
And they have little pea-type things in them.
And if they look like peas, and open like peas and have little pea things in them, they must be peas.
I'm eating them . . .

The Anderson family lived in a great barn of a house at the very top of the hill in Milk River. It was my favourite place to visit. And to play.
Not only did my best friend, Kathy, live there, but there were lots of other kids to play with (12 in all) and they had this amazing house with an infinite number of rooms and hallways and balconies and little, hidden cupboards. We could play pretend for an entire day and never run out of spaces or scenarios.
And to make things even better, across the road on the north and east, was farmland. With barley crops taller than we were, ripening in the sun.
I should probably mention here that Milk River has produced at least three Barley Kings. An award given for producing the best that the barley world had to offer.
But to me, barley simply made an excellent hiding place.
Moving on . . .
Along the road, on the East, screening the Ellert farm from the Anderson's back yard, was a high hedge of caragana. (Google it!)
That, in late summer, was hung with thousands of . . . peas.
. . . Well, it made sense to me.
We had been playing hard most of the day and it was nearly time to go home for supper.
We were hungry.
Kathy did the smart thing. She ran to her house to find food.
Her sister, Laurie, and I decided to forage for ourselves. After all, there were all of these peas that no one else was picking. We simply couldn't let them go to waste.
Have I mentioned that I love peas?
I grabbed a big one and opened it.
Huh. Well, they weren't quite the right colour, but they were approximately the right shape and size.
I ate one.
Yuck. Not great. Well, the next one will be better.
Okay, it wasn't.
Maybe the next one.
Okay, all of those were pretty much awful.
The next pod will be sweet and tasty.
Nope.
Well, maybe the next one.
And so it went.
I can't tell you how many of the awful things Laurie and I ate. It must have been quite a few. Because we certainly got sick.
I don't remember much about that part. Mostly because I was unconscious at the time.
Who knew that peas could do that?
But I learned my lesson. 
Which I would like to share with you.
Don't eat peas that grow, temptingly, on trees.
Stick to things like . . . buffalo beans.
Adult aspirin.
Dust bunnies.
All of which have been tried and tested by me!

12 comments:

  1. Laughed when I read your post this morning as I bought English peas yesterday. We buy them by the case and eat them as snacks. Thanks for the smile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are obviously a much better judge of what's edible than I was! :)

      Delete
  2. Oh dear - unconscious doesn't sound good at all. Our son-in-law (not from Canada) picked what he thought were edible items from a tree on their property, made a curry, and the whole family got very sick, our daughter ending up in hospital for dehydration. But they were adults and should have known better. I'm glad you survived, Diane!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, my, that sounds horrible! And dangerous.
      I don't think I was in any real danger. I just slept it all off. Fortunately it didn't put me off REAL peas. Still my favourites!

      Delete
  3. The peas were a problem, but that farm sounds wonderful! Would love to see it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was wonderful but it exists only in my memories now, Laurie. It was torn down to build our new school. Sacrifices. Sacrifices.

      Delete
  4. This is why i do not forage, i don't know peas from peanuts in the wild.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was my one and only time, Mimi! My foraging since then has taken place only in the grocery store...

      Delete
  5. You survived. For which we are grateful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What surprises me the most is that you kept eating after the first pod, even after the first "pea". I'm glad you survived though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That is definitely the weird part! I kept thinking the next one would be good. Then the next. then the next. Yeah. I'm a hard one to convince...

    ReplyDelete

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