Olives are toxic until they’ve been brined. Those sort of discoveries always make me wonder… who figured out that immersing them in salt water for a month would make them edible without making you sick?
Pair tens of thousands of years with hungry little hominins and you will find that all kinds of improbable plants can be rendered edible in surprisingly specific ways. Where I live, on the US west coast, for example, it’s been thousands of years since the indigenous people figured out how to render acorns edible.
Olives are toxic until they’ve been brined. Those sort of discoveries always make me wonder… who figured out that immersing them in salt water for a month would make them edible without making you sick?
Pair tens of thousands of years with hungry little hominins and you will find that all kinds of improbable plants can be rendered edible in surprisingly specific ways. Where I live, on the US west coast, for example, it’s been thousands of years since the indigenous people figured out how to render acorns edible.