Can I Eat It: Dog Park Edition
July 14, 2015 3:03 PM Subscribe
A local dog park as a very large quantity of edible berries (chokeberries and chokecherries to be exact). They're located right inside the dog run, though.
I'm curious weather or not the concentration of dog poop/pee might effect the berries in terms of flavor/nutrients? Is there such a thing as too much "fertilizer"?
Unless you're eating berries that are at like, ground level, i don't see what would be wrong with this.
All berry bushes are going to be covered in bird, rat, mouse, insect, etc poop and pee. People have still been eating them for thousands or even millions of years.
posted by emptythought at 3:31 PM on July 14, 2015 [6 favorites]
All berry bushes are going to be covered in bird, rat, mouse, insect, etc poop and pee. People have still been eating them for thousands or even millions of years.
posted by emptythought at 3:31 PM on July 14, 2015 [6 favorites]
When I was growing up, we lived in a house that had an outdoor toilet. My poor brothers had to empty the can once a week, burying the contents in the cane field behind our house. In order to avoid the can filling up too quickly, the toilet had an L shaped corridor running behind it for use as a urinal. There, at the very end, was a lychee tree which my brothers pissed on.
Our lychees were the most sought after, widely described as the best in town. That was okay with us because none of us are them.
I think too much fertiliser kills a plant. I don't think it gets sucked up, uncoverted and deposited in the fruit of the plant, but still, I never ate those lychees.
posted by b33j at 3:44 PM on July 14, 2015 [8 favorites]
Our lychees were the most sought after, widely described as the best in town. That was okay with us because none of us are them.
I think too much fertiliser kills a plant. I don't think it gets sucked up, uncoverted and deposited in the fruit of the plant, but still, I never ate those lychees.
posted by b33j at 3:44 PM on July 14, 2015 [8 favorites]
Not much on earth that hasn't been pooped or peed on by something. As long as you rinse 'em off you'll be fine.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:51 PM on July 14, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:51 PM on July 14, 2015 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Pee (dog, human, whatever) is high in nitrogen, which is an important element of fertilizer for leaf growth, but too much can "burn" a plant , so yes, there is such a thing as too much fertilizer. But what that means is that the plant gets all dehydrated and unhappy, it's not as if it goes on form perfectly healthy-looking fruit that secretly is no more nutritious than gummybears.
Go ahead and pick the berries. Wash before eating, just in case some dog got very ambitious with the spraying.
posted by desuetude at 5:50 PM on July 14, 2015 [3 favorites]
Go ahead and pick the berries. Wash before eating, just in case some dog got very ambitious with the spraying.
posted by desuetude at 5:50 PM on July 14, 2015 [3 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by AppleTurnover at 3:28 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]