# Foods that cannot be eaten right off the tree/vine/stalk **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593 "2005-12-01T19:13:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/41 "2005-12-02T20:03:30Z")
Has anyone mentioned cranberries? I mean, I don’t think they’d hurt you, but they are so hard and sour that they are virtually useless until they’re cooked and combined with some sort of sweetness. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/42 "2005-12-02T21:12:33Z")
Rhubarb has to be cooked, and I don’t think the leaves are edible under any circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/43 "2005-12-02T21:35:30Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > Has anyone mentioned cranberries? I mean, I don’t think they’d hurt you, but they are so hard and sour that they are virtually useless until they’re cooked and combined with some sort of sweetness. Actually, that’s what I came into this thread to mention. And IIRC the modern cranberry, grown in the bogs, is not the natural critter, either. It wasn’t until roughly the 1880’s that someone developed a way to grow them in a manner that made them edible that they became linked to holiday dinners. The Native American tribes of New England used the silly things for _money_, which doesn’t seem reasonable if you’d be going out and eating your cash. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/44 "2005-12-02T21:46:51Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Bananas can’t be eaten straight off the tree, because they don’t grow on trees. tree n. b. A plant or shrub resembling a tree in form or size. I have no idea where this idea that bananas don’t grow on trees came from. Tree is an English word, not a botanical term. And banas defintiely meet the standard, hence the reason for the use of the term banana tree in common English. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/45 "2005-12-02T23:11:39Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > I have no idea where this idea that bananas don’t grow on trees came from. It came from botanists. > **[Oxford Languages | The Home of Language Data](https://languages.oup.com)** > > Explore Oxford Languages, the home of world-renowned language data. > [@](#): > > Tree is an English word, not a botanical term. Actually, it’s both. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/46 "2005-12-02T23:24:31Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > Has anyone mentioned cranberries? I mean, I don’t think they’d hurt you, but they are so hard and sour that they are virtually useless until they’re cooked and combined with some sort of sweetness. Huh? I’ve picked wild cranberries and eaten them raw by the handful plenty of times. Yes, they’re tart, they’re not as sweet as most berries, but they aren’t useless, especially if you don’t have access to a supermarket. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/47 "2005-12-02T23:40:02Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > Has anyone mentioned cranberries? I mean, I don’t think they’d hurt you, but they are so hard and sour that they are virtually useless until they’re cooked and combined with some sort of sweetness. My mother has a recipe that uses raw cranberries chopped in a food processor with some orange and orange peel. It is sweetened, but not cooked. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/48 "2005-12-02T23:45:25Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It came from botanists. > [Oxford Languages | The Home of Language Data](http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutother/banana) Well, no. (BTW, I’m a botanist.) That link says that a banana is technically regarded as herbaceous, which is correct since it lacks secondary growth or reinforced pith. What it doesn’t say is that a banana is not a tree. There are any number of trees that are non-woody but nonetheless indisputably still trees: palms, boabs etc. > [@](#): > > Actually, it’s both. Actually it’s not. There are an infinite number of different defintions of tree depending on the botanical body or even the individual botanist involved. Certainly botanists will use the word tree, but it is defined by user, not by any universal standard beyond the English one. For example you might find a botanical paper using tree to mean all woody vegetation over 5 metres in height, or referring to all woody plants with a single stem, or referring to all self-supporting vegetation greater than 2 metres. The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature came up with a very concise defintion of a tree… which botanists around the world totally ignored because it was patently stupid. The ICBN defintion excluded most conifers, a great many acacias, quite a few eucalypts and many other plants from being trees. Huge areas of the planet were covered in plants that sure looked like trees, but apparen but weren’t. Yet the ICBN defntion is the closest you wil ever get to a botanical standard for the word ‘tree’. If the term isn’t specifically defined the normal English definition applies by default. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/49 "2005-12-02T23:49:44Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > What it doesn’t say is that a banana is not a tree. I’m not particularly intertested to continue this silly nitpicking any further; you know what I mean; I know what I meant; my point was not entirely invalid. Your statement above is simply untrue; the link _does_ actually say that; you may argue that it’s wrong, but it says it there in black and white. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/50 "2005-12-02T23:52:47Z")
Freshly harvested cacao beans are bitter and acid to the taste. They must be fermented before they’re even sent to the processing plant. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/51 "2005-12-03T00:28:15Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > my point was not entirely invalid. Your statement above is simply untrue; the link _does_ actually say that; you may argue that it’s wrong, but it says it there in black and white. If my statement that “what it doesn’t say is that a banana is not a tree” is completely untrue than quote where it _does_ say that a banana is not a tree. My statement is provably true and you are simply lying. That page does not say that a banana is not a tree. What you are trying to say is no different from " this reference says that a poodle is a dog, therefore it can not also be a pet". The two terms aren’t mutually exclusive. Just as a poodle can be both a dog and a pet so a banana can be both herbaceous and a tree. There is absolutely no merit is saying that a Doberman isn’t a pet simply because you have a reference showing that it is a dog. Yet that is effectively what you have done. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing when coupled with a lot of misunderstanding. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/52 "2005-12-03T01:04:57Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > If my statement that “what it doesn’t say is that a banana is not a tree” is completely untrue than quote where it _does_ say that a banana is not a tree. My statement is provably true and you are simply lying. That page does not say that a banana is not a tree. > [@](#): > > **From the page I linked:** > However, the banana plant, though it is called a ‘banana-tree’ in popular usage, is technically regarded as a herbaceous plant (or ‘herb’), not a tree I’m done here, seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/53 "2005-12-03T04:08:19Z")
> [@cher3](#): > > Rhubarb has to be cooked, and I don’t think the leaves are edible under any circumstances. Hmm that is definitely news to me, and to countless kids who grew up begging their moms for a paper cup of sugar. Sure, its tart, but a fresh stalk of rhubab–bite, dip in sugar, bite, dip again. Yum. It was the best snack in the spring before the ice cream guys started making their rounds. Yum. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/54 "2005-12-03T04:19:44Z")
> [@Normal Saline](#): > > Hmm that is definitely news to me, and to countless kids who grew up begging their moms for a paper cup of sugar. Sure, its tart, but a fresh stalk of rhubab–bite, dip in sugar, bite, dip again. > > Yum. It was the best snack in the spring before the ice cream guys started making their rounds. > > Yum. Here’s some info on [rhubarb](http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/rhubarb-poison.html). > [@](#): > > From an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for Oxalic acid, LD50 (LD50 is the Median Lethal Dose, which is the dose of a drug or chemical predicted to produce a lethal effect in 50 percent of the subjects to whom the dose is given) in rats is 375 mg/kg. So for a person about 145 pounds (65.7 kg) that’s about 25 grams of pure oxalic acid required to cause death. Rhubarb leaves are probably around 0.5% oxalic acid, so that you would need to eat quite a large serving of leaves, like 5 kg (11 lbs), to get that 24 grams of oxalic acid. Note that it will only require a fraction of that to cause sickness But it’s the leaves, not the stalks. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/55 "2005-12-03T04:58:56Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Cashew nuts are pretty cool. Technically, you can eat them right of the tree, but only if you shell them cleanly. If not, toxin from the shell gets on it. [Just so we’re clear raw cashews won’t just give you a bellyache, they can kill your ass dead if you consume more than one or two.](http://www.bootsnall.com/travelstories/asia/sep02nut.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/56 "2005-12-03T12:41:31Z")
::: Moderator clears throat for attention :::: **Blake** , you will kindly refrain from personal insults in this forum. Please note the difference, perhaps a fine point but a difference nonetheless, between “Your statement is untrue” and “You are lying.” The former is an acceptable comment; the latter is NOT, at least, not here. And the gratuitous comment about “a little knowledge” is petty and snarky. Cool it. Especially in a discussion that seems to be merely a matter of definition. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/57 "2005-12-03T17:06:44Z")
You’d think that **almond bark** could be eaten right off the tree; in fact, it isn’t bark at all, and you can’t get it without cooking. 😛 In a Grape-Nuts commercial, wild-food stalker Euell Gibbons said, “Every eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.” I mis-heard parts as “farts,” and we spent a lot of time giggling over “Euell Gibbons Toasted Pine Farts.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/58 "2005-12-03T19:20:41Z")
According to Jeffrey Steingarten, broad beans, millet, bamboo shoots, and cassava contain cyanogens. Once cooked the poison is rendered harmless. Undercooked chickpeas can cause lathyrism- spinal lesions that cause paralysis. Source, _The Man Who Ate Everything_, from the chapter _Salad The Silent Killer_, which is a quite entertaining essay on the ways raw vegetables can kill you. As far as I recall, most grains are edible (meaning they won’t kill you) but much less nutritious raw. You can eat raw pasta, but you won’t get as much out of it as you would if it were cooked. ---
**Author:** ![Kiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Kiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiminy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/59 "2005-12-03T19:29:56Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Why not? I’ve been known to munch on an uncooked strand of spaghetti while waiting for the water to boil. > > I do not believe you can eat corn right off the stalk, but I could be wrong on that. I munch on raw corn kernels while waiting for the water to boil. 😉 They’re a bit starchy, but not poisonous. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593/60 "2005-12-03T20:20:18Z")
> [@psycat90](#): > > [Bananas](http://www.crisco.com/basics/all_about/bananas.asp) Bananas can be eaten right off the “tree”. I was hiking just north of Waimanu Valley on the Big Island of Hawaii (Laupahoehoe Nui) when we came upon hundreds and hundreds of banana plants that had been originally planted by the ancient Hawaiians that inhabited the area. Unlike apples or oranges, banana plants ripen their fruit year round so lots of fruit was hanging on the stalks in various stages of ripeness. We ate several big, beautiful yellow bananas right off the tree and they were the best bananas I’ve ever eaten. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-cannot-be-eaten-right-off-the-tree-vine-stalk/333593.md?page=4)