Just something overheard

MissAdventure That reminds me of why I stopped growing vegetables.
One day I served home-grown broccoli for dinner. Everyone tucked in & suddenly there was an anguished cry from DS.
There was a caterpillar in his dinner.
The DDs then joined in and from then on, they all refused to eat anything from the garden

I once served a starter dressed with lettuce from the garden.
One man was looking intently at his plate and we all noticed a tiny bright green caterpillar crawling along it.
It takes some living down actually.

The trouble I used to get into for scrutinizing my dinner too closely as a child, just in case there was some sort of horror in there.

My dad used to say that there was only one thing worse than finding a worm in your apple - and that was finding half a worm. But when I complained about the grub that peered out of my raspberry, he told me it was made entirely from raspberry, so it was just raspberry.

My Nan used to say any insects in cabbage would only taste of cabbage anyway.

It was only a few months ago that I learned the truth about figs, courtesy of BradfordLass.
Learnt? Learned? I really wouldn't mind being told which one, and why.

It takes some living down actually.
It sure does, Annsixty. DC still go on about it, and it was about 30 years ago

They think they’re scarred for life

It was a huge spider in my rubber glove that bothered me.

I must have eaten all kinds of creepies as a child. Raiding the raspberry canes and the gooseberry bushes, red and blackcurrant bushes and apple trees----all without bothering to look what could have been lurking in them let alone unwashed.

Now, I scrutinise everything before it goes anywhere near my mouth

Never did like earwigs and centipedes though.

Many years ago we invited some new neighbours for Sunday lunch. The wife was about to help herself to a portion of cauliflower when ten year old DS spotted a caterpillar poking out of a floret. On impulse he reached across her and snatched it out of the dish. He then didn't know what to do with it.

Thankfully everyone fell about laughing but I didn't let anyone touch the cauliflower until I'd taken it back to the kitchen for a more thorough inspection.

We have lots of blackberries and they are fine at the moment, but in a week or so, if the weather warms up, there will be lots of little white things crawling on them!
I think they're fruit fly worms.

Not just an earwig - an absolute earwig!

I didn't know that about figs......I'll never eat them again.

What is it about figs?

What is the truth about figs? ?. Not that I like them.

I got bitten by an earwig once. I put on a Marigold to do some hand washing (as you did in the 70’s with your preshuss newborn ) and felt a piercing pain in my little finger!

I ripped off the glove and a ruddy great earwig fell out. I’ve never forgiven it.

Yes, figs?? -- tell us, please

That’s really amusing MissA.
It reminded me of an incident which I found amusing, when I was a teenager. My dad was giving my sister and I a lift to school. Suddenly my sister started really screaming and pulling up her skirt. My dad nearly crashed the car.

She has an ‘absolute’ earwig down her tights. Our mother had grabbed her a clean pair of tights off the washing line and my DS had put them straight on and then rushed out to the car for our lift.

I thought it was hilarious.

(PS ...figs ??)

I once had a buzzing inside my tights, and realised there was a (very angry) wasp in them with me.
I took them off pretty quickly!

www.sciencefocus.com/nature/is-it-true-there-are-dead-wasps-in-figs/

Not just an earwig - an absolute earwig...

That is the best thing I have heard in forever and those things are just NASTY and get everywhere.

Down with the "absolute earwigs" I say!

They're revolting, and the whole block I live in is infested with them at this time of year.
They're indestructible, too.
I woke up with one in my mouth, all chewed up, a few years ago.

MissAdventure -- I sucked one out of a straw in my drink once... Now I always shake out my straws before use... Just in case because I never want to do that again...

I didn't know earwigs bite. I like them even less now. My Mum told me, in effect, it was the mission of earwigs to seek out people's ears to crawl into. I'm not particularly squeamish about insects but, unsurprisingly, I am about earwigs!

I didn't know grasshoppers bit until I picked one up when I was about 10 and enclosed it (gently) in my hand. It gave me a really nasty nip which I've never forgotten.

As for figs, I've just read up on that and it was a bit stomach churning but the explanation I read did dilute the initial feeling of revulsion. Nevertheless, I'm not sure I'd want to eat a fig now.

Thinking about it, though, many people eat, and have in the past eaten, all sorts of things that might seem a bit yucky if you dwelt on it. Tripe and onions, haggis, liver, kidneys, heart, etc. It's funny how it seems perfectly OK to eat the organs and flesh of larger animals but the thought of eating insects is repulsive to many people unaccustomed to that sort of diet.

knowledgenuts.com/2014/06/08/the-disturbing-truth-about-figs/