[obol] Cascara Tree- Empid

[John Thomas]

There are some Cascara up and down our "brush line" out here in farming
country. Will have to watch more closely for unusual birds. A Hermit Warbler
or Pacific Flycatcher would be great!

When we were kids picking Logan berries for a local farmer, we played a
dirty trick on a town kid by telling him over and over how good those
Cascara berries on the tree were. In those days, we country kids called 'em
"Chittem Bark" and knew the tree well as we could peel the bark, dry it, and
sell it to a local hardware store for pickup by some company making
laxatives. Being into sustainable pipe dreams (after killing scores of
"Chittem Bark" trees), we even tried leaving a quarter of the trunk bark up
the tree to keep it alive for future harvest. I doubt many made it but at
least our hearts and minds were getting into keeping things alive and not
leveling all to the ground.

Back to the town kid: he spent the afternoon in the outhouse after chewing a
handful or two. So ... beware. I imagine one berry would not be that potent
however.

John Thomas
Silverton