A party? YES!!! The creative food pairings suggested by chaz & mr s are absolutely to die for! The combo of Dieff stix, roasted castor bean crunch & Oleander brew are sure to be drop-dead delish! Perhaps someone will offer to whip up a special batch of fudge, Foxglove Fudge, to share with our host Bob. He exhibits keen interest both in flowering plants having unique properties AND in alliterative nomenclature, so it would be exceedingly sweet of us to serve the fudge as an ultimate grand finale, don'cha think? As you might have suspected, Bob, the Nancys and Larrys aren't the only lurking loonies here. We have a few Macabre MacKenzies and Ghoulish Garths as well . . . But do come to our little get-together -- it'll be the party to end all parties & the snacks will be diabolically delectable. You can bet your life on it, Bob. You might think all of this is a joke, but we're dead serious. Heh heh heh . . .

loribee2 and pippimac - thanks for looking and for your feedback! Most people (here on gardenweb and readers of my blog) seem to be in agreement that I have the weedy/wild variety, which according to some people can be poisonous. Fortunately, I have felt zero ill-effects after eating these berries today. Perhaps I didn't eat enough of them, or maybe the berries weren't poisonous after all. I have read documents that argue on both sides of poisonous/non-poisonous nature of the Solanum nigrum species.

Ok. I'm a lil late to the game. I bought my atropa belladonna seeds from Horizon Herbs. The owner said to cold treat them by putting them in a pill container with cold water, in the fridge for two weeks, changing the water daily. Then to put them in seeding soil to germinate..... Ive done the cold treatment, finished it today and have placed my seeds in a 3 inch terracotta pot with seeding soil beneath it and lightly covering the seeds. The soil is moist but not wet and sitting in a window on the sunny side of the house. It's about 40F during the day and 19F at night. Is there anything else I should do with it to ensure it's survival? I have tried many times in the past to get it to grow but never have I tried the cold treatment before.. I bought limestone powder for it once it's somewhat growing. I've got monkshood seeds to work on next but they won't be done with their cold treatment until April. I have gotten that plant to bloom though. but i really would love to have the nightshade.

Eric, I wonder if you are talking about pokeweed, Phytolacca americana? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana The most common recipe for eating it is poke sallet: http://www.southernfoodways.org/film/poke-a-film-bite/ http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/poke-sallet-zmaz71mazsea.aspx This is an excellent source for foraging for edibles, though doing it without having someone in person to confirm is not recommended by anyone: http://www.eattheweeds.com If in-person confirmation is not possible, there's a forum here called "name that plant" where you can post pics of found plants to gather ID opinions.