HONEY FEASTS ON NUM-NUM

On our morning walk up the koppie, Honey stopped and plucked black berries off this bush.
"Well if she can, so can I". So I picked a berry and as I tasted the delicious sweet sour flavour and noted my purple fingers, childhood memories flooded back and I remembered a life time ago roaming in the veld with neighbourhood friends and feasting on these berries, returning home with purple fingers and stained clothes. Carissa haematocarpa has masses of sweetly scented flowers and according to my Karoo Wild Flower Guide, birds, bees and children are fond of the fruit. How did Honey know that the fruit was safe to eat and how did we, as young children know?