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SPRING CITY, Sanpete County — In a remote part of Sanpete County, Hannah Stoddard picked up what looked like some wheat with some darker pieces of grain.
"In the process of working on our property (in Spring City), we found this plant," Stoddard said.
She said she thought maybe it was some wild rice, something they could grow, harvest and eat. Fortunately, they checked first.
Dean Miner, a professor with the Utah State University extension office in Provo, said what Stoddard found was a wheatgrass infected with a fungus called ergot of rye.
"Historically, it's been the cause of thousands of deaths," Miner said. "Consumption of grain that's got ergotism — is what they call it — can cause very erratic behavior in people."
Miner said some historians believe that effect may have led to the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, back in the late 1600s.
"Part of their behavior, acting erratically, doing strange things that very easily could have been interpreted as witch-like behavior because they didn't have any other explanation for it," Miner said.
Luckily, the Stoddard family won't have to worry about that, even though Hannah said she did taste a bit of it before turning it in.
"One grain,” Stoddard said laughing.
But adding to the irony of this story, Stoddard teaches high school history and said she's studied the witch trials closely.
"The puritans actually based their entire civilization, their entire culture on The Bible, on the Old Testament,” she said. "One of the principles in the Old Testament is that you always have a system of witnesses; a trial.”
Did we mention that the Stoddards live in Salem, Utah?
"A little humorous I guess you could say,” Stoddard said.
As far as the grain they found, having an eerie tie to Halloween, Stoddard points out that the puritans refused to celebrate Halloween.
“It was illegal,” she said.
And her family doesn't celebrate it either, but there is one more coincidence in this story.
“Our family ourselves, we actually go back to some of my ancestors were there at the Salem witch trials," Stoddard said.
Though aside from this history lesson, Stoddard said there's one more take away.
“You don't eat everything you find," she said. "Just because something looks good doesn't mean it's safe."
Contributing: Xoel Cardenas
