Jeffrey Steingarten reports in The Man Who Ate Everything that bitter almonds are very commonly eaten still in Italy (Sicily in particular, where an almond flavour granita made with a high proportion of bitter almonds is a local speciality). Given that, I don't think you have too much to worry about!

ok. I feel better. Thanks, bifter. It was quite a shock.

whoa. This page says 20 almonds is toxic for adults. I wonder if there are different types of bitter almonds? I should find out their latin names.

And this page says you can eat them if you bake them first. It also says it's illegal to sell them in the states. See- that just makes me want to go into the bitter almond business now that I have a source...

I'll wait till spring and make sure the flowers are pink. Maybe it was just a really weird regular almond. I didn't try any more from that tree to find out.

Huh. I didn't realize they were really toxic. I always thought the warning was repeated because pure cyanide is supposed to taste like bitter almonds.

Yeah, the FDA is extraordinarily cautious about foods though - at least by European standards. There are plenty of other things eg tonka beans that you can't get in the US, but can't happily much away on over here.

Interesting that that link thinks 20 almonds is lethal. O_o Hard to credit, really. But yeah, looks like you really want to cook them to be safe. I give personal thanks to god that you didn't go on an almond-eating binge after my ill-considered all clear.