You see items on the floor. Your first thought might be - it's free, free goods, free food, unwanted. Your second thought might be, but it's dirty. Your next thought might be, put it in a plastic bag and wash it later. More thoughts. You should not take what doesn't belong to you. You are not supposed to take fruit from trees. But what about windfalls?
Put me down - you don't know where I've been! What could go wrong?
Answer
I picked up a mango. I could not see which tree it came from. I picked it up. It made a lovely / dreadful smell in my tote bag. I had visions of home made mango lassi.
Story
When we got our windfall mango home, we washed it. Then we cut it. Out pops spider or something similar.
We try cutting out one side of the fruit. But the other side is affected.
Er - no. Not worth the risk. I need not go into details.
OK, I'll go into details:
1 Yuk - as the old joke goes, the only thing worse than seeing a worm in the apple you are eating is seeing half a worm.
2 You could get an upset stomach.
3 It could multiply.
4 You could excrete living creatures.
5 You could get one living creature stuck and growing in any part of your body causing irritation, pain, a growth.
Presumably cultivated fruit (on trees in orchards) is sprayed against insects. Maybe fruit trees in public places are also sprayed to reduce the numbers of insects causing problems and infecting other trees. Maybe not.
I have great respect for farming methods and farmers. I have had such trouble with everything in my UK garden, from aphids on roses to slugs in strawberries to insects eating fruit on trees and birds eating fruit on trees and making holes in fallen fruit and leaving only half of each windfall apple.
Never mind, say the family. It didn't cost anything. Learning experience.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
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