My Mango Misadventure

Problem
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.

Mint tea at home or hotel rooms

Mint tea served at hotels and restaurants and conferences is often made from several tea bags in a pot. But you can easily make your own mint tea with fresh mint. If you like Mint tea bag, try Twinings.

The Moroccans make wonderful mint tea with added sugar. You could add honey instead. Better still, simply sip sugar-free mint.

Different kinds of mint bought from garden centres will give different flavours. There's peppermint and spearmint or simply mint.

I tried mint grown in my own garden one summer, but found my mint was full of aphids, little greenfly. In theory you could wash the mint off first. Or strain them out afterwards. Or both. It was a whole palaver.

Easier to spend £1 or 99p on fresh mint from the supermarket. Start again.

Or buy mint in a pot from a supermarket, add hot boiled water, at home or in a hotel, and you have mint tea.

Warning - wait for boiling water to colour add water.  I burned my lip on boiling water, so I had to sip cold water, which I added to the mint tea. Now I know why I like coffee - because you can add cold milk so you don't burn yourself.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Fresh mint in a pot from Morrisons in London in November 2015, bought by a member of my family.
We're here to help they say.
www.morrisons.co.uk
customer service helpline 0845 611 6111.

In the UK 0845 numbers are usually the price of a local call from landlines. Check your service provider or mobile phone company to be sure and if you have a choice of phones and there is a difference in charge, pick the cheapest or try to make a free call through Skype.

Angela Lansbury.
Travel writer and photographer.