Don't MoveTo Florida
- Thread starter Jules
- Start date
In our more rural areas there are a lot of freely accessible groves, most of them with old trees and fruits. These have been outshadowed by modern "industrial" species and those are usually heavily sprayed with insecticides too. Interestingly, in the past few years a lot of people started to feel there was something missing: the taste and texture of naturally grown, "organic" if you will, fruit (and bread and eggs and meat, but that's a different story).
Of course, simply entering even unfenced property to collect some apples is not the right thing to do, we agree on that. At the same time, many owners of those groves were getting too old or couldn't be bothered to invest the time and labour to cultivate and harvest their trees and bushes, partly because the market prices do not justify the work.
Two years or so ago, a simple and elegant solution as was found: Tie some yellow ribbons to the trees that are free for all. And it works! There is little to no waste anymore, people get some of the nicest fruit for free (and are even free to sell them), trees get cut and cultivated by volunteers. Win-win all around.
Please read this as a humble proposal how to handle excess crops without cutting own the trees.
Of course, simply entering even unfenced property to collect some apples is not the right thing to do, we agree on that. At the same time, many owners of those groves were getting too old or couldn't be bothered to invest the time and labour to cultivate and harvest their trees and bushes, partly because the market prices do not justify the work.
Two years or so ago, a simple and elegant solution as was found: Tie some yellow ribbons to the trees that are free for all. And it works! There is little to no waste anymore, people get some of the nicest fruit for free (and are even free to sell them), trees get cut and cultivated by volunteers. Win-win all around.
Please read this as a humble proposal how to handle excess crops without cutting own the trees.
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"Police added that the 11-year-old was seen flipping his middle finger to officers as he drove past them."
You gotta kinda admire the kid's spirit. 11 years old FFS!
I was thinking it must have been a real slow day for the cops to have that many cars chasing a school bus. The overabundance of police cars probably created a bigger traffic hazard than the kid in the bus.
Fah Kiew Tu
Curmudgeon, First Rank
Yeah this. We used to have 'free campers' coming and staying a day or 2 on private land outside our back gate and on a line to our access to the waterfront. One day we got a mouthful about going through their camp which was right on the walking track used by all the locals. Stupid and selfish place to camp, which is what they got told. There's always one, we let it go.
A few months later I was away in the Southern Ocean and my GF hears the water pump kick on early one morning - we're on tank water from rainfall. Thinking a pipe had fractured she went out to check and found a person had driven up from the back gate and was filling all his water cans at our tank. When she told him off for it, his reply was that the water fell from the sky, it was free and he didn't plan on stopping. GF is 5'1" tall, slim, not an intimidating figure.
She turned off the circuit breaker, told him the water might be free from the sky but the pump wasn't, nor was the electricity or the storage tank and to get off of the property as he was trespassing, threatened to call the cops if he didn't leave now. In return she got some abuse and threats.
Problem for the campers was, they were on land owned by the local Tasmanian Land Council and we're on very good terms with them. She rang the caretaker and 30 minutes later a 4 door utility turns up with 5 big blokes in it and campers got escorted off of the place. Shortly after a locked gate got installed on the back road. Been 12 years now, no random people camping there.
If they'd come to the house, knocked and asked for water, we would have said yes as we'd done in the past. The actual water wasn't the issue.
Moral - it only takes one or 2 arseholes to cause a pushback. No doubt those people still think that we're the arseholes for what we did. I'm OK with that.
So if you're someone who thinks that it's just fine to take a shortcut without permission through another person's place and help yourself to their fruit as you go, perhaps the person causing the fences and gates is - you.
FKT
hobot
Super Anarchist
Sounds like entitlement is a world wide problem!
SloopJonB
Super Anarchist
Some people don't seem to be able to make a distinction between schoolchildren taking a shortcut through an orchard in farm country and motorhomers 1/2 way moving in.
Here in NZ we live north of Auckland and temp is similar to Florida. Lots of commercial citrus but also large numbers of homes have trees laden with fruit. You can call a group that sends volunteers to pick the fruit and then hand on to shipping companies will carry it free for distribution to folks in the South Island where its to cold for them to grow
Just for size comparison as NZ should be reversed.
Just for size comparison as NZ should be reversed.
We do that to the Jehovah Witnesses, but with the Covid they are getting rare.
Fah Kiew Tu
Curmudgeon, First Rank
Yeah maybe. At what point does it become a PITA though? I can make the distinction just fine - wonder how many of those kids grew up thinking it was OK to cut across someone else's place without asking.
FWIW we give away a shit-ton of fruit every year. Plus surplus eggs etc. GF likes growing stuff and is good at it. We keep on planting more fruit trees. But it's our decision to give it away not some random stranger's decision to take them without permission.
FKT
SloopJonB
Super Anarchist
SloopJonB
Super Anarchist
I would venture exactly none.
I guess you had to be there to understand the situation.
Pertinacious Tom
Importunate Member
I have done that but it's way up in Murdock. I had a friend who went that way regularly who would bring them for me but she moved away.
She sounds like a fine exemplar of a modern libertarian. "Fuck you I've got mine"
Or maybe, "fuck you if you just want to take mine without asking." Either way I approve.
slap
Super Anarchist
Could be that there were more people than just schoolchildren who were coming into the orchard and taking some fruit.
Blue Crab
benthivore
Snaggletooth
SA's Morrelle Compasse
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SloopJonB
Super Anarchist
Fah Kiew Tu
Curmudgeon, First Rank
Yeah look, school kids - mostly they get a pass IMO. Not like I never did any of that sort of shit myself at that age...
It's the same old story. One person or a small number is rarely a problem, just like tossing one can into the street or flushing a single turd into the anchorage isn't a problem. It's when it escalates from there that things become a problem.
We're thinking of planting some extra fruit trees for the wildlife - the wallabies clean up all the windfall apples, plums etc now as do the native hens. Could plant trees along the back fence line I suppose. The locals walking by would be welcome to the fruit.
FKT
