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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] We're going to plant fruit trees ineverycitystreet

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  • From: "Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] We're going to plant fruit trees ineverycitystreet
  • Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 08:48:37 -0500

I used to buy carob pods to eat, we just gnawed them. They were sweet and mild tasting, the kids loved them. I'm assuming that the "locusts" that John the Baptist lived on were carobs. I can see that there would be more of the fallen pods than one or two enterprising poor folks might be able to eat, but seems like it would be entirely possible to sweep them up, sort them, shake off the dust and take them to sell at the farmer's market. They keep forever once dried, so if a batch were sold to a regular vendor, the seller would be able to take all his money at once and not have to rent a stall.
Re fallen fruit being codling moth riddled, yes it tends to be here in Tennessee too, but I spent years dragging home all the apples I could get and drying them. Spidra said she keeps track of fruit trees not on private land, these were trees in yards where the people said sure, take all you want off the ground. Only in the severe drought in the 80's, when gardens dried up altogether, did the usual gardeners take an interest in their apple trees and decide to keep the fruit.
Pears on the other hand, tend to be in good shape with little bug damage, and folks will often let you pick all you like. I found that around the college there are many rental houses, with fruit trees planted by a former and more frugal generation. The students living in them had no use at all for the fruit. Many of those trees have been cut down in the 15 yrs I've been here. Donna




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