Cherries...For Free!

Having lived in an urban setting for all of my life, I am accustomed to buying whatever produce I need. The idea of gardening and growing my own fruits and veggies is so appealing to me, but I have been forced to admit that I have quite the black thumb. I cannot take credit for any of the surviving plants in my yard. Mother nature simply built them sturdy enough that I was not able to kill them through my ignorance.

So, imagine my delight when I saw that our neighbors tree on the island was covered in tens of thousands of ripe cherries. Here's just one little branch that I cut off when I jumped his fence to collect some.



As a disclaimer, our neighbor is out of town for the next couple of months so all of those beautiful ripe cherries would have just gone to the birds..literally. Plus, I'm pretty sure that my mom said that he said that it was ok. Or something like that.

I was totally overcome by the volume of ripe cherries and I went a little overboard picking them. When I looked at the fruit of my labor (again, literally), I had collected about 5 lbs. of cherries, which is more than 4 adults and one munchkin can possibly consume. But, I couldn't help myself. I mean, they were there and they were free!

Isn't it sad that this is what society has come to? A city girl can't believe her luck because she found a tree that produces fruit and isn't owned by a major corporation who will charge her to eat it. That does it, as soon as we buy another house, I'm planting fruit trees. On second thought, I'm going to pay someone to plant them for me. And to take care of them because let's face it, I am simply not capable. I'm sure that there's a support group for people like me...