Watermellon Giveaway

Howdy Folks: MY RANT FOR THE DAY.

We have had a wonderful SFG Watermelon harvest this year. Took a shopping basket full to work of 3 different varieties. Large red melons, large yellow melons and smaller round red ice box style melons. They were placed in the break room refers to chill. The first melon to be cut was a yellow flesh and yep, complaints abounded. Most would not even taste the melon. It was sweet and full watermelon taste. Just looked different. Oh well. Their loss. In years past we offered anyone who wanted grapes from our vines to come pick to their hearts content. I was told, "If you bring them in we will take them off your hands". What we did not eat ourselves we let the wild turkeys have. Americans are so spoiled they will not even come out and pick their own - FREE. Same story last year with when we had a bumper crop of pecans. We will make the same offer on pecans this year as some of the younger tress are putting on their first large crop. Times may be hard, but, not hard enough for some folks.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

Oh Man! Brings to mind the old saying, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth". I wish I was your neighbor! In any case, thank for sharing!

WardinWake wrote:Howdy Folks: MY RANT FOR THE DAY.

We have had a wonderful SFG Watermelon harvest this year. Took a shopping basket full to work of 3 different varieties. Large red melons, large yellow melons and smaller round red ice box style melons. They were placed in the break room refers to chill. The first melon to be cut was a yellow flesh and yep, complaints abounded. Most would not even taste the melon. It was sweet and full watermelon taste. Just looked different. Oh well. Their loss. In years past we offered anyone who wanted grapes from our vines to come pick to their hearts content. I was told, "If you bring them in we will take them off your hands". What we did not eat ourselves we let the wild turkeys have. Americans are so spoiled they will not even come out and pick their own - FREE. Same story last year with when we had a bumper crop of pecans. We will make the same offer on pecans this year as some of the younger tress are putting on their first large crop. Times may be hard, but, not hard enough for some folks.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

I remember the first time I saw a yellow watermelon - I was a bit squeamish about trying it because it looked so different. BUT, I tried it because a friend gave it to me out of her garden. YUM!

Oh man, I would LOVE a chance to glean. I don't have enough yard (or physical stamina) to grow as much food as my family of 8 eats, much less enough to preserve. I can't imagine someone turning down free food because they have to pick it themselves! :scratch:

Oh man! Half the fun for me is actually going out and picking the food! I'd be there just to help you pick, if you'd let me!

It's a real shame that many people are too set in their ways or lazy to take advantage of a friendly offer like yours. Now I'll admit that I think watermelons should be red inside, because that's all I knew growing up so it's familiar. That being said, I would certainly try them if I were in a situation where a friend/co-worker was offering to share.

Littlesapphire: I'm with you; harvesting is the best part. We took the kids to a pick-your-own blueberry farm in July, and we all had the best time!

~Lu

Americans are spoiled, last year I told my neighbors to get all the tomatoes they could eat. Nobody came to get them and all they had to do was walk 35-100ft to my garden. Sad, just pitiful how some have become.

I have a client who has 8 large orange trees in her back yard and tells everyone she knows to come over sat/sun from about Dec-March to get as many oranges as they want. My hubby and I took her up on the offer and went to get some. She said we were the only ones who would come do it. Everyone else wanted her to pick and bring them to her! That's a lot of work! We went 3 times and always helped pick extras to help her out. It was well worth it for fresh orange juice!

A lot of Americans won't except anything for free. I had several folks that were starting a garden. I had way too many strawberry plants. They wanted me to dig and bring the plants to them. Duh, I now have strawberry plants in all the flower beds and around each of the tree beds . I put up jelly/jam and ate til I pretty much got sick of them this yr. We'll see if anyone wants them in the spring.

Jo

I can't believe they wouldn't TRY the watermelon. That is my favorite way to try new things -- when there is minimal committment. I mean, I might not drop the $$ at the farmer's market for a yellow watermellon if I had never tried one. But, when samples abound, we make use of the opportunity to try new things.

I hear you with the lazy bit though. We had extra rasp. starts this year and NO ONE was willing to come get them. We would have helped dig them up, but we weren't going to do it all for them!

Amy

Ward and Mary and others. I completely agree with your rant. How can anybody expect a person to give them stuff free and Picked for them and delivered.



"Take them off your hands". I be da....d if I ever give them the time of day again.



A couple of yers ago I had the opportunity to get free walnuts just for picking them up off the ground. You bet I was there in a flash. I shared with the elderly lady and cracked and scooped out the walnuts for her. She was delighted, it had never happened to her before. I ended up with a year's supply of walnuts. All that omega-3 stuff. Lovely.



Sadly, she is no longer with us.

I just went out this afternoon and picked the leavings of beans from a friend's huge garden - they have picked and canned and frozen and are POOPED! I got at least 3 gallons of beans to add to my 4 in the fridge already. We may have enough beans to last us all winter now! YIPPEE!!! I may even have enough to try making the Dilly Beans!

The only thing better than CHEAP is FREE! I just don't understand the laziness but it does abound all around us.

GG