For me the saddest sound is a missing sound. The sound of our old neighbours. He died in 2016 and she died in 2019. They were wonderful friends and neighbours for around 30 years. There's nothing wrong with the people living in that house now, they just aren't Bob and Vera.
I took 3 boxes of surplus apples to the local village green and left them on a bench with a sign asking anyone to help themselves. No one touched them for a day or two then they began to disappear. This year I will not have any surplus as the crop is much smaller but I did see a box of apples on the verge outside someone's house. I am sure there must be families who would enjoy some free apples. A food bank might even come and collect them.
It may be difficult to get food banks to accept fresh produce from 'unknown' sources. There are so many rules and regulations on what is an is not acceptable.
There are lots of honesty boxes round here for eggs, rhubarb, apples and whatever's in season. People are a bit suspicious of 'free' but seem to be happy to pay a small amount. Of course there are people who'll pinch stuff anyway but hey ho! Years ago my mum, a townie, found free rhubarb so she rang the doorbell and asked was it really?!?!?!?
We have had a very poor apple harvest this year, plums awful as well but a bumper pear crop.
The saddest thing I can remember that's apple related is our allotment neighbour used to spray the windfall apples to kill any rats that tried to eat them. We only knew this because we asked for some and he told us but if anyone one else had helped themselves it might not be good.
Our allotment has a scheme where any excess produce is collected and either given away at the gate or taken to the local food bank. It's mostly been squash and courgettes this year but normally a bit of everything. Unfortunately the allotments are in an area where people hop over the fence and pinch stuff, which is why we no longer grow pumpkins and why those that do have already harvested them.
If we have a glut of anything we always ask the neighbours and as our road has a few growers they have normally been asked a few times already.
I am so grateful to live in our village. Everything is freely given - surplus fruit and vegetables, thinned out seedlings and plants, no longer used toys, furniture for upcycling, apple presses for sharing …. All it takes is just a message on the Village Facebook/WhatsApp sites, or simply a box by the roadside as we also get quite a few walkers passing through.
The same social media are used for social invitations and favours being sought. I know lots of people complain about how Facebook etc can be so shallow and an unnecessary intrusion but they also serve a very useful purpose. Being terminally ill my wife has her own village WhatsApp group: in a state of crisis she would get a string of almost instantaneous replies if she put out a message asking for help.
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Years ago my mum, a townie, found free rhubarb so she rang the doorbell and asked was it really?!?!?!?
The saddest thing I can remember that's apple related is our allotment neighbour used to spray the windfall apples to kill any rats that tried to eat them. We only knew this because we asked for some and he told us but if anyone one else had helped themselves it might not be good.
Our allotment has a scheme where any excess produce is collected and either given away at the gate or taken to the local food bank. It's mostly been squash and courgettes this year but normally a bit of everything. Unfortunately the allotments are in an area where people hop over the fence and pinch stuff, which is why we no longer grow pumpkins and why those that do have already harvested them.
If we have a glut of anything we always ask the neighbours and as our road has a few growers they have normally been asked a few times already.