Pineapple thoughts

Early this morning found me tackling a fresh pineapple, ready for my breakfast. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever tackled the job. Oh, I’ve eaten fresh pineapple, but it has always been prepared by someone else. In my childhood my mother occasionally tackled the fruit. Certainly when we’ve holidayed in countries such as Australia & Singapore the pineapple was fresh. I’ve even been known to buy the odd tub of cubed fresh pineapple. But this is my first effort at the job. So how come I found myself preparing one today?

It’s the result of the harvest festival at my local church. A basket of fruit was brought round by the vicar earlier this week. It was quite a shock to find the vicar on the doorstep. It’s the first time she’s been round in three years despite knowing I’ve not been to her church for 2 years & this absence dated from the time the Fox had his stroke. Anyhow that’s beside the point.

Our local church, like most churches & schools, delivers the collected fruit & veg to the needy, in particular to local disabled people & the elderly. I am obviously on that list of possible recipients. I do appreciate being remembered in my absence. However I do regard the gifts with mixed feelings.

My immediate feeling is that I am not worthy to receive such a gift. I don’t feel particularly needy. We have money enough for our needs. I feel the gift would have been so much better given to the local people in the area who have to resort to food banks to have something to eat in these days of austerity. I do get out & see other people, so I’m not even desperate to have the companionship of a visitor. But, as I say, it is nice to be thought of.

But this year’s gift as also made my question what people put in these parcels. I can understand people putting in things that they have grown themselves. That is what the service was originally about - giving thanks to God for the harvest safely gathered in. But I cannot believe anyone locally has grown this pineapple.

I appreciate that not everyone grows their own fruit & veg. They therefore have to resort to what the shops have to offer. In previous years the odd tin of fruit or veg has turned up & I’ve not been perturbed.

What gets to me a bit with this basket, is that someone has obviously thought of what they themselves would find a treat. And they have given generously. But what they haven’t thought about is the potential recipient of the gift. I wonder how many disabled & elderly in this part of the country would even know how to tackle a fresh pineapple, let alone have the manual skills to do so. At least with a tin, or a plastic tub, you can get appropriate equipment to enable arthritic hands to get in.

The other difficulty is the size of the gift. Most of the recipients are on their own, two people at most, as we are. Suddenly you get this parcel. Inside was a nectarine, a pineapple, some peanuts in their shells, a small bunch of grapes, a banana, a pear, a tangerine, 4 kiwi fruit. All are very ripe. I’m beginning to feel I’m under pressure to get all the fruit eaten before it goes off. We already had our own bowl of oranges in the house to eat. A pineapple in particular is a lot of fruit to eat in a go. This one is going to last me several days, much as I love pineapple. At least if you are going to be inundated with food like this, if some of it is in tins, it will keep. Fresh very ripe fruit, even more so than veg, will not.

As I say, I’m being very ungrateful. The thought was kind & generous. The products put in the basket were obviously meant to be a treat for someone. And the pineapple, now it’s peeled, is deliciously sweet & juicy, quite delicious in fact. Someone clearly does know how to choose a good ripe juicy pineapple.

Mmm, maybe it’s time to go for another fruity snack, or a peanut…….