Growing fruit takes a bit of effort. Trees that produce the fruit must be planted and maintained for all the many years that they produce. They might need to be irrigated through summer. Most need specialized pruning every winter.
Canning surplus fruit takes a bit of effort too. All the jars must be cleaned. All the fruit must be collected, processed and cooked. The jars must be packed and boiled and so on.
Drying fruit is less work than canning, but takes a bit of effort nonetheless.
Where I lived in town, I grew a peach tree closer to the apartment building to the north, and a fig tree closer to the apartment building to the south. I maintained both trees meticulously. Many of the neighbors appreciated the fresh fruit. At the end of their season, there was (almost) always surplus peaches for canning. Sometimes, there were surplus figs for drying.
I really would not have minded if there had not been surplus fruit. It would have been better to have it consumed by the neighbors while fresh, than after it had been canned. Besides, it would have been less work for me.
One summer, there was a major surplus of peaches. We wanted to can them as efficiently as possible because we know how perishable they are. We planned to do all the canning on a Saturday, so got all the jars from the attic and washed them on Friday afternoon. The canning pots and utensils were ready to go. We had purchased lids and several pounds of sugar.
Also on Friday afternoon, the so-called ‘gardeners’ came to the apartment building next door to the north.
The major surplus of peaches, every last peach, was completely gone when we went to collect early Saturday morning.
Now, really, I don’t mind sharing. That is what the tree is there for. I really don’t even mind if a few people want to take all the surplus fruit. I just want to be told about it before I make plans and prepare to do something else with it. What really angered me was the complete disregard for those of us who put the effort into growing all those excellent peaches.
The fig tree to the south produced an early crop of figs before the peaches, and a late crop of figs after the peaches. Each crop lasted a long time, so there were not often too many figs at any one time that needed to be dried. Most were eaten fresh.
I often noticed an annoying absence of figs each day after the so-called ‘gardeners’ came to the apartment building next door to the south. It was not as bothersome as the missing peaches, since I got quite a bit of figs in between. What angered me was that every fig that could be harvested at the appointed time was taken, leaving none for anyone else.
Tony Tomeo 
Maddening. I saw a sign at a community garden once dating something like Please leave the vegetables and fruit for the people who took the trouble to grow them.
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is maddening that it makes sharing so difficult. It used to be part of the culture here. As kids, we could take whatever fruit we wanted from around the neighborhood. No one minded because there was plenty for everyone. We never took enough to deprive anyone else of it. Those with fruit trees in fenced backyards regularly put small boxes of fruit out front for us kids to eat on our way home from school. That would not work nowadays. While I was in college, I cut down a few of the fruit trees in front yards because those who grew them got no fruit from them anyway, and did not like strangers coming into their yards to strip the trees bare.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is really sad about having to cut down the trees.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it was very saddening. I grew up with those tree. Most were planted in the late 1950s. The culture and lifestyle there is so very different now.
LikeLike
It is maddening. Plucking dewberries from a ditch is one thing. Plucking plums from trees in the wild is one thing. This is something else. It’s bad enough when the critters move in and strip a tree!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The critters can not take all the fruit, so they just take one bite out of each of them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The same happens at my parents’ house. We were taking care of their garden (other than what the so called “gardeners” do) while they were out of town and were looking forward to a big harvest of Mariposa plums. Finally got to a point when they should be picked… every last one gone. Thankfully we have several of our own fruit trees… and no gardeners but ourselves!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What do they think we grow fruit for?!?! Do they think we put all that effort into it for someone else to take ‘all’ of it?!
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:
A common problem with recycling these old articles is that it reminds me of these incredibly frustrating topics.
LikeLike
That would seriously irritate me too. I have a complementary pet hate: people who grow delicious-looking fruit, within reach, that I would love to eat but can’t out of respect because it is somebody’s who leave it to wither and rot on or under the tree.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gads! I should not have read that! It is about as bad as stealing all the fruit. Those who do not want it should at least share it with the neighbors. That was so ‘normal’ in the Santa Clara Valley when I was a kid. Sadly, because the society here is so transient, people commonly move into homes with productive trees, but do not know how to maintain them, or just do not care.
LikeLike