May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.party
Jul 5, 2026, 12:59 AMIDK why, but it boggles my mind that some people live in places where tropical fruits grow in their yard. You mean, you just go outside and pick your oranges?!
Replies
- May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 1:36 AM
It's the sheer variety of fruits and vegetables you get in warmer climates that I want. Our produce is super seasonal.
LenHyperlynx@aus.socialJul 5, 2026, 1:00 AM@mayintoronto I remember growing up we once grew passionfruit in the garden. That was nice.
E: actually it might have been my mum's friend who had them in her garden...
- May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 1:29 AM
@Hyperlynx I heard you get really good passionfruit in Aus. No such luck here!
- LenHyperlynx@aus.socialJul 5, 2026, 2:11 AM
@mayintoronto well, this was back in Perth, with its beautiful weather. Probably less common in Melbourne 😅
J.D. MacLeod 🇨🇦johncomic@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 1:00 AM@mayintoronto best orange i ever had was picked from a friend's backyard
Amy MaybeAPBBlue@thepit.socialJul 5, 2026, 1:00 AM@mayintoronto Mr. Blue's parents (In N. California) have more lemons and oranges than they can use. I'm jealous.
:neuro: Antonius Marie ⚧melindrea@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 1:01 AM@mayintoronto I had an interesting epiphany the time I saw ... I can't remember which one it was, but some root veggie (celery root, perhaps?) that was described as "exotic", and I'm like "wut? No, they're everywhere!" <.<
- May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 1:29 AM
@melindrea My friend was telling me about how tulips are super exotic in warm places!
- :neuro: Antonius Marie ⚧melindrea@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 1:31 AM
@mayintoronto while not a plant, I remember being in the US and going to NY with school, and the popular girls were all gushing over this *amazing* shop that we could go to there!
... it was H&M, which I now would just call that ... but at the time I would've called it something that translates to "hers and his", and it was not particularly exciting to me to go there >.>
Catcatmisgivings@stranger.socialJul 5, 2026, 2:48 AM@melindrea @mayintoronto scallions grow wild in nyc parks because Irish immigrants planted them there. Nobody told them not to, and there wasn't really a concept of urban "community gardens" yet.
You'll smell them when they mow.
Bryan L. FordhamBfordham@infosec.exchangeJul 5, 2026, 1:02 AM@mayintoronto when my wife was in Africa people would just wander off and come back with fresh fruit they had picked.
My sister in law is Filipina and had talked about climbing trees to get coconuts. It’s hard for me to imagine
Ian K. Rogers ikr?╭ರ_ಠianrogersJul 5, 2026, 2:58 AMHere in Montreal I was at the free library in my alley and a friendly guy came out and told me that the raspberries and currants growing next to it are ripe, and to help myself. Gooseberries, apples and grapes will be there for the picking soon... I was dropping off my kid at camp and the mulberry trees were heavy with fruit.
I mean it's not tropical but there's fruit to be had even in the city if you know where to look.
Jul 5, 2026, 1:05 AMI was looking for a free beach in Key West when I passed a flamboyantly decorated house. I was on a rented scooter and stopped to check it out, where I was waved in.
Inside I and my father spent a half hour or so eating mangoes off the trees in the yard and shooting the shit with Shine, who'd sparred Hemmingway way back when. He had a magazine framed--the bout was on the cover. Interesting guy, and he had genuine fruit trees in his yard.
Thanks for giving me a reason to dredge up that story. Damn I feel old--Hemmingway! I also saw Frank Sinatra perform once.
Ellieellie@ellieayla.netJul 5, 2026, 1:18 AM@mayintoronto Okinawa bananas are both weeds and breakfast. I am also boggled.
smells of bikessmellsofbikes@mastodon.socialJul 5, 2026, 1:18 AM@mayintoronto Yeah, it's amazing to me to see @MLE_online taking pictures of pineapples and *dragon fruit* just growing in back yards and alleys. When I was young we'd never seen a dragon fruit: no supermarket in the state had such unusual stuff.
Emily VelascoMLE_online@social.afront.orgJul 5, 2026, 1:25 AM@smellsofbikes @mayintoronto don't you have apple orchards there? We don't have those here
TheAntLadytheantlady@flipping.rocksJul 5, 2026, 1:30 AM@MLE_online @smellsofbikes @mayintoronto
When I lived in Arizona I missed having access to rhubarb and fresh blueberries and raspberries. Trade-offs. Living in upstate New York now, I miss the Meyer lemons, grapefruit, and passionfruit.
- May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 1:33 AM
@MLE_online @smellsofbikes I'll take mangoes and citrus over apples any day.
- Emily VelascoMLE_online@social.afront.orgJul 5, 2026, 1:48 AM
@mayintoronto @smellsofbikes i personally think it's cool that he has apple orchards where he lives, but i am growing a dragon fruit plant and a kumquat from seed in my yard, and I'm sure he thinks that's cool
- smells of bikessmellsofbikes@mastodon.socialJul 5, 2026, 2:57 AM
@MLE_online @mayintoronto IT IS VERY COOL
- smells of bikessmellsofbikes@mastodon.socialJul 5, 2026, 2:59 AM
@MLE_online @mayintoronto every fifth tree is an apple tree of some sort, yeah. But not many produce excellent apples, most are small and sour and somewhat disappointing. Our wild cherry trees are stellar, though.
- Emily VelascoMLE_online@social.afront.orgJul 5, 2026, 3:41 AM
@smellsofbikes @mayintoronto apples aren't true to type, so you never know what you'll get from a seed, but that's also cool
Jul 5, 2026, 6:12 AM@smellsofbikes @mayintoronto @MLE_online
To me, it is the black currants that are wildly exotic! I grow them in my garden, and I love them. But I have yet to find anyone locally who has even heard of them
Bitslingers-R-UsAnachronistJohn@zia.ioJul 5, 2026, 1:34 AM@mayintoronto I can get lemons from the alley and passionfruits from the yard, but the squirrels always beat me to the avocados and figs.
VaireSarraceniaWilds@sunny.gardenJul 5, 2026, 1:35 AM@mayintoronto they can grow some citrus in-ground in places in bc, but to hear some of them theyre jealous of the berries we get in the prairies
- May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 1:37 AM
@SarraceniaWilds Berries are the best part about living in cold North America.
- VaireSarraceniaWilds@sunny.gardenJul 5, 2026, 1:37 AM
@mayintoronto you could join me doing indoor orchard experiments. pick your oranges *inside*. nobody does that anywhere
- May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 1:40 AM
@SarraceniaWilds I unfortunately lack the space, interest and the green thumb. 😅
DB Schweindeirdrebeth@mas.toJul 5, 2026, 2:21 AM@SarraceniaWilds @mayintoronto
I'm growing Meyer lemons inside in the Midwest USA.
Outside it's elderberry, black current, gooseberry, raspberries, and wild strawberries
So far I've been unsuccessful with melons, squash, or beans of any variety.
Sam LevineSRLevine@neuromatch.socialJul 5, 2026, 3:03 AM@SarraceniaWilds @mayintoronto just because I love how the word sounds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangery
- VaireSarraceniaWilds@sunny.gardenJul 5, 2026, 3:17 AM
@SRLevine @mayintoronto oh my goooddds i love this. how have i never known about this
- VaireSarraceniaWilds@sunny.gardenJul 5, 2026, 3:17 AM
@SRLevine @mayintoronto fota orangery sounds like not that
20000lbs_of_Cheese20000lbs_of_Cheese@freeradical.zoneJul 5, 2026, 1:47 AM@mayintoronto hobbit-hole grow-op co-op
Michael Gemarmichaelgemar@cosocial.caJul 5, 2026, 1:53 AM@mayintoronto What, you don’t like rutabagas?
- May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 2:04 AM
@michaelgemar I know what they look like, but I have no idea what they are or what to do with them.
- Michael Gemarmichaelgemar@cosocial.caJul 5, 2026, 2:18 AM
@mayintoronto No one really does…
Jul 5, 2026, 2:27 AMIn my youth in a suburb (in Ontario) I used to go to a local park in summer and eat black mulberries right off the tree. Not native to North America but tasty.
- May likes Torontomayintoronto@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 2:33 AM
@zygmyd Most suburban Ontario mulberries are unfortunately white mulberries and are invasive. :sad_dog: You can tell based on the leaf structure. They keep popping up in my yard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morus_rubra
This is the red mulberry article and it talks about how the white mulberries are invasive.
Alex von KitchenDangerous_beans@aus.socialJul 5, 2026, 3:15 AM@mayintoronto a friend won't eat mangos, because he lived somewhere where the smell of overripe mangos rotting was overpowering in late summer
Duckbilled Plattypus.pattykimura@beige.partyJul 5, 2026, 3:32 AM@mayintoronto Growing up on O'ahu, in our yard mom grew: Haden mangoes, apple bananas (Mai'a), tangerines, star fruit, lichee, guava, limes, papaya, pomegranate, ni'oi (Hawai'ian chili peppers), and one orange tree ...my mom also grew vegetables, we had wild orchids take root, and mom cultivated many types of anthuriums as a hobby, and other flowers. I am not sure how she did it all. She lived to 97.
Deborah Preuss, pccdeborahh@cosocial.caJul 5, 2026, 4:54 AM
