Okay, this is probably a stupid question but...

[Analeah]

I know this is probably a stupid or obvious question to most people but I don't know the answer and I am really curious so I figured I would post it anyway. I am wondering what the facts are about eating fruit or nuts etc when they have fallen off the tree onto the ground. There is an incredible amount of apple trees around where I live which I love to pick apples from. Sometimes I eat them from the ground too but I don't know if it's healthy to do that. I am wondering if it is safe to do so and also if the fruit or nut is likely to have lost any nutritional value? Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[rawjojo]

A far as I know:

1. The fresher the fruit to falling off the tree the better. Although if it has fallen it still has an abundance of nutrition.

2. You want to be careful not to eat fruit that has bruising (from the falling) because it is suseptible to bacteria forming.

3. I'm not sure if they're your trees or not but I would check to see if they have been sprayed or not. Certain pesticides are worse that others.

Hope this helps to answer your question!
rawjojo

[Analeah]

Hey cool thanks for the info! That's good to know about the bacteria forming in the bruised fruit. Usually if I take home apples that are bruised I cut off the bad parts and still eat the rest. Do you think that is safe or do you think the whole fruit can be dangerous to eat? I highly doubt any of these tree's are sprayed. Some of them are just kind of in the middle of nowhere or by the forest and aren't really tended to. Others are in people's yards or by the side of the road etc. There is one small field of tended apple trees which I sometimes gather apples from but I don't think they spray them with anything as there are so many worm holes and whatnot. They don't look anything like the perfect unblemished apples you buy in the supermarket but they taste incredible freshly picked off the tree.

[rawjojo]

I just forgot to mention "worms', but I guess you have already seen them. Yuk! Be careful not to get the wormy ones!

Also, if you cut the bruised part off and wash it pretty well then there should be not problem eating the fruit.

[Analeah]

Lol yeah, I am always afraid to bite into an apple and find a worm. Actually of all the many apples I have cut open I have yet to find a single worm though once I did find a pincer bug which flew out at me and gave me quite a fright. So I guess it's okay to eat apples if they have fallen on the ground as long as you cut out the bruised or bad parts and keeping in mind they may have lost some nutrutional content. I guess it's maybe better to eat them off the tree but I can't stand to see so many apples go to waste.

[rawjojo]

One more thing I also just thought of. Those apples that have fallen would be excellant for juicing or even making some raw desserts with. SOmetimes when I have an abudance of apples I juice them and freeze them as Ice Cubes. It's just a little something different to have in your water and/or smoothie!

[Analeah]

Hey thats a great idea! I have just been dehydrating the ones I can't eat but you can only have so many dehydrated apples lol. Thats a great idea to put them in the freezer, I bet they would be great in a smoothie.

[ConsciousCuisine]

Some fruitarians only eat fruits that have naturally fallen from the trees or vines... :)

[Analeah]

I think that is so awsome. That is what I would like to do eventually. What do you think about the risks or dangers of eating fruit fallen to the ground? Do you think the food is as alive and nutritious as before it fell from the tree?

[ConsciousCuisine]

Only truly ripe fruit falls off the tree or the vine...there's no "danger" and the nutritional value is the same unless it is left and allowed to rot...

[marigold]

if we were living naturally or years ago we would surely have gathered wild food that was on the ground ? if its fallen it means it is ready to eat..

[Kristi]

see Analeah........there are no stupid questions.........


by the way.......I think your name is beautiful!!!! I wish I could have another daughter and name her Analeah........so pretty.

[lil]

We have fruit trees around. This years there's been a big problem with bears coming into yards and eating the ground fruit, so people are being encouraged to get rid of it!. I saw a bear the other day climb up a fruit tree and shake it so the fruit would fall to the ground (hey - maybe you can try that!!).
I think fallen fruit is just fine to eat - I do it all the time.
We have chestnut trees here and the chestnuts are falling!. Normally we eat them roasted. I'll miss that this year. Now all I can do is throw them at the bears (not recommended). I don't think they are edible unless roasted.

[ConsciousCuisine]

Throw them at the bears (nice visual... :) ) I am sure the bears are happy that this year there will be more for them :)

[Analeah]

Hi everyone, thanks so much for all your input on this. I'm excited to go and pick more apples and do some juicing and dehydrating. If I lived closer to any of you I would send you all some yummy dehydrated apples! Thanks Kristy for your compliment it certainly made me blush when I read it. I enjoy having an unusual name but sometimes it can be a pain because no one knows how to pronounce it. Hehe when I used to order food to go from restaurants I always used the name AMY otherwise it took an extra ten minutes explaining how to spell my name lol. I must say I was a little embarassed when I got my transcript from college which says "Anal Gonshorowski". Apparently my last name was too long so they had to cut off some letters from my first name. It sure did explain a lot as to why my instructors went silent for several long seconds before calling my name at the beginning of class lol.