Free food - not foraged - but thankyou presents

BHB

We live in the country and are always being given stuff by our neighbours and giving stuff / helping out our neighbours and locals with various things.


We have just been given 8 fresh fish - neighbour has been on a boat fishing and gave us what he didn't want. That was a first.


I just wondered what odd things you have been presented with by way of a thank you or just being neighbourly.


Apart from the fish today we regularly get things left on the doorstep or handed to us.


A bag of Rhubarb (probably the most regular)
A joint of bacon
Eggs
Apples
Plums
Tomatoes
Runner beans
10 rabbits (from a shoot)
Home made wine
Sausages
Plants
Herbs
Live chickens
Home made bread
Cakes
Goats milk
Pheasants
Once found two dead chickens hanging on the door knob and
Once a whole dead deer on the doorstep !


I love living in the country


What things have you been given by way of a thank you or just being neighbourly?

HOWMUCH

Cabbage, Tomatoes, Marrows, Cucumbers. Courgettes, Green beans, Onions, Beetroot, Apples.
When allotments are full and so are their freezers.
It's normally for house sitting, dog walking, sewing (Mending)
I think that's about it, I too live in a village.

PasturesNew

I've been given nothing, ever, from anybody, when I helped them out, or any other random situation.

[Deleted User]

I get randome bits and bobs from neighbours for various things but I too live in a somewhat some area where I think its more common to share bits with friends and neighbours I once had a huge bag of onions that I shared with my family and neighbours as it was 7.5 kilos and had been reduced to 10p in sainsbobs.I spent half a day peeling and dicing the blessed things for the freezer and I shared the rest with everyone I knew at 10p it was such a bargain i couldn't not buy it :):) I didn't buy another onion for months :):)

Horace

I have had plants from my neighbours and once they bought me a hanging basket to say thank you for driving them to and from hospital. I have also had a packet of Shreddies from my neighbour because she didn't like them - I had never had Shreddies before (they weren't too bad).

Some of my friends will give me beans, courgettes and plums from their gardens.

Mum gives me plants, off cuts of joints - today it was the legs and in the end the carcass of roast chicken (she removed the other breast so she could have it in sandwiches).

If I have too much fruit, I share it with my neighbours.

BHB

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've been given nothing, ever, from anybody, when I helped them out, or any other random situation.

That's a bit sad PasturesNew - round here neighbours and friends give things to each other often without reason or just because the garden is over flowing.

Effyb4

I've been given plums and tomatoes when friends and family have a glut.

sparrer

There's an rambling orchard at the end of my garden, the elderly owner puts bags of pears, apples, plums and nuts on the wall for my neighbour and I.

I'm often gifted jam and marmalade as I save all my jars for friends who make it.

I often get loaves and rolls from a friend who acquired a bread maker some months ago, I have told her I have one of my own but the novelty hasn't work off for her yet

Blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants from my DB, the bramble runs 1/3 the length of his 1 acre garden and he has a massive fruit cage.

Bags of runners, peas and other veg as it comes into season from a neighbour's allotment. I swear he and his wife think as a lone woman I need looking after! They also give me rhubarb and gooseberries, I use them to make crumbles for them and myself.

The local independent butcher often throws in an extra home-made sausage, faggot or slice of brawn, and bones for my dog.

The most surprising was a brace of pheasant. I stopped on a local lane to let the beaters and their dogs cross and one came up to the car and gave them to me. I've driven that lane many times but it hasn't happened again. I keep trying

In return I give herbs and make bread, crumbles, cakes, tarts and pies to thank people for their kindness.

Being in the countryside is definitely the kindest and friendliest way of life.

Prinzessilein

Many years ago, when I was still a child, we lived in rural Devon for a couple of years. One afternoon a friend popped by to visit my parents and present them with....a brace of pheasants!...He explained that they had been flying rather low and had hit his car, killing them instantly!!!....it was some years later that I was told that this chap would have pheasants unaccountably 'fly into' his car with surprising regularity...and apparently rabbits did the same thing! (6 poor rabbits all hopped in front of his car on the same morning!).....


I have been given:
a couple of duck eggs (lovely for baking!)
chicken eggs
jam and chutney (jars and jars of it!)
cake
scones
freshly caught mackerel
home made cordial
assorted squash (pumpkins et.c)
chocolate
various fruits


I sometimes give gifts - mainly bread. (I bake special loaves for Easter and Christmas that are very well received!)

candlelight_2013

We have a friend who has an allotment. During the summer months his wife will text me to say J is on his way down and he will bring potatoes, onions, cabbages, garlic, corn on the cob, and then masses of gooseberries, raspberries, rhubarb, and one year we had the most wonderful damsons.

They can't cope with all the produce, and neither of their childrsen live close, so we benefit.

In return I make jam, crumbles and cakes, because I am grateful.

Also I have a friend with whom I worked, and whenever she visits me I always make a cake for her. She lives alone, works full time and I know she doesn't bother to bake. I also give her jars of jam or marmalade as well

It is lovely to receive and also good to pass on

Candlelightx

SailorSam

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've been given nothing, ever, from anybody, when I helped them out, or any other random situation.

I think me and you live in the wrong place Pastures.
Don't think i get given anything.