::A Geek in Korea::

Right outside our window is the entrance of the apartment, which means we have a small roof we can access if we risk hopping out our window. We used it to put our air conditioner outside, but otherwise never bother with it. The only other thing outside near the roof is a persimmon tree. All summer the persimmons on the tree have been growing and ripening. Right now is when you look for persimmons in the markets because they are ripe and ready to eat. It’s a sign of fall coming to Korea.

We’ve been eying the fruit from time to time to see when they become ripe. There is a first come, first serve policy on fruit trees in the apartment complex as far as we can tell. Old people will go around shaking any nut or fruit bearing tree and plunder any of the fallen loot on their walks. If there is fruit on the ground, old people also act as squirrels, collecting nuts and harvesting the useful things to eat later. It’s good that old people do that, as they’ve long since killed all the actual squirrels in Korean cities. Old people picking random things off the ground that could be edible is just one of those Korean quirks you get used to after living here a while.

We knew that if we didn’t keep an eye on the persimmons, they’d disappear like they did last year. Someone came by one day and took them all. The persimmon tree outside had a few dozen ripe, or nearly ripe fruits to take, but I hadn’t felt like sneaking out and taking them. We have persimmons from my wife’s grandmother’s farm that are organic and healthy looking. We simply wanted to get some because we missed out last year.

I was taking some food garbage outside when I walked past a gentlemen with a large sack and a pruning device. It had a catch on it so that he could pluck things off trees. He set up shop next to our apartment and was stripping the persimmons on the tree next to ours bare. People walking out of the apartment complex were staring at him, because he was quite brazenly just swiping them all for himself. No one asked him anything, or tried to stop him, of course.

I returned to the apartment and told my wife. She told me it was now or never. I hopped out on our roof and picked a handful of persimmons that I could safely reach. The man set up under the roof and worked on grabbing several others I had no chance of reaching. I was working quickly, while the man below was slow and methodical. There were several that looked good that the man swiped on our tree. He kept working to fill his bag. There are probably half the persimmons on the tree, still ripening. They aren’t “our” persimmons any more than they are his, but we do live in the apartment complex and pay for their upkeep. I don’t think this man could even make this claim, and even if he could I don’t think that entitled him to fill up an entire giant bag for himself from all the trees in the neighborhood.

I did rescue a few of these persimmons. I had one this evening. It was delicious. We have plenty now, and I don’t need to risk my life for some free cheap fruit.