You don't realise just how much you've missed something until you get it back again.
I ate my first pear in years today.
I can't begin to describe just how wonderful it was! Crunchy, sweet, soft....
I 've missed them so much - ridiculous I know!
I've got a beautifully assorted collection of allergies that I've just learned to live with over the years. I never had a problem eating anything as a child, a bit of hay fever, but otherwise all good - until I hit my twenties...
Apples were the first thing to go, causing my mouth to itch and gums to swell. Then peaches and other stoned fruit. Then an alarming reaction to cherries, which caused wheeziness, itching and cupfuls of saliva, meant a trip to St Mary's allergy clinic in London.
They sent me to Sainsbury's - where I had to buy, "anything I suspect I may be allergic to." I came back armed with a variety of fruit and veg, was duly skin-prick tested and reacted beautifully. My forearms became a palette of circular, itchy, red welts of varying sizes.
I was diagnosed with
Oral Allergy Syndrome, given some leaflets about it and sent on my way with the advice to avoid eating anything I thought I might react to. Basically I was told that I was allergic to anything that sporred in the birch season (which causes a bit of an issue now I live in Australia where the seasons are all upside-down and the birch isn't even a native species.)
And so it has been. For the last 20 years. I've avoided them all.
Every so often I tried just a little bit of something to 'see if I still puff up and itch' - I did! Until today.
I couldn't resist the pear I was chopping for my daughter, so tried just a little...then a little more....and I was fine!! I waited a good hour then raided the fruit bowl. God, they were delicious. I had 2 whole ones.
I'm not recommending that anyone should be so blasé about their allergies. Maybe I'm just lucky- today. Pears were never really on my list, I'd always assumed they were just the same as apples, though a friend of mine tells me they don't have any salicylates - so maybe that's my problem.
To be honest, I don't really care. I've discovered something wonderful today.
I'd rather eat pears than chocolate!
Really? Fruit beats chocolate? Who'd a thought it!
It's like there's no autumn 'fall,' it falls all year. There's always leaves or something to come off the trees - blossom, gum nuts, twigs (yes, we have weeks of 'twig' fallout!) and leaves. the pathways are never clear of something falling. It only ever looks 'tidy' for a day or so. Hence the phrase "The Constant Gardener?"
