The only time that I ate pears was when I picked them out of my uncle and aunt's tree in their back yards. Still don't like them but they were good back then. I also remember the cherry tree that we used to climb behind an apartment building two blocks away from my home. I don't eat cherries but those were somehow delicious. There was a mean old many who lived across the alley from us who had an apple tree that was always filled with fruit but he had a chain link fence and never let kids eat any of it. To my recollection, he didn't gather much of it for himself so it was more of a tease than a benefit to him.

To this day, my Mom and Dad [[both in their 80s) raise a small garden along the fence in their back yard that fills their freezer for most of a year with green beans, cabbage and tomatoes. Sometimes they grow green peppers and squash. You'd be shocked how much produce you can grow in a strip that's 30 feet long and two feet wide.