Overall denim blues...

I tackled my heaped-up mending basket - all denim overalls in every kind of disrepair.  I save the most ragged overalls for the hardware.  Basically when they are worn out that's the only thing left.  One day I may take all these worn out overalls and turn them into art by fiberglassing them in a standing position and lining the driveway on both sides. 

It's getting difficult to find good overalls these days.  Wally has always depended on thrift stores to keep him clothed but the last few times we've checked we haven't found any or we settle on ex-large ladies overalls (no zipper).  Might be worth a trip to Iowa.  What are farmers wearing these days?

Wally says they are the perfect clothing.  He likes them baggy so that he has lots of moving room and ventilation.   That's the Scotsman in him - the kilt is in his genes.  He also likes all the pockets and says it's like wearing a purse.  I thoroughly check those pockets before I launder.  Sometimes there's enough dirt to grow sweet potatoes and enough gravel to mix cement, not to mention popsicle wrappers, feathers, wire, irrigation parts and toothpicks.

He is so partial to them that once when he was down to nothing to wear, he took a pair of Levi's with a 44" waist and sewed a bib on them from overalls that had worn legs.

Most people know this about us, when we got married we both wore overalls!   For me it was a meaningful way to show my acceptance and commitment to Wally.  He's always going to be an overall-man and now and forever, I'm one of him.



If anyone out there is garage sale-ing or thrift-store shopping and comes across some overalls you'd be doing me a huge favor to shop for me.  I have a 3'x3' space where my mending basket now sits that I'd rather use for an easel. 

New name, new address

A friend recently asked us to give refuge to a yellow-headed parrot that was threatened by his neighbors.  We were excited to have a parrot.  There was a problem though.  He didn't like men.  It's obvious that he had suffered from being mistreated.  The parrot loved and trusted me but was jealous and obnoxious when Wally was around.  I figured it would take a little time to re-train him.  When another friend and my best egg customer, Roxanne, called, I told her about our new family member and she told me that she used to have a yellow-head named Wally!  She had named him for a dear friend, Wallace.  Roxanne had a terrible accident. She was hit by a car when walking and three back surgeries later she is bent over in the middle and uses a walker.  She lives alone and I know that she gets lonely, unable to get around.  Her friend and her parrot are gone now.  Well, it seemed like a sign from God.  This parrot of ours would be a good match for Roxanne and she would be more attentive than I could be.  When Wally called to give her the parrot she was overcome with joy.  On their first meeting they took to each other like dear friends and she named him Wally.   I will enjoy seeing Wally the parrot when we deliver eggs each week to Roxanne.  And if she is not able to take care of him in the future he will come back to me, hopefully a reformed man-hater. 

Thursday lunch special - everybody is lunch!

If you sit still for a little while you will be surprised at what you will see.  We sat down together to rest on the veranda.  We turned our chairs to face the kitchen rather than the ocean.  We were watching the parrot climb up and down the door frame.  He maneuvers very well using his beak as another appendage.  He's smart and daring too.  As we watched, two geckos in a death grip grabbed our attention.  One of them had the other by the neck and I could see blood.  As they wrestled they fell from the top of the wall in a free fall and landed on the same wall several feet below.  Now, how did they do that?  They were flying through space - how could they grab onto the vertical plane from which they were loosed?  As we discussed the physics of that feat a large head appeared at the top of the wall.  We were not the only ones watching.  There was a large and ugly iguana with an upper body shaped like a moray eel.  We watched him take in the whole scene: the geckos, the parrot and us.  He was watching us and we were watching him.  He had been planning to settle the gecko dispute by democratically eating them both but then no one expected that free fall.  The iguana moved across the beams of the kitchen roof.  We could hear him and occasionally we could see him.  Then we noticed that there was another creature in on this event -  a gorgeous, sleek, electric-green iguana.  She was on the farthest end of the wall.  What we began to realize was she was Plan B for the moray-eel-head-iguana, but she sensed danger and dove out the back way.  Now that the big iguana was some distance from the geckos they made their move.  One was bloody and the parrot had his eye on him, and the other slipped quickly under the freezer.  What a drama!  We witnessed a showdown, an acrobatic miracle, a prowling bully and a beauty in fear of her life.  It's hard to get any rest for all the stimulation!

Another Day

After the first two days of rain it stopped.  This is the way it usually goes.  Kind of like a lawn mower that's been sitting all winter: takes a few pulls to get it started.  Anyway, I've had time to catch up on some household chores.  Put up some more hat hooks in the bathroom and installed a piece of glass in place of a screen that got knocked out by the critters when they got excited.  It was  the lower part of a screened in area of our bedroom.  We can still see out but there'll be less work fixing screens. 
I'm in the midst of a 3 year plan to automate and simplify things around here so it's not so labor intensive.  It's labor intensive becoming less labor intensive. 
Amaranths water pick quit working.  The hose got brittle and snapped.  I replaced it with some 1/4 inch drip system hose.  Gave it a bit more life.  I already have plans for it when the pump quits working. 
As I was walking past my Buddha Hands tree I noticed it was covered with small white granules.  It looked like someone had sprinkled it with laundry detergent.  It turned out to be eggs of some sort.  I've never seen anything like it before.  Must be some specialized Buddha Hands Bugs.  None of the other citrus were affected.  I got a squirt bottle with some watered down dish washing soap in it and sprayed the bottoms and tops of all the leaves.  When I checked it this afternoon it looked fine.  Most of the eggs had fallen off and the remaining ones were easy to remove. 
The chickens are doing fine.  Haven't had any predators get in the pens since I fixed the wire.  We'll be having a bunch of new babies from three nests in a week or so.   Our nests all end up being communal.  You'll see 2 or 3 hens all squished into the same box.  There are plenty of nesting boxes but they like getting together.  The goose and the duck had that going on.  The goose layed  3 eggs but something got all   all of them.  When I checked her nest to see how her eggs were doing I discovered no goose eggs and 10 duck eggs she'd snitched from the duck.  There's no male duck so her eggs weren't fertile.
Well, that's about it for now.  Things are pretty layed  back for a while.  See you tomorrow.  Wally

Problems of paradise

One of the events of the rainy season is the flying termites.  When the rains come the crowded nests get stirred up and some of the termites get wings and take off by the millions.  What you have is a big mess because they die by the millions too and do you know what you get when you have millions of dead and dying termites?   -  a gazillion wings in every nook and crook and cranny, on every surface flat and vertical.  If you try to sweep them up the wings take flight again without the termite attached.  Once I dumped a dustpan of wings over the edge of my veranda and they floated up and across the veranda again!  The ants come in for the bodies of the termites so they get swept up too. This is a unique housekeeping problem during the rains.  I won't take a photo of this phenomena as it isn't a pretty picture.

Unlike Spain, the rain in Aticama falls everywhere...

Variety as spice...

I've been glad to have Amaranth take care of the blogging for the past few days.  I got too hot when I was burying the lines for the pump and I haven't had a lot of energy.

One nice benefit from having the extra pump is we have twice the water pressure we had before so the tank is filling faster which means we can water the plants more thoroughly.  It's tough at the end of the dry season.  I start to get a little burnt out on watering.  Much of the watering is done by timers at night so we can spread out the usage over 24 hours instead of having to do it all during the day.  It is better to water at night because the plants process water at night with less evaporation for chlorophyll-making during the day.

This morning I repaired a watering system for trees below the chicken pen.  I had them all nicely mulched but the chickens removed it scratching for bugs.  Just as I finished our friend, Tom, who gave us the parrot, stopped by to see how the parrot was doing.  He was surprised that the parrot was liking life in the cage and had adopted Amaranth.  Chico doesn't like men.   My sore finger can testify to that.

At noon, friends, Kate and Greg, stopped by for lunch and brought lots of bakery goodies as a tribute for the repairs I did for them.  After lunch I worked on a pressure washer Tom had dropped off. It had been sitting for quite a while and the carburetor was plugged.  I took the carb apart, cleaned it and reinstalled it.  It started on the second pull.  I also fixed the all-important pressure relief valve.  It opens up with the build up of too much pressure.  If it doesn't open you're in for big trouble.  Something pops or blows.  The problem was someone had taken it apart and reassembled it in the wrong order.  I'd never worked on one like this but I'm good at puzzles.  I reassembled it in the sequence that made sense. It worked.  In troubleshooting, I usually study it to find the logic that went into it's design.  When I understand that the solution is clear.  Works for me.

After I got the pressure washer working I decided to give it a test drive on the bricks in front of the cono.  In no time they looked clean and new.  They tend to build up a coating of moss which can be very slippery when wet.  Just one more thing ready for before the rain begins.  The rain began on June 18th last year.  I know were getting close to the 18th, although I never am sure what day or date it is.  I usually get the year right around May or June, although not always.

After I pressure washed I finished up with some watering of trees.  We have one called "Hands of Buddha."  It's a citrus and the fruit looks like a couple of hands praying.  It's supposed to be delicious and we watch each day as it's first fruits ripen.  This year many trees will be fruiting for the first time.  Two Kumquat trees are full of fruit too.  We also have a Blue Banana from Brazil that's nearing readiness.  These bananas taste like vanilla ice cream when frozen.  We also have red bananas and some other variety I'm not sure of.  There are so many delicious varieties of bananas that you will never see in a market in the U.S.  We've been tagging the plants recently because we have too many to remember their names.  I've been planting for years and usually I just plant things and forget their names.  I got it because I liked it so when it flowers or fruits I'll be happy.  No name necessary.  Many of our tropical fruits are named differently in other countries which adds to confusion too.   I learned from local folks how to crush the leaves and smelling them to identify some trees, especially citrus.  They can tell the difference between a grapefruit and a lime or an orange just by the smell of their leaves.  Cinnamon leaves smell wonderful and make a great spicy tea.  Their bark is the source of ground and stick cinnamon.

When I first came here there were loofah vines growing.  Loofahs are those sponge like things you use to scrub up with in the shower.  They grow like cucumbers on a vine and when dried the skeleton is used as a scrubber.  I hadn't seen any in years.  I'm not sure why.  I got to thinking about it and asked around.  A month back my neighbor located a vine and brought me seeds which I planted.  I planted the vine at the base of a tree for support.  It's vigorous and happy.  Maybe that's why people got rid of it.  How many loofahs can you use?  We'll give them as gifts with some of Amaranth's home made soap.  You can eat loofahs when they're green like a cucumber.  Scrub a dub on the inside and the outside.

I planted Valerian seeds someone asked me to start for them.   You can make a calming tea from the roots and that's where Valium originated.   We also use passion flower leaves for a sleep aid.

The water tank is 5 inches from full and will fill tonight.  I rest peacefully when the water situation is under control.  It takes vigilance.  We never take water for granted.  Eventually we'd like to drill a well.  We had tests done and there is good clean water from 26 to 50 meters.  The problem is finding a company who can install the well correctly.  We had a friend who payed 26,000 dollars for his well.  It wasn't sealed right and it keeps filling with mud during the rains.  It costs him 1000 dollars to have someone clean it on a regular basis.  We've checked out other companies but haven't found one we have confidence in.  I may end up doing that myself too.

Well, it's 10:06 PM and I'm missing out on some good dreams.  Bye for now.  Wally

Parrot-parenting

Our new family member is becoming more relaxed and open to explore.  We were told that he has lived in freedom, feeding himself and living outdoors, but he doesn't fly. We put him in a large cage for the first day and then let him out during the day to explore the kitchen and veranda.  He seems to be very happy.  He likes to be wherever I am and if he hears me and I'm not in sight he gives a high scream.  He also does this when I'm on the phone.  For having been independent he seems to prefer company and attention.  He is wild though.  He bit Wally hard when he reached towards him with a perch.  Since he doesn't fly he gets around climbing with his beak to pull him up.  In addition to his scream for attention, his repertoire also includes "Paco" with his voice raising on the second syllable in a coarse and irritated manner.  Guess Paco was in trouble a lot. He also says "huevon" which means lazy - I can see a story shaping.  Another expression sounds a bit like a curse, so our new colorful member will be undergoing some reformation.  Yesterday he was drawn to the classical music playing on the XM radio.  I moved a chair in front of the radio and used it as a perch.  He sat there and made sweet little murmurs nodding to the music.  He can make some lovely purring sounds when he is content.  We are still waiting for a name to come to us, a name that will match his personality, which he reveals more each day.

Fresh flower jewels...

I had a very happy surprise on Sunday.  Wally gave me a pair of earrings he designed and had a jeweler make.  Each earring is an attractive clip fashioned from sterling wire that is meant to hold a natural flower.   What could be a finer adornment?  I wore plumeria and mandevilla yesterday and they smelled better than any perfume.  I think habanero peppers would look snappy too.  Today I am wearing lacy hibiscus.  The earrings are lovely without the flowers too as the clip is cleverly disguised in the wire design.  How precious to have Wally surprise me with such loving thought and invention and how flattering that he imagined my face framed by flowers.

Tick talk

Usually we take it easy on Sundays.  Amaranth goes to the children's mass in San Blas and I go to a nice restaurant that is peaceful and a good place to drop off into a meditative state.  We did those things this morning and then I went to work.
It's the dry season so we have to watch our water levels in the water storage tank under the house.  We use the water for household things and also to water the plants.  This time of the year it's not uncommon to go 3 or 4 days without any water coming into the tank.  We monitor the water levels every day with a dip stick I made up that is marked off in inches.  Yesterday we'd dropped off to less than a third of a tank.  I didn't sleep well last night 'cause my mind was in high gear chasing the elusive solution to our problem.  This morning in my restaurant/church I came up with a solution.  I'd install another pump further down the line to give us more pressure.  I picked up the necessary connectors at the hardware store and went to work.  Connecting the new pump was easy -  the hard part was burying the electric line.   I had to dig a trench over 150 feet long.  It took me 5 hours working non-stop with a small trenching tool.  The devilish part was I had to do it sitting and crawling through a thick tangle of jungle and underbrush that was crawling, and I mean crawling with big ticks and little ticks in all sizes and varieties.  Before starting the work I had wrapped duct tape around the bottoms of my pant legs and the cuffs of my shirt sleeves.  Even with that barrier they found their way through.  I passed through communities, maybe even cities of them and they'd be crawling everywhere.  They let me know when they found some skin and I'd stop to remove them before they dug in. Digging the trench was exhausting but I wanted to get it done cause there was no way I was going back for a second day of tick tag.  I hooked up the pump and literally crawled back up the hill.  I stopped 4 or 5 times, too tired to go on.  When I got up to the house I flipped the breaker to turn on the pumps and headed for the house to get out of my clothes and get at the ticks I could feel crawling on my  back.

As I headed toward the front of the house I became aware of people talking.  A friend, Tom, had stopped by with his wife and kids.  He had a parrot that he wanted to give us.  It  was green and red with a yellow head.  Tom let it run around free at his place but it had been getting into the neighbors fruit trees and eating the fruit, so in order to avoid a war the parrot was relocated to our parrot paradise.  Tom told us the parrot couldn't fly but was adept at climbing.  He also told us not to worry if our dogs would get along with it.  The parrot has a beak, dogs don't.  We're going to keep the parrot on the veranda so we can introduce it to the dogs with some control.
We fed the parrot a banana, plums, bok choy, homemade bread and a small piece of ham.  He loved it all.  He also loves Amaranth.  When she speaks to him in her musical way he arcs out his tail feathers and puffs up.  If he had his way she'd be sitting on eggs tomorrow. Right now his name is Chico but we want to come up with our own name for him.  We'll know when it comes to us.

Oh yes, for those of you still creeped out by the ticks crawling on me, I did slip out to take a shower while the introduction to the parrot was going on.  I found a few more ticks and Amaranth found the rest.  A good way to catch the little ones that are too small to see:  tape.  The tape picks them up and no more tick.  Of course even after you get them all you still feel those ghost ticks crawling around.  Usually nothing more than a good case of prickly heat from working in your tick suit all day.

Tomorrow I'm off to fix a friend's wheel chairs.  One has faulty brakes and the other has a broken arm rest.  I'll fix them and enjoy a good conversation as payment.

OK, another successful blog.  I was in bed and oh so comfortable when I remembered my commitment to you out there.  My bones were creaking like a model-A ford as I made my way to the computer.  Once I got started it was easy.  I really like writing and each day is so full.  It's easy to get a back log of stories to tell and they're never fresher than at the end of another satisfying day.  See you tomorrow.  Love Wally

By the way I checked and we have a full stream of water pouring into the tank.  Gracias a Dios.

Bits and Pieces

Today we harvested ginger planted over a year ago from some bought in a market in Tepic.  It's not common to find it in Mexico.  We enjoyed the plants for it's handsome foliage.  Eventually I cut the foliage back and it was dormant for about 6 months.  A month or so ago I noticed some of the roots were exposed and I started watering them again,  We now have new shoots which will make more roots to harvest later.  Amaranth likes to use ginger in her cooking and for making tea.  She plans to preserve some by candying it.  Whatever it is we like we try to grow it.  We like going to larger markets to look for things we can use for starts or seeds.

We also harvested a large pomegranate and the first of our kumquats.  We've been planting trees over the past 6 years which are bearing fruit now.  It usually takes 2 or 3 years for fruit to appear, normally the first harvest is small with the amount  increasing every year after until around the 5th year when you have a good harvest.  Around here the top soil isn't too deep so the trees spend their first few years producing roots and then foliage.  When they have enough foliage to shade the ground around them the roots stay cooler and the ground doesn't dry out so fast.  It also helps keep the weeds down.

I spent the afternoon fixing things for a neighbor.  There was a boom box that needed a cord and repairs on the volume switch.  Once I opened it there were a few more things that needed tweaking. It was made from plastic which becomes brittle with time.  There was also a bamboo lamp that needed a new cord an socket.  I'm  replacing part of the bamboo stem with our bamboo.  We grow several types of bamboo.  My favorite is yellow with green stripes.  Bamboo is great for building projects around the farm.


The tinkering section of my brain thrives on problem-solving and there's no lack of stimulus here.  I like digging through my cache for just the right something that will work as a part.  I salvage as many pieces as possible when I run into something that is truly shot.  It's satisfying to find the right piece and make something like new, in some cases, better. 

I've got a Kitchen Aid blender that some one gave us that cost over $100.00.  The impeller on top of the motor that drives the blades was made out of a rubber that had become soft with age - so soft you could roll it up into a ball.  I looked on the internet and there were hundreds of complaints to the company.  The company's position was the impellers were breaking down with misuse and they didn't acknowledge a problem with the material.  Their solution:  replacement impellers in 12-packs.  My solution:  make a mold from a new impeller out of J B Weld epoxy.  No more replacement impellers.

We have a weed eater-type mower made up of 4 or 5 different mowers.  The part that spins on the ground kept wearing out because it was made of plastic so I had a friend make one out of stainless steel.  A perfect solution, its a solid piece so it'll last for many years.

A problem I've run into with the mower motors is that they quit making them after 5 years.  They change everything just a little bit on the new models so you can't use the new stuff to fix up your old stuff.  I'm looking on the internet for someplace where some old-timers have figured a way around this problem.  Never give up.

Amaranth asked me the other day if I was an old-timer...

I'm enjoying blogging.  Usually, after a shower I'd lay down with the intent of writing in a bit, but that doesn't work cause I'm just too comfortable.  Now I do my writing after a nice hot shower and then I hit the hay.  Seems to be working.  Amaranth and I have challenged each other to write a little each day.  Not so hard once you sit down to do it.

Somos hormigas!

We attended our neighbor's birthday celebration yesterday afternoon.  Julio Cesar turned 12.  Fun was had by all.  I laughed so much my head was aching.  Wally is the big hit.  All the children adore him.  He got us all laughing by saying "somos hormigas!"  which means we are ants instead of we're friends.  He has a talent for misconstruing words in a witty way and then they are unforgettable whether in English or Spanish.

Wally the Rambler

What does it take to house and protect our chickens living on the edge of a jungle?  A lot of sewing!

Farming is all about giving yourself over to serving members of the plant and animal kingdoms.  In turn they feed us, love us, entertain us and teach us all about life and living.   Our days here on the farm are never boring and at the end of each day we feel fulfilled and satisfied.  Each day is different from the one just past.  There a lot of chores that have to be done daily like feeding the creatures and watering the plants. Mixed in with these chores are lots of interesting projects and things to challenge your mind.  Sometimes nature pops up with a surprise like a storm or a hungry critter hoping for a chicken dinner and we set aside the other projects till we've come up with a solution. 

Today, I worked on stitching together lengths of fine mesh chicken wire to keep the iguanas out of the area where the baby chickens are.  There was already a larger mesh wire but the iguanas were able to squirm through.  We lost one little baby but there are still 4 more and more on the way.  Chickens are food to lots of other animals.  We understand that but at the same time we love our chickens and do our best to help them live a long happy life.  We don't eat our chickens.  We coexist with them and share.  We feed them good food and give them lovely housing and they give us eggs and allow us to hang around and experience their unique world.  It's a fair trade and never gets old.

Another project I'm working on is converting a 1995 Land Rover out of it's computerized zombiehood to a genuine, old fashioned car with lots of user-serviceable parts.  I got the car for free cause it was not running and was going to cost a fortune to repair.  I got rid of the computerized fuel injection system and installed a carburetor.  I also adapted a Chevrolet distributor to replace the hard-to-find parts for a Land Rover one.  After I got it running the brakes quit.  I needed a new master cylinder:  $675.00 from Land Rover in Tucson, Arizona.  I replaced it with an 81 Dodge master cylinder and power booster that I adapted.   Cost for the 81 Dodge master cylinder:  $21.00.  Much better and easy to find replacements down here in Mexico.  I also got rid of the computerized brake system (anti-lock).  We won't be going over 35 mph.  I also replaced the electric window switches that needed a $350.00 control unit with some switches off my 1990 mini van.  We're out in the country here and we have to be able to keep our things running.  We do just fine. 

Among our other vehicles are a 1979 Porsche 924 that has 1990 Suzuki sidekick (4x4) running gear.  I bought the Suzuki wrecked and found the Porsche body in a field.  I bought the Suzuki for $500 and the Porsche body for $100.  I also have a 1990 Plymouth mini van with a 1990 Toyota 4x4 truck running gear.  Recycling at its best.  I also have an electric wheel barrow I made out of 2 salvaged wheel chairs.  This is one wheelbarrow you can ride.  I have a wonderfully messy shop to support all my daydreams. 

One of my favorite fixer upper projects is Moochie.  He was definitely in need of repair when we got him but he's turned into a magnificent little boy.  When the vet gave us his prognosis we decided  to try for a different outcome.  We came up with our own regimen of physical therapy and nutrition and look at the results.  Moochie has no memory of anything but a sweet life surrounded by us and 3 brothers and 3 sisters.    It's amazing how similar he is to a human child.  He likes to spread his toys all over the yard and he's joyously curious about everything.  I watched him chasing a butterfly the other day.  Something good happens when we stop to watch him or when we lay down on the grass and tussle with him for a while.  You just have to smile.

Bigger, Better Moochie

Isn't he a beautiful boy?  And smart too!  Our Moochie Carlson is a perfect example of what can happen when you decide to make the world a better place one positive act after another.  Scroll down to see what he looked like when Wally first rescued him.  He had a broken leg healed poorly and crippled.  His leg straightened as he continued to grow with good grubs.  And look Ma, no more mange. He is our joy!

From Refuse to Reuse

Don't believe what they say about newer being better.  My home is equipped with appliances that are repaired and refurbished to be better than the original.  When I was a new bride Wally told me not to throw away things that didn't work anymore.  An enthusiastic consumer, I never gave a thought to repair, always replacing the broken and shabby with new.  Wally forever changed me.  Now I am the beneficiary of the old, familiar appliances repaired, cleaned, and painted in great, new colors.  Not only do I get to hang on to my old friends like my 12 year old depilatator, but also my dad's rice cooker, bought when he and my mom divorced over 35 years ago.  Not only does it work and look great, it reminds me how even my dad was irrevocably Japanized.  These things are priceless.  Wally has reclaimed many things from being tossed in some landfill.  I have a crisp celery-green and white crockery slow cooker to complement the rice cooker and a chic pink Kenmore blender with a powerful motor of metal parts, no plastic gears; all one-of-a-kind and lovingly reconstructed to make my life easier.  I have a great affection for these machines.  They are memorials of the past that also speak of the love that surrounds me today.  In an age of entropy, where even nature seems to be losing, I have a hero in the quiet, patient, steadfastness of Wally's creative impulse.

Rose apples

Meet the rose apple: a delicious, lightly sweet, crisp fruit the size of a plum with the taste and perfume of a rose. 

Around the tropical world, rose apples are mostly eaten out-of-hand by children. They are seldom marketed.

Wally planted two trees a few years ago and now we are enjoying their white, cheerleader pom-pom flowers,  and their rosey-scented fruit.  Wally made a long pole with a hook on the end for picking the ripe fruit.  The rose apples are sturdy enough to survive the fall to the ground.  Rarely does one make the bucket.  They are consumed as quick as we pick them.  They are so light and tasty that you feel good even after eating your fill of them.