Fruitluck! We had a great gathering yesterday at the Gainesville fruitluck. About 40 people attended - we met lots of new friends, reconnected with old friends, and shared SO much good food. People really came through, bringing fruits from near and far. Here's some of what was on the table: half a dozen varieties of loquat, four kinds of mulberry, carambola/starfruit, sweet oranges, Seville oranges, grapefruit, jackfruit, guava, grapes, apples, sweet tamarind, dried jujube, strawberries, blueberries, Mysore bananas, Rajapuri bananas, Cavendish bananas, green coconuts, homegrown pineapple, dried carambola, tangerine, dried sweet cherries, pomelo and more. To minimize plastic waste, instead of single use plastic utensils, we tried using "boo-tensils" - strips of a thin walled variety of bamboo, cut to six inch lengths. Those got positive feedback as an alternative to forks/spoons. Along with compostable paper plates, this meant people could just dump their used plates & utensils in the compost bucket. (We did use a bit of plastic in the form of bags for people to carry home fruit tree seeds to plant) Split bamboo sections turned out to be great for displaying small fruits. And using banana leaves as a table cloth not only added a tropical touch, it made cleanup easy - just fold up the banana leaves and compost them. The Gainesville fruitluck was inspired by attending the Tampa Bay fruitlucks - they've been having events like this since 2014. If you're in Central Florida, look them up. And if you don't live near Gainesville or Tampa, I encourage you to organize your own fruitluck - it's a great way to connect with other fruit lovers over good food. Everyone's asking when's the next fruitluck. Looks like it'll be in summer, during mango season. Stay tuned. #fruitluck #Gainesvillefruitluck