Ceylon gooseberry, for starters

**S* R* <s*@hotmail.com>**

Dear Dr. Parma, and esteemed list members (Hi everybody!),

Hi from the state of Indiana in America, at the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers, where it is 81 degrees F and steamy humidity at nearly 11:00 p.m. Fireflies (Lampyridae; do you have them there?) are still blinking yellow in the warm night, but the cicadas have gone to bed already. No moon, because it's in what we call the new phase, but you're seeing that, too. (What do you call the phases of the moon in India?) (And isn't Jupiter looking swell in Sagittarius these nights?)

I read through your posts and the responses tonight, and I'll let others talk about the politics of outsourcing and the global economy. I believe that we're all in this together, and that soon we will all realize that and start working cooperatively so that our species survives, and not at the detriment of the multitude of other species we are affecting. Communication, I'm convinced, is key. So is compassion.

Mainly, though, I want to say thank you for your fantastic website, and urge all other list members to take a minute to check it out.  My goodness! I thought I had some knowledge of unusual fruits, but I am absolutely humbled. Your site is an unbelievable educational tool. Thank you so much. Maybe someday I can see some of these fruits for myself. I've learned a ton in just a few minutes of investigating it. I look forward to spending more time learning from it, although my mouth was watering within 5 minutes.

If you ever get to Indiana, give me a holler. I'd be happy to show you our native berries and papaws and persimmons and other fruits, as well as our pecans and walnuts and hickories, all sweet, edible nuts. As I'm sure all members of this list would like to do, should you ever find yourself in their neck of the woods. I'm sorry to say the fabulous American chestnuts have been wiped out in
this part of the country, although those majestic trees still thrive in
Washington state (and the delicious nuts ripen a week before Halloween, if you
happen to be in Portland, Oregon, for a conference at that time).

Thanks for a glimpse of the Tropics, and hello to India. Hello to New York, Michigan, California, Ontario, and all the other parts of the world represented on this board, too. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go have a slice of watermelon---whose seeds the Africans imported to America as slaves brought here from their homes across the ocean. Small world, isn't it?

Happy to make your acquaintance,
Sally Roth

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