I learned recently that my house is in the currently quarantined section of Solano County because medflies had been found in the area. What that means is that I'm not supposed to move fruit and vegetables out of my property unless I process them first. Likewise, I should not be accepting fruits and vegetables from friends in the quarantine area, unless they've been processed. It will be hard because in my social circle, that's what we do, we share our produce.  

But I have no problem following rules, especially when I understand what they mean.  

Kathy Low blogged about this back in November:  

http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=25456 

So I was shocked when I found a bag of grapefruit in the house one day. A friend, who also lives in the quarantine area, gave them to my husband, who didn't have the heart to say no to a gift -  never mind that he can't eat grapefruit and I don't like grapefruit.  

What to do? I couldn't give them back; that would mean the fruit would travel out of my property. I couldn't eat them, well, I could but... too bitter for my taste. (Although if they were bitter melon, I'd welcome them with open arms and an empty pan ready for cooking.) 

I had two choices: I could double bag them and dump them in the trash or close my eyes and eat them. Seriously, trashing was not an option - too wasteful. So I cooked them and ate them; and the experience wasn't too bad.  

Lesson learned: Noli equi dentes inspicere donati. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, or in this case you should.