Yep. This house has a fruit tree (persimmons) and it has, i think pears, hanging over from the street. I don't eat them. I have food issues. I wanted to eat them, but I can't. In fact, the less connection I have with my food's origins the better. I'm fairly sure it's mild OCD issues, but some of the childhood experiences with the sources of food have left me permanently unable to eat certain foods. The less I see and think about it the better. I know this is irrational, but anyhow.

A neighbor wanted to take some, and we gladly let her. I let my parents take some persimmons. But lots of the fruits will just fall and be wasted. At our last house we did use some of the lemons (the thick skins of lemons and oranges, the fruits we had, made them okay for me), but we honestly could not use nearly as many lemons as we grew. I even made fresh lemonade once when I had a guest. But I personally don't like lemonade. I use a bit of lemon in a recipe here or there, but short of lemonade, how do you use up oodles of huge lemons? And I couldn't get them to my parents as often as I'd have liked to.

I live in California and tons of houses have some sort of food growing tree. I see little fruits falling down wasted onto the sidewalk whenever I travel in a particular direction. Many people end up with some random food with their rental, whether it's one they will use or not. But it's too small scale and too much effort to get it to someone useful.

And while it's wasteful, at least some of it may be used. Which makes it a lot less wasteful than a lot of the other crap people plant in an area prone to droughts.