Honesty Boxes

In case you missed the short item about this cyclist down under, it is worth a look.  So is the related item (click the image above to go to the original) about honesty boxes:

Many tourists in automobiles surely pass right by them unaware—but cyclists see these handmade, unguarded food stalls in the distance, usually first as a cardboard sign advertising some product of the homestead. Many times it’s just pine cones, sacks of sheep stool or firewood—and sometimes the sign is just a notice that a reputed local bull is ready and eager to mate.

But other times these signs tell passersby of apricots for sale at $3 for a kilogram bag, or walnuts at $2 for a heaping sack, or garden fresh eggs $4 for a dozen. Some stalls—generally about the size and appearance of a doghouse—hold avocados, peaches or rhubarb, and the excitement as one approaches from the distance is in anticipating just what you’re going to get. One day two weeks ago, as I rode from Akaroa west across the flat and swampy farmland by Lake Ellesmere, just a bit south of Christchurch, I was starved and out of gas in a region conspicuously void of grocery stores.

Then, in the distance, an honesty box appeared.

It pays to be honest, and this meager-looking honesty box in the Catlins village of Niagara generates $5,000 a year, according to its owner. Some small farmers fear that a developing Parliament bill could control or restrict such roadside sales of food.

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