>> Maybe it isn't that easy to tell - is that green
>> fruit an under-ripe lemon or a large lime? Why is
>> that green plum ripe and that one not?
>
>Was that a serious question? Try pressing them. Soft ripe. In the
>case of melons and similar stuff, press on the end opposite the
>stalk. Scent also helps (and I can tell from the far side of the
>room that the peaches in my fruit bowl are now ripe).
How soft is "soft"? you learn that by experience, same with scent and it varies between fruits. Now imagine a fruit you've never seen before, you can only see the current stage and try and work out whether it's ripe or not.
>Still, that's the RW, and maybe Glorantha is less cooperative.
Well they have chaotic plants which may appear ripe when they're not and appear unripe when they are. This may be why there are as many Uroxi as there are in Sartar - chaotic plant life is probably a bigger threat to people coming into a new place than chaotic inhabitents. Visions of a party of women gathering berries guarded by an Uroxi who suddenly decides to chop up a bush.
>> Then again we use magic to determine whether stuff is fresh
>> or not - the supermarket label giving the "best before" or
>> "sell by" date.
>
>Good grief, you don't believe/trust those things do you???
I don't but I know people who do, religiously. A classic example of skill being replaced by magic and that's in a supposedly rational world.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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