Ever wondered how much fruit goes unharvested in your neighborhood? Some people are doing something about it- making maps and meeting friends for entirely sustainable local produce.
Tons of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables go to waste in cities each year. The growers unable to consume all their harvest, or not interested in the produce.
Gleaners are starting to map, collect and barter surplus fruit in city neighborhoods. Websites are popping up with databases of fruit trees that hang into public spaces, or have owners that want to share the harvest.
Fallen Fruit has eight neighborhood maps of fruit trees that hang over public spaces in L.A., and it’s legal under California law to pick what’s within reach. They also have tips on making a neighborhood fruit map, and an online interactive map. Good for anybody who wants some fruit.
Urban Edibles is a cooperative network of wild food foragers in Portland, OR. You can use their website to search by category of produce, or location. Markers on Google Maps pinpoint the food at the address. In the Ethics section they suggest taking only as much as you’ll use, and considering the impact on the plant, and the neighborhood.
Neighborhood Fruit helps match up people with extra fruit with people who will pick it, buy it, or trade for other fruit. Those who register their trees can be contacted by prospective pickers and eaters. The owners can choose to share their address after they’ve been contacted. The database covers the United States, although many areas will only have one or two listed fruit sharers.
Veggie Trader also asks you to register, and post what produce you have available for trade or sale. They suggest traders meet in public places to buy sell or swap produce. The website filters out produce that is quarantined or controlled by state laws. Like Neighborhood Fruit, Veggie Trader is a national database, so chances of finding something in your neighborhood aren’t yet huge.
Forage Oakland encourages locals to ask neighbors with extra fruit if they can harvest it, and make a rough map. One of the aims listed in the Manifesto is to encourage community building through such interactions, and hopefully mutual sharing. The harvest is done by a few people, and usually bartered for some other crop the foragers will glean during the season.
Other groups look for surplus fruit to donate to food pantries Ample Harvest arranges for gardeners with surplus produce to donate to local food pantries, so does North Berkeley Harvest and SF Glean, both in the San Francisco bay area.
Nothing in your area? With a marker and a little courage to get friendly with your neighbors, you can start a neighborhood harvest of your own.
Read more on SustainLane about foraging:
Urban Foraging: The Ultimate in Eating Hyper-Local
Pat C. says:
Although I am a person who freely picks friut off of my neighbors front yard trees, I take exception with Cjay's statement that "[t]ons of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables go to waste in cities each year." Waste is a Human concept and this statement seems to characterize waste as anything not utilized by a human. Nature does not waste and does not understand the concept. Just because humans are not utilizing the fruits and vegetables that are freely produced by the plants does not mean that other animals are not utilizing them and thus the fruits and vegies are not going to waste. Inevitably all the friuts and vegies not eaten by humans or other large animals will be broken down by smaller animals (worms, ants, etc.) and bacteria and utilized by the plants. There is no such thing as waste in the natural world.
Cjay R. says:
Or they will rot on the sidewalk, or in someone's backyard. Some urban animals make use of fallen fruit for sure. Ive not seen a walnut go to waste so long as I've lived in Oakland... but I have seen a lot of other produce go uneaten by any creatures.