Urban foraging.
When I was little, my Aunt Cleda made crabapple jelly. It is a delicate, pale pink color with a bright, tart flavor. She collected fruit off the ornamental trees in the parking lot of the Target near her. No one picked the fruit - if she hadn't made jelly with it, it would fall and rot after the birds ate their fill.
Since I was a kid, I had an interest in urban foraging, although I wouldn't have known to call it that. With Girl Scouts, we went hiking at Natural Gorge and there was a little stream next to the trail, clustered with wild blackberry vines. We stopped and drank the water, ate the berries. I wouldn't dare to drink water like that now, but I'd still stop to try the berries. I loved the idea of just finding food in unexpected places. I'd read about you could eat young cattail roots, and how tender they are. I knew there were cattails growing in the ditches behind Aunt Cleda's apartment, but I had no desire to go swimming in that murky, foul water much less eat the cattail roots growing in that filth.
This year, Mom & I went back to an area close to Aunt Cleda's apartment to pick crabapples. Her old mother lode by the old Target is gone now - they dried up and died when Target left the space. The new Target didn't plant the same prolific variety. We picked giant crabapples from the apartments there - the twisted, wizened trees by the road were heavy with ripe fruit. I chopped and froze the fruit, planning to make crabapple bread later. I was going to try and make jelly but I waited too long and the fruit went over.
There are mulberries growing next to my parking lot at work. This last year, it was a bumper season. I made cobbler and berries in syrup to pour on ice cream. The birds couldn't eat enough - the ground was soft and giving underfoot where all the fruit had fallen to rot. The berries were so large, when I posted photos some friends argued that those weren't mulberries, they MUST be blackberries.
There is a website called Falling Fruit where you can map out where there are fruit and nut trees, produce, or even dumpster diving, fresh water spring and game. You can specify how good of a haul it provides, is it on public land or private, so on. There are some things I can readily identify, but there are a lot of plants listed on the map that I am unfamiliar with. I need either a good field guide or someone with more of a background in botany or plant identifications.
Next year, I want to make crabapple jelly like Aunt Cleda used to make. I want to make mulberry jam to save for winter days when the taste of summer would be welcome. And I want to find more nuts and fruits around here, to use this bounty and save it from waste. I don't understand how people can turn their noses up at free food like this. I understand how people have distaste for the concept of dumpster diving, but this is so different. People will drive to a u-pick it orchard and pay to pick fruit, but they won't do it when it is on an empty lot or overhanging a street!
There is even a movement where people will graft fruit branches onto non-producing trees to create a fruiting tree. Some cities consider this a form of vandalism - they don't want fruit dropping onto the sidewalks to rot. How short-sighted... We have a way of helping to feed our population and of helping our fellow man. I just can't see the downside of this.
Since I was a kid, I had an interest in urban foraging, although I wouldn't have known to call it that. With Girl Scouts, we went hiking at Natural Gorge and there was a little stream next to the trail, clustered with wild blackberry vines. We stopped and drank the water, ate the berries. I wouldn't dare to drink water like that now, but I'd still stop to try the berries. I loved the idea of just finding food in unexpected places. I'd read about you could eat young cattail roots, and how tender they are. I knew there were cattails growing in the ditches behind Aunt Cleda's apartment, but I had no desire to go swimming in that murky, foul water much less eat the cattail roots growing in that filth.
This year, Mom & I went back to an area close to Aunt Cleda's apartment to pick crabapples. Her old mother lode by the old Target is gone now - they dried up and died when Target left the space. The new Target didn't plant the same prolific variety. We picked giant crabapples from the apartments there - the twisted, wizened trees by the road were heavy with ripe fruit. I chopped and froze the fruit, planning to make crabapple bread later. I was going to try and make jelly but I waited too long and the fruit went over.
There are mulberries growing next to my parking lot at work. This last year, it was a bumper season. I made cobbler and berries in syrup to pour on ice cream. The birds couldn't eat enough - the ground was soft and giving underfoot where all the fruit had fallen to rot. The berries were so large, when I posted photos some friends argued that those weren't mulberries, they MUST be blackberries.
There is a website called Falling Fruit where you can map out where there are fruit and nut trees, produce, or even dumpster diving, fresh water spring and game. You can specify how good of a haul it provides, is it on public land or private, so on. There are some things I can readily identify, but there are a lot of plants listed on the map that I am unfamiliar with. I need either a good field guide or someone with more of a background in botany or plant identifications.
Next year, I want to make crabapple jelly like Aunt Cleda used to make. I want to make mulberry jam to save for winter days when the taste of summer would be welcome. And I want to find more nuts and fruits around here, to use this bounty and save it from waste. I don't understand how people can turn their noses up at free food like this. I understand how people have distaste for the concept of dumpster diving, but this is so different. People will drive to a u-pick it orchard and pay to pick fruit, but they won't do it when it is on an empty lot or overhanging a street!
There is even a movement where people will graft fruit branches onto non-producing trees to create a fruiting tree. Some cities consider this a form of vandalism - they don't want fruit dropping onto the sidewalks to rot. How short-sighted... We have a way of helping to feed our population and of helping our fellow man. I just can't see the downside of this.