One of my friends told me there are areas along the river that have trees laden with apples and pecans right now. they are just going to waste. I need to set aside a day to go collect them. That will be fun.

I can set aside the nuts as is, and with the apples I can make a sort of root cellar area, and also dry some.

There are also a ton of prickly pear fruits along the side of my road that are going to waste. I need to collect them and i am thinking of drying them as well. I need to figure out how to pick them without getting needles in my skin!

I think that if there is food going to waste, that it's a good idea to collect it. One can even offer the excess on freecycle or craigslist. The law states that you can't go into someone's property but you can collect anything for yourself that overhangs a public space.

Does anyone have public or semi-public food that they are collecting?

Some years I collect elderberries to make elderberry syrup to give as Christmas gifts. I also eat found overhanging fruit as I'm walking along the street if I'm hungry. Blackberrying on public property and roadways is such a Portland tradition that no one even thinks of it as foraging.

Apparently there is a website where you can find sites with public food and people who have fruit trees etc on their property can list them if they want people to come on to their property and take it, but I haven't been able to find it. :-( I wish I could, I want people to come take my grape leaves, so I don't have to compost them (have a particularly lovely crop as well.)

Julie

Julie

Actually, maybe I should eat the grape leaves, since they are one of the few green leafy foods on my allergy diet! I can have rice and olive oil too, so I could make stuffed grape leaves.

Julie

Ooo, that website idea is brilliant! I'm going to have to go look for it!

YAY! I found it: neighborhoodfruit

You can post public trees or your own trees, or look for fruit near you! Cool.

Hmm. There is nothing near me. There are some orange trees in Phoenix but i am not driving there. Plus I don't like citrus fruit very much.

I will post a link to this on my local blog anyway and maybe we can get some interest drummed up. I know the apples, pears and pecans are ready right now, as are berry bushes.

Jill thanks for finding that! I'm checking it out now!

Julie

Also don't forget the Crab apples- cooked and strained, the juice adds an edge and stretches out any store bought fruit juice!

True. I am thinking of drying crabapple slices this fall. I wonder how that would taste.

I also have a bunch of prickly pear fruit i want to slice and dry but i am intimidated by the little spines.

There are also cattails in Flagstaff if I wanted to do something with those.