It’s a perennial problem for the organic, locally-grown fruit loving flaneur: juicy purple plums hanging over the sidewalk, shiny red apples practically dropping into your hands, apricots sweating juice on bended boughs…on someone else’s property. Should you let it fall to the ground to rot, or enter it into your own personal food supply chain?
On the one hand, we’re respectful neighbors who wouldn’t think of poaching peaches: it’s stealing! But on the other hand, with the hunger in the world, the California drought pushing up produce prices, and the specter of our mothers’ Depression-forged admonishment not to waste perfectly good food, how can you just let it go to waste?
I’m not here to discuss the legalities of it. Yes, technically you don’t own the strip of land between the sidewalk and the street, and perhaps not the things that grow on it. I’m fairly certain you don’t own any fruit that overhangs publicly owned property. But I kind of don’t care one way or the other, because I aspire to live and behave well, whether or not its legal or illegal.
What I believe is that if the fruit is going to fall on the ground and rot, if the owner doesn’t care for it, it may be eaten by those who choose. But the question is whether the owner cares.
So here are two ideas to dispel the dilemma:
First, if you own a fruit tree, raspberry bush, tomato plant or other edible that is arms reach from the sidewalk, and you don’t mind if people help themselves, let them know! Hang a sign that spells it out. “Help yourself!” “Help yourself, but only one per visit (no harvesting, please)!” Whatever you see fit, but please don’t leave people guessing.
Second, if you’re a hungry grazer in doubt, don’t be shy about ringing a doorbell or knocking to find out. What’s the worst that’s going to happen? They’ll say no, and you’ll walk on. What’s the best that will happen? They may give you a bag to help you carry home your harvest.
For a number of years, I’ve grown tomato plants next to my sidewalk, and posted “Please snack!” sign. Unfortunately, my travel this year precluded me from getting tomatoes in in time, but I’ve got an apple tree that will be up for offer in season. (Unfortunately, I also didn’t get back early enough to protect from apple maggots, so the bounty may be limited to the forgiving forager.)
And if you’re wondering what all is out there, the folks at Falling Fruit have constructed a map of publicly accessible fruit trees around the world, including thousands in Seattle. I was surprised to see that my little Braeburn tree was on the map already (I edited it to let the world know the snack bar is open.)
It’s been suggested that Wallyhood publish a ready-for-printing sign people can hang. I lack the design chops for that, but would happily feature it if someone else has it in them.
[Updated] Also, I forgot to mention the wonderful City Fruit, a group that organizes folks to harvest extra fruit from homeowners’ trees for donation to local food banks, as well spearheading other efforts to encourage urban agriculture.
Surprising that this article didn’t mention City Fruit, which is the best go-between for time-strapped fruit tree owners, and volunteers who would gladly help harvest their fruit – donating most but, last I checked, able to keep some for their own consumption. While City Fruit has been featured several times in this forum, its omission was puzzling to me.
Only surprising if you don’t know that I wrote this just after midnight, drowsy and distracted. Updated, thanks for the reminder!
This is a great article. Relevant, and addresses a current local topic.
City Fruit has selected pickers who harvest the fruit. All of the fruit is donated to the food banks. People who offer their trees do not receive any portion of the fruit harvested by the labor of City Fruit.
The article above addresses a subject that comes up every year about this time, and does it very well. It is 100% relevant for the topic, and not puzzling at all that City Fruit was not mentioned.
It is possible that “last you checked,” people who donate their trees for harvest could keep some of the harvested fruit. But it is not logical, and that surely is not the purpose of City Fruit. It is basically getting City Fruit to do the work for you free. And they do not do that now.
I work for City Fruit and can assure everyone that fruit tree owners can certainly keep some of the fruit that City Fruit harvesters get from your tree(s). Obviously, City Fruit’s mission is to donate as much fruit as possible to Seattle’s emergency food system, but the harvesters are also there with a mission to get the fruit eaten and are totally responsive to the tree owner’s needs, including leaving some of the harvested fruit for the tree owner. Any other questions, including signing up your tree(s) for harvest, email Luke Jesperson, City Fruit Harvest Manager: [email protected]
City Fruit has paid harvesters who pick a majority of the fruit from neighborhood trees, but you can sign up to help during scheduled volunteer harvests:
http://cityfruit.org/get-involved/volunteer/volunteerharvests/
I’d like to suggest alternate advice to the “hungry grazer”: let the specter of your Depression-raised mother drive you down to the grocery or farmers market, where there’s lots of fruit that has been painstakingly cultivated and harvested for you.
I guess there’s something about an apple hanging within reach that is rather compelling at some instinctive level, but for most of us it takes quite a bit of further rationalization to bring us to a stranger’s door to inquire about it. World hunger, drought in the West? Give me a break! Try to be a little aware of the sources of your own impulses.
It might not be the worst thing that could happen, but quite likely the stranger may feel a bit put upon to have to answer the door every time someone walks by and is snared by the lure of free fruit. Nor is there any guarantee that a positive answer reflects a genuine desire to distribute fruit to you, as opposed to just finding it the only gracious way out of the spot you’ve put him or her in.
It’s more of a grey area than either of us have painted it, but I thought it would be a good idea to present an alternative curmudgeon viewpoint.
hey donn – i generally agree with your comment. just a note on one sentence:
Nor is there any guarantee that a positive answer reflects a genuine desire to distribute fruit to you, as opposed to just finding it the only gracious way out of the spot you’ve put him or her in.”
that’s passive-aggressive, a common trait of “seattle nice.” we are all responsible for speaking the truth – it’s no one else’s responsibility to parse out whether they really meant it or were just being “gracious.” lying is not gracious. it’s perfectly acceptable to say “no, you can’t pick my fruit.”
First, passive-aggressive means something else to me:
Anyway, I agree that we’re all responsible for speaking the truth – if only it were so simple. There’s a cost to saying no. You can declare it perfectly acceptable but you can’t make up for that cost. We can postulate various ideal transactional outcomes, but have to bear in mind that skills vary wildly in this area, and we’re assuming interactions between strangers. I’m not saying you can’t ask a stranger for something, but it isn’t as simple as “let’s ask runyararo what’s acceptable.”
there’s really no reason to be snarky. as i said upfront, i agree with your basic premise, which i read as, “go buy your own damn fruit.” (curmudgeonly interpreted) 🙂
all i’m saying is, if one chooses to say “yes,” when one means “no,” it’s on them, not on the asker.
[i’m not a psychologist, but from anecdotal experience i suspect this scenario often results in the clinical description you posted – a person agrees to something they don’t want to, and subsequently displays hostile, sullen, sabotoging, etc. behavior when others behave consistently with his/her communicated agreement.]
i never said anything was simple; nothing about human socialization is!
Indeed – why, I don’t think I even meant to be snarky.
Surprised that the apple and plum trees in Meridian Park aren’t on the fallen fruit map. I believe City Fruit actively harvests those trees, but there is a frequent bounty to be found already on the ground this time of year.
Just so folks know…fruit on the ground does not necessarily mean that the owner of the tree doesn’t intend to harvest. Many trees begin dropping fruit weeks before the fruit is ripe – especially during hot summers. I try to keep the fallen fruit cleaned up but there’s usually some on the ground.
I don’t mind at all if folks, especially kids, grab a few of my raspberries planted on the parking strip or plums from the tree which is adjacent to the sidewalk. I even leave the lower branches just for the kids and have put out signs in the past. And I often leave a “free” sign and a pile of surplus zucchini for the neighbors. Nor would I mind if someone asked permission (though I would probably ask for an exchange or restriction – e.g., pick the fruit that is hard for me to reach).
What infuriates me, though, are people who harvest significant quantities of my fruits and vegetables without permission. Last year, my entire paste tomato crop was stolen from the parking strip and I caught a man and his young son taking all of the easy to pick plums (literally, the low hanging fruit) – and the kid spit the pits out in my driveway (to add insult to injury!) I just saw the same pair again last week checking the ripeness of my plums. I cannot imagine the thought process that allows people to think this is ok. Nor do I know what I can do to stop this theft. A sign isn’t going to help since both the tomato thief and the plum thieves were told that they could NOT help themselves.
Oh well, I suppose this is just one of the downsides to living in an urban environment with a high “walkability” score – which is something I value. I guess I need to just accept the inevitable…
Elizabeth. I guess you are right. What a poor example of dad to son. And the tomato crop steal is unforgivable. And yep, this is one of the tradeoffs, sad to say. Though I hate to think that people would not check with you. And respect your response.
Apples damaged by codling moth larvae often drop before they are ripe. So apples on the ground do not necessarily mean that your apples are ready to harvest. Ripe apples will have black or very dark brown seeds; apples with white seeds are immature. And then the true test – taste it!
We have a couple of plum and apple trees on our street.. Must admit when the kids were little, they went after the freshly fallen. The neighbors tolerated the plunder seeing that I would volunteer the kids out (after asking) to sweep and rake under the trees to keep sidewalks and lawn clear. Maybe it’s the drought, but things look a bit grim and wormy this year, but thank goodness, there are always wild blackberries for jam and pie.