Wild food

Apple tree in the parking lot of my office

There is so much food growing in this city.  I am not talking about urban farms, backyard gardens, or window sill basil plants.  Although all of those are really really amazing.  I mean the wild blackberries growing on every corner, the pear apple tree about 5 blocks from my house on the side of the road, the plum tree in the alley way, the sage and rosemary everywhere you look, the raspberries that couldn't be any sweeter, and the apple tree in the parking lot of my office.  And so much more.  Nobody has planted them, they just grow and produce fruit for passers by.  It's really quite wonderful.  I went for a bike ride this weekend, and had a little snack of raspberries from the side of the bike trail.

The only bad thing, is that nobody harvests the fruit.  Most of the trees/plants have an abundance of fruit that end up on the ground rotting.  Like in the parking lot at work, and then everyone just gets annoyed that they have apple on their shoes.  And then there's the plums in the alley way that have gotten on my bike wheels many times already.  Those same plums sell for a few dollars a pound at the store.

But I heard today of this volunteer organization that goes around and harvests all of the wild food that is growing around here.  They take it home, wash it all up, and then drop it off at the food bank.  So the food bank gets fresh, local, healthy food; the plants get harvested instead of wasted; and there is no mess on the streets and sidewalks.  Such a good idea where everyone wins.

On another note, there are also tons of home gardens, community gardens (p-patches) and urban farms around here which is great.  A lot of people have numerous raised beds on the little grassy area between the sidewalk and the street in front of their house.  So I go for a walk around town and there are tomatoes and beans and kale and radishes growing right on the sidewalk.  All of this food (wild or not) are one of my favorite things about this city.  Although I have a lot of favorite things about this city.