Photo by Rick Gush
One of my passionfruits I harvested from a vine I train to grow on my driveway fencing .
To many people , harvest wild fruit might mean walk in the forest to garner wildraspberries ; to an urban Fannie Merritt Farmer , harvesting uncivilised yield means find sown jewels growing right in the middle of the urban / suburban jungle . These crop are fully grown and more various than the ones found in the hill .
One of my friends , a prof of farming ecology , often promotes “ agro - forestry , ” in which wood are specifically cultivated in a manner that yields comestible product without classical farming cultivation . The deception is to select of course uprise species that are privilege in a forestry sustainment program .
I ’m doing something similar with the passionfruit vine that was once part of the risky “ jungle ” produce along a little brook next to my drive . I ’ve discipline it to raise up along the fence and rend away the Boston common ivy rival whenever it sends shoots into the fence area . Shown above is one of the passionfruits I harvested from this “ voluntary ” vine . Now , I have a very healthy , ferine passionfruit vine that produces fruits that I really revel eating .
As far as I can see , this is urban agro - forestry .
Another way to reap wild fruit is to discover fruit - stand landscape plant that are not harvest by the owners . These plant can be found in abandoned place — hanging over a paries or somebody ’s front yard . Owners of these plants will often give you permission toharvest the yield .
The amount of unharvested yield in the suburbs is Brobdingnagian , especially the amount of olives that drop to the sidewalk in the Southwestern United States . Unharvested fruit on municipal urban trees is also amazingly openhanded , as well .
Urban region declare oneself a monumental amount of weedy berry vines . An minute ’s walk around just about any metropolitan area will give a act of likely fruit - collect sites .
I used to live in Las Vegas , Nev. , which has a high Mormon population . Mormon , known to be good farmers and food preserver , often build food for thought reserves . That farming heritage is disappearing though , and many of the younger Mormon are n’t familiar with basic farming .
I once organized an urban yield harvest home and canning group for young Mormons , where we all ran around the older neighborhoods harvest plums , apricot , salmon pink and nectarine on Tree belonging to owners who did n’t want to be bothered to glean them .
We harvested a ton of fruit and canned a lot of jams and preserved fruit . We even made some delightful fruit juices . The young Mormons thoroughly revel the natural action , and it was plain a fun experience for them .
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