About a year ago I mentioned here about the small but significant gesture that is Feral Fruit Mapping... and now it's that time of year again (southside of this planet, anyways)... things are blossoming left, right and centre, and it is therfore a most excellent time to get your Feral Fruit Map going and map out where fruit is overhanging fences and growing roadside in your area, in preperation for the potential harvest to come...

Since I posted about this subject last year, I've discovered a bunch of folks both in Oz and abroad who are collating and sharing knowledge on this sorta subject in a variety of formats, which is great! However, I cannot help but be a little amazed that it isn't happening more visibly, more often... ah well - perhaps one of the potential upsides to the recent economic downturn is that more people look to their back lanes and roadsides for some old-fashioned sustenance, rather than doing their hunting and gathering gathering only from their supermarket shelves...

At anyrate, here's what I've stumbled across so far in the last year - please let me know if you know of other examples...

FallenFruit.org - LA based fruit mappers/artists: "Using fruit as our lens, Fallen Fruit investigates urban space, ideas of neighborhood and new forms of located citizenship and community. From protests to proposals for new urban green spaces, we aim to reconfigure the relation between those who have resources and those who do not, to examine the nature of & in the city, and to investigate new, shared forms of land use and property." Go Kids. The site includes simple 'how tos' on mapping etc. Here they are on Facebook and even at Ars Electronica.

Urban Orchard projects - Loose but wonderful affiliations of residents who share and swap surplus fruit and produce once a month... sorta Feral-Fruit-Comes-to-U... You show up with lotsa lemons and you swap for apricots and some beans. Obviously the majority of the participants have their own tree of some type in their yard, but who's to complain if you show up with a load of fejoas that you gathered from that abandonded house next to the railway line? There seems to be a Melbourne contingent hosted by Ceres, and the Sydney one is starting up via Alfalfa House. Also, a How-to guide for setting an Urban Orchard up in your community...

Weedy Connection - Diego is a Sydney based artist who had created a damn fine 'useful + edible weed' database and regularly holds weed workshops around Sydney and beyond... he's apparently keen to start on a Sydney Feral Food map so I'm hopeful that mentioning it here will give him a proverbial poke. Remembering that a weed is, by definition, only a plant out of place, there's alot more to be gleaned in your local park than you might think...

And then there's folks like Leda who commented on the last Feral Fruit post with; I've been using the Google maps function on my iPhone to map the fruit trees here in Brooklyn, NY. I just bookmark each tree with a description and a pin on the map. Works beautifully! I also include a note about the date that particular fruit was ripe.

I've also hear rumours of State-based initiatives to map the feral food of a community for that communities use... especially in Melbourne - but as yet I have no proof that I can pass on. Oh and lastly there's the National Post of Canada, who decided to do an article on this subject and quoted us... 

But surely that's not it? Anyone got any other leads? Or maps? Or community initiatives? Perhaps, as my own mother pointed out (who is a feral fruitier from way back) some folks keep the location of their secret peach trees to themselves... but I say that resource shared is a resource expanded so... any other leads on like-minded projects?

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Comments (11)

rhonda jean said:

I have no info about organised groups but I do know of some great places to collect wild fruit. From mid to late summer, just south of Armidale, on the New England Highway, you'll find some very old apple trees full of fruit. Closer inspection will also reveal blackberries growing up through the trees. The are old variety apples, you could possibly grow the trees from the seeds, but they are best used for cooking as they're quite tart. In an apple pie or crumble, nothing could be better. Also, closer to where I live, all over the sunshine coast and hinterland, you'll find avocados lying on the ground waiting to be picked up, as well as macadamias and mangoes. The further north you go, the more wild mango trees you'll see. This is also a summer crop. Maybe you could start a register of where all this fruit is. :- )

September 27, 2008 | url

Luca said:

I have deliberately planted an olive and a lemon and a passionfruit near my fence boundary in Petersham. Probably I'll get kicked out of my rented flat by rising costs of living, but I hope the legacy of these overhanging edibles will contribute to the feral fruit bonanza in the future!!

October 01, 2008 | url

hardworkinhippy said:

Great idea ! I saw a video about community fruit trees when I was on a Permaculture Design course a few weeks ago. It was really exciting watching everyone in the village - especially the kids - getting involved in the project and the fruit gathering. Planting edible trees is so easy and so important and the more we have the more we can share the bounty and stop worrying about keeping their location a secret.

October 11, 2008 | url

julie said:

I am in Melbourne and do this...though I did not know of a group in my area. thanks!

October 19, 2008

joel said:

Amazing work - it's really wonderful to watch Milkwood grow! For folks that are in Adelaide, there's an Urban Orchard project that's run out of the Clarence Park Community Centre once a month, by Friends of the Earth and the Goodwood Goodfood Co-op, (thanks for putting up a link to the guide I wrote about starting one up!) Right now in Adelaide the loquats are poppin', the ravens leave more than enough for loquat pie and loquat crumble!

November 06, 2008

pliner said:

I did not know of a group in my area. thanks you so match!

November 24, 2008 | url

the weed one said:

oops, and i read only now! i did put up a database at weedyconnection.com and i do run regular tours and i do want to start up a simple google map for feral fruits, starting from the amazing work the residence in chippendale are doing, see their free food gardens they plant by the kerbs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/t...2/sizes/l/ for images n here for a little write-up: http://www.weedyconnection.com/blog/2008/10/10/food-for-the-future-in-chippendale/

December 11, 2008 | url

Trevor Shaw said:

The feral fruit tree mapping sounds like a great idea I searched the google maps with no success I live in Bulli N.S.W any help on the subject would be great!

January 17, 2009

Trina said:

I love this idea. Every time I walk around my neighbourhood I think of this and spot feral fruit. I would really like to add to a Sydney map. IS there one? I am in the the north western suburbs of Sydney. Cheers

February 27, 2009 | url

Trina said:

Info on my map in Sydney is here http://www.greenfoot.com.au/2009/04/22/i’m-feral-fruit-tree-mapping/

September 10, 2009 | url

Axel said:

Hey I couldnt find any substantial feral fruit maps in melbourne so i've been building this website over the last few days with the hope that people will collaborate and expand the overall map. Here is the link http://feralfruitmelbourne.wordpress.com/ Please feel free to link it or pass it on to any like minded people. Cheers.

February 22, 2010 | url

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