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There seems to be quite the split of opinion on public fruit trees. I encountered something like this when I planted a row of red currents at the front of our
by Lerc 2y ago
There seems to be quite the split of opinion on public fruit trees.
I encountered something like this when I planted a row of red currents at the front of our property. My mother-in-law said "You can't plant those there, people will take the fruit" whereas my thinking was "If I plant these here, people can take the fruit"
- Sirizarry 2y agoOne of my favorite parts of visiting family in Puerto Rico is the ability to stop almost anywhere and pick up a free, fresh mango/passion fruit/papaya/etc.. It’s a beautiful thing to experience nature providing at such scale
- userbinator 2y agoIt's truly abundance when there's so much that you don't have to ever think about running out, probably so much that it even overwhelms those mentioned in the other comments who would otherwise try to harvest as many as they could.
- indoordin0saur 2y agoWhen I visited Guatemala you could so this with avocados. There are so many there that most just fall off the trees and rot on the ground.
- rhcom2 2y agoSo weird because even with a backyard veggie garden I'm always giving stuff away. Who can eat 20 cucumbers a week.
- NetOpWibby 2y agoFarming is for the community. Love to see it.
- robotguy 2y agoReminds me of a saying I heard while living in upstate New York as a kid: You know you live in a small town when, if you leave your windows rolled down in your car at the supermarket, you come back out to find a bag of zucchini on your front seat.
- throwaway290 2y agoI think they are awesome but once you have it publicly mapped that one person will make it their biz to harvest for free all they can. The kind who has a house and a car but will go and grab all samplers or free food handouts and the like out of principle. Then locals will no longer benefit
- GJim 2y agoIt's true! Americans would rather see food thrown away than taken by somebody they feel doesn't 'deserve' it.
- 0xEF 2y agoThis is so sad to me, but thankfully, not all of us are like this. My neighborhood has a small park that features a pear tree and a plethora of frost grapes. My wife and I are of a conservationist bent, so we monitor the plants in the park for any bad news and help keep the trails manicured. I can say that pear tree and grapes are both used wisely and with others in mind, as people from the neighborhood show up to take only what they need. One lady does take a lot, but she makes terrific jams then passes them around. It's quite a positive culture around this park, and it was in place long before we moved there. It also goes against everything I otherwise tend to experience with my fellow Americans, namely greed and gluttony of consumerism.
- throwaway290 2y agoThat's awesome. Do you have tons of fruit trees around in general? If not, do you think your idyllic situation is possibly because your trees are not listed on a map? Do you think a person who really needs to eat right now and the only option is picked fruit can also be the person who has access to a website with fruit tree map and a car to get there?
- 0xEF 2y agoI am not sure why you are asking and the tone of your questioning seems more leading than curious, so I ask you, what is your point?
- kjkjadksj 2y agoThe real risk isn’t even people taking the fruit. Its rats you need to worry about. I like my fruit trees but there is at least one rat I know of that I am directly sustaining every night with this tree. Not sure what I can even do for this as if I ever catch this rat, another will take its place. Calories are on the table here, the environment is going to grow to consume that excess I’ve introduced to the local area.
- ssl-3 2y ago> Not sure what I can even do for this as if I ever catch this rat, another will take its place. Just move to Alberta[0]. 0: https://www.alberta.ca/albertas-rat-control-program https://www.alberta.ca/albertas-rat-control-program
- 10000truths 2y agoTime to make friends with your neighborhood owl/cat?
- carlmr 2y agoAncient problems require ancient solutions.
- tomcam 2y agoHere in Seattle my farm feeds raccoons, birds, deer, squirrels, rabbits, mice, rats, and bears. Occasionally the orchards are left with some for us ;)
- ajsnigrutin 2y agoA guy had a cherry tree planted nearby, and after the first few people picked the bottom ~2.5 meters, the rest started pulling and breaking down branches to reach cherries higher up, climbing over the hedge, breaking branches there too, and of course left the branches on the ground for the owner to clear. He still regrets not planting it further away from the street, unreachable to shitty people.
- II2II 2y agoA lot of it depends where you are. I lived near the downtown core of a large city, and people would (usually gently) pick the fruit off the tree next to the sidewalk. Few would venture onto the property itself, even though there was no fence and an abundance of fruit trees. It was not much of a bother. I currently live near the downtown core of a small city. You could go to bed one night with an abundance of fruit, far from the street, and awake the next day to find nothing.