How to Find Wild Foods for Free
What Urban Food Foraging is All About
Are you tired of the high price of groceries? Our family is too, which is why we've embraced urban food foraging as a way to find free produce. Urban food foraging is a trendy new name for finding free wild fruits and veggies which are growing in parks, along canals, and in the parkways of your city.
The idea that free food is growing in any city is a bit of a surprise. While most cities don't intentionally plant fruit trees and berry patches, these wild foods often turn up in the most unexpected places. Some grew from seeds that a bird might have dropped years ago. Others are the remains of old homestead lots where previous owners once maintained a small orchard. Even flowering trees such as ornamental plums and crabapples can suddenly decide to produce edible fruits. With most cities preferring not to cut down any type of mature landscaping, they will often leave these old fruit trees and shrubs alone which means free wild food for anyone who is interested.
The most common way of finding food is just by keeping your eyes open the next time you are in a park or taking a walk. I found the wild produce in our area just by walking around alleys, canal banks, and the fringes of school yards and old neighborhood parks. If you live in large city, some of the work might have already been done for you by a local urban food foraging group. These informal groups maintain a community website and post the GPS coordinates of wild foods that urban foragers have discovered around the city.
Before you start foraging for free wild food, there's a few basic rules you should know.
The idea that free food is growing in any city is a bit of a surprise. While most cities don't intentionally plant fruit trees and berry patches, these wild foods often turn up in the most unexpected places. Some grew from seeds that a bird might have dropped years ago. Others are the remains of old homestead lots where previous owners once maintained a small orchard. Even flowering trees such as ornamental plums and crabapples can suddenly decide to produce edible fruits. With most cities preferring not to cut down any type of mature landscaping, they will often leave these old fruit trees and shrubs alone which means free wild food for anyone who is interested.
The most common way of finding food is just by keeping your eyes open the next time you are in a park or taking a walk. I found the wild produce in our area just by walking around alleys, canal banks, and the fringes of school yards and old neighborhood parks. If you live in large city, some of the work might have already been done for you by a local urban food foraging group. These informal groups maintain a community website and post the GPS coordinates of wild foods that urban foragers have discovered around the city.
Before you start foraging for free wild food, there's a few basic rules you should know.
- Don't trespass on private property. Canal banks, railroad embankments, parks, school yards, and other public places are OK. If your search leads you to a seemingly abandoned lot or alley with fruit trees, be sure to ask the neighbors first before helping yourself to some fruit.
- Don't harvest contaminated food. Chemical sprays, animal droppings, automotive fluids and exhaust can contaminate wild food. Before picking produce in parks and other public areas, be sure to call City Parks to ask if they spray for pests or weeds.
- Treat the plants gently. Avoid manhandling the trees by pulling down branches or pulling up entire plants to harvest some produce. Careful handling will help keep these plants producing year after year.
- Don't eat food you can't identify. Wild apples, plums, apricots, grapes and blackberries are easy to identify because they are just smaller versions of what you'd find in the store. If you run across something you are not so sure of, either leave it alone or take a sample to your local nursery for identification.
- Leave plenty for others. As the economy continues to look bleak, more people than ever are turning to wild foods as a way to supplement their meals. So that there's enough for everyone, don't take more than your family can eat in a couple of days. It's fine to break this rule however when the food is clearly going to waste.
Published by C. Jeanne Heida - Featured Contributor in Business & Finance and Lifestyle
Jeanne is a small business owner with 25 years experience in the real estate industry. A consistent Y!CN Top 100 writer, her articles can be found at Y!Finance, Shine, Your Wisdom, DEX, and the Scripps Net... View profile
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7 Comments
Post a CommentInteresting article!
Wonderful idea. I should start looking for these on my next nature walk. :)
I've made crab apple jelly before - it was pretty good.
I'm a firm believer in foraging, although the brush and overgrowth is so thick here I can't get to my favorite places anymore. Add the two wildcats and abundant coyotes, and a foraging trip is kind of like taking your life in your hands. I'd sure love to cut my way through to two persimmon trees on a hill back in the property though. They were great! Of course I could get the in-laws' four-wheel truck and a shotgun and hope for the best. But the peach trees in my yard were much easier this year! Cheers, always enjoy your articles!
I love this article - cheers ;)
I really enjoyed this article! We know many people who have fruit trees or bushes and they never do anything with the produce. We are more than happy to take it off their hands. ;)
I think it was Abby who wrote an article regarding a family who ate the mushrooms that grew in their yard. Perhaps they considered these mushrooms a form of 'foraging.' I guess in this economy, its sad, but who knows what some might resort to to survive. In this area however, foraging is not something that can be done in the city limits. I think perhaps outside of the city in the more rural areas, it may be a possibility. I am not sure though even then if I would consider foraging. I have a problem eating my own home grown tomatoes. Just hte thought of growing them in the soil around my house causes me a problem. It's psyschological, I know. As long as I don't see where they grow, I am okay. But, the minute I see them growing out of the soil, I cannot eat the produce. But, i guess I could take them down to the local grocer and sell them. Now that's an idea.