Foraging may invoke images of hiking through the woods in search of wild mushrooms and greens, but also can be done in more areas.  In Oakland, a young Chez Panisse employee is establishing a network of individuals who will collaborate with her in her mission to use the fruit on local trees, rather than see it go to waste.

A recent San Francisco Chronicle article describes how:

“The response has been enthusiastic – more than 120 people have registered, and now she spends her free time bicycling through East Bay neighborhoods, harvesting at one home and delivering to another. Wadud doesn’t pick anything without asking for permission – difficult at first for a born introvert. But now, the moments she spends with strangers and neighbors in their backyards, trying to thread a long-handled picker through tree branches to reach the highest-hanging fruit, are tiny revolutions against the anomie that is so common in urban life.”

The full article, which can be found here, describes how urban foraging is both ideologically based on strengthening community ties in a creative manner while it pragmatically  allows one to take advantage of a local resource and save money.

The Forage Oakland blog is online at ForageOakland.blogspot.com.

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Uncategorized by Wendy Van Wagner