The fruit of the tree of good and ... free

A good forager knows that, while very little fruit is available in the spring, the spring is the time to scout. Perhaps the lack of overgrowth and the often clear view of the trees in public rights-of-way is the reason why USA Today ran a story Monday about the sorts of people who, like me, are always on the hunt for free fruit and nuts from public trees. It's always a great time, however, to evaluate the great resource for free, nutritious food that's so often going to waste, right in our own neighborhoods, on both public and private land.

I thought about this topic deeply last in October, when one day I walked a few blocks from my home to Trader Joe's and found a situation that made my cheeks hot with our peculiar cultural blindness.