A fit of pique over unharvested apples

Out walking with the baby yesterday - something I spend a lot of time doing these days - and I became (possibly irrationally) annoyed.

Walking down a posh private road some distance from my own slightly less salubrious area, I spied a big house with several apple trees dotted about the large front lawn. They were smothered in unpicked fruit. I am not an apple expert but I do know they should have been harvested long ago. What a waste! I guess it seems like a lot of work, but how rewarding to eat (or juice, or cook with) your own fruit harvest.

On the upside - the apples will be a welcome food source for many birds and insects this winter. I wonder how long they'll stay on the tree for?

Comments

[Joanna]

Hi Jane ...

You'd probably be annoyed with me, too ... we have quite a few apple trees here, and I don't always manage to pick much of their fruit. I give away what I can, I use as much as I can, I store as much as I've got time for (all of this varies with the year) - and then I leave the windfalls on the grass for the insects, and the remaining apples on the branches for the birds. The birds in my garden give me at least as much pleasure as anything I grow (with the possible exception of my tulips and dahlias) .. we often get some quite unusual birds, and the generous quantities of entirely natural foodstuffs may well be part of it.

In my defence, I can only say that the trees were here before me, I didn't plan them, wouldn't have had so many apples, and do try to use them as much as fits in. I suppose if we bought a press and started to make cider - but, to be honest, I don't really drink cider

And in your defence - I can see exactly how annoying all this is for a keen gardener passing by.

Make the most of those lovely walks with your baby - it's a golden time in your life, despite the irritations ;)

Joanna

[Jane Perrone]

Joanna, you're absolutely right - easy for me to judge, but yes, if you have a lot of trees it must be a pain. When I think of all the gardening jobs currently languishing on my to-do list, I blush ...

Perhaps there should be some kind of legalised scrumping/barter system where those who want apples and those with loaded trees can get connected ...

[Podchef]

In some places in the States and British Columbia volunteer groups harvest fruit and nuts from urban areas. The deal is they get to keep a third, they give a third to the land owner, and they distribute a third to charity groups for the "food insecure"--canna call them poor or needy anymore. . .In other areas cider societies hoover up all and any unwanted apples. I myself scavenge for apple to feed my livestock and happily pick up windfalls whenever and where ever I can.

On a side note--it's bad horticulture to leave apples or pears on the ground around the base of the trees. It attracts pests, and insects which can damage the tree itself, and if left to rot the fruits can create adverse soil conditions and promote diseases. If you look at seedling trees in nature or forgotten semi-wild fruit trees in hedgerows they never have this windfall problem as deer, badgers, mice, birds and a host of other critters clean everything up and carry the seeds away from the mother tree. Something to think about in a busy allotment or urban garden setting.

[frankie]

I've eaten all my apples from the garden and have to confess to putting shop bought ones in the trees to attract blackcaps into the garden - what on earth must passers by think of me???

[Woody Wilbury]

Two options which might make you feel better:

Go and ask them if you can harvest their unwanted crop, or

Leg it over the wall and harvest them anyway. Technically I think this is called theft, but leaving them to rot away unpicked is pretty criminal too, M'lud

[Patrick]

I have a similar problem. On my house in Amsterdam I have a grape vine growing on the front left by the previous owner. The main problem is the grapes are just not nice to eat. They are growing in the wrong climate and the variety of grape is not very nice. It's also not a clean environment, for example the street has many delivery vans that run on diesel. It's a city!

It's a really pretty plant, and I like having clusters of grapes hanging outside my windows in the summer. Many people tell me it looks nice, and when I cut it back at the end of the year people are often afraid I'm removing it and ask me to stop.

The grapes have seeds that attract a lot of interesting birds, which of course make a mess when they eat the seeds, but both I and the city regularly clean this up. It also drops a lot of leaves in the fall.

As well as having a lot of people who tell me it looks nice, a small number of people complain. What a mess! There are hungry people living on the streets of Amsterdam and letting food go to waste like that in front of them is insulting!

No one has ever come by with a constructive suggestion on how the grapes might be put to a good use, or offered to help. I've also given grapes away to anyone who has ever asked for some.

There is just no pleasing everyone, and probably soon I'm going to get rid of the plant just so the controversy goes away and the neighborhood can live in peace again.

Some people just grow fruit because the plants look nice.

[ricki]

We live on four acres outside of Portland OR in the states. A small orchard came with the property when we came here four years ago. It is a lot of work, even though we do no spraying. There is pruning to be done in the spring, and, come fall, the bounty is a mixed blessing. The first year, I put up jams, chutneys and sauces to beat the band. Friends love to get these things as gifts, so the chore of shopping for holiday exchanges has fallen off precipitously. Fortunately, a bumper crop seems to be followed by a year of thin production. I can just about work up a head of steam for the whole process by the second year.
The surplus apples and pears go to neighbors and friends, or get boxed up and delivered to soup kitchens (delighted to get them). Because we don't spray, the produce is not always as attractive as one might wish, but one bite gets the pickiest eater past that hurdle. Any that are just too ugly for human consumption get thrown into the woods for the deer.
After reading of your concerns, I may just put out a sign inviting any and all to help themselves.