Ripe for the picking

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This was published 12 years ago

Ripe for the picking

The tradition of gleaning is being revived in the suburbs as foragers find flavour just over the fence.

By Paul Mitchell

We are the loquat house. Every spring when the fruit ripens on the tree in our front yard, elderly Greek men in suits and widows in black appear on our doorstep, asking if they can fill their empty shopping bags with this strange, bitter crop. I say yes, of course, and they go to work on the low branches. I bring the stepladder and get busy plucking the fruit from the upper limbs.

I'd never heard of loquats before moving into our house in Kingsville, in Melbourne's inner west, four years ago. Now I know these are the first of the summer stone fruits to ripen. Loquats are native to south-eastern China, were introduced to Japan about 1000 years ago, then migrated to the subcontinent. The fruit later spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, hence the visits from our Greek friends, who tell me they use it in fruit salads, jams and chutneys. Loquats are too tart for my family's taste, but I'm glad they find their way to local jars and bowls.

Grab some local lemons from your neighbourhood trees.

Grab some local lemons from your neighbourhood trees.Credit: Cathryn Tremain

Our tiny suburb is, literally, ripe for gleaning. During summer, branches heavy with fruit hang over fences in the laneways. We return from our family's dusk walks with the bottom of the pusher full of peaches, plums, apricots, figs, pomegranates and even passionfruit. Herbs are bountiful and, of course, lemons. It's amazing how much food you can get by picking what is hanging in the suburb, or by going the extra step and asking neighbours if you can have some of their surplus.

We glean, but we're minor players compared with Jonathan and Kim Cornford in Footscray. Jonathan has a PhD in international development and Kim has put her degree in economics to work in Laos and with marginalised people in Melbourne. The couple run a not-for-profit organisation, Manna Gum, which educates churches and other faith organisations about what the Judeo-Christian tradition says about economics.

''We run popular education around understanding how the way in which we live contributes to outcomes in poverty - understanding that link,'' Jonathan says.

He says many people talk about the planet's health. ''We ask what health 'looks' like when it comes to our neighbours, the community and the earth.''

For the Cornfords, it looks like a backyard full of chooks and fruit trees, a thriving vegetable patch with garlic and herbs, and a beehive on the garage roof. Gleaning the local neighbourhood for food was a logical step for the couple and they have a systematic, seasonal and multi-box approach to harvesting the suburb.

''We get boxes of apricots, peaches, plums and, of course, lemons,'' Kim says. ''But we also get feijoas, figs, almonds, apples …''

Through gleaning, the Cornfords are almost self-sustaining in fruit. They make cordial, preserve fruits, prepare a delicious figs in port dessert, and even produce lollies from lemon rind. The couple join with teams of neighbourhood gleaners and visit local trees according to the season - and the neighbours are happy to have them visit.

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The Cornfords have strong relationships in the community and network with gleaners around the city. They swap harvests, meaning the couple has scored cherries and nashi pears from east of the city.

Feral Fruit Trees Melbourne, a website created by Axel White, now marks trees that are ready to glean. He says there were plenty of international fruit tree maps online but none in Australia. ''I was out riding my bike with a friend during autumn and there were lots of trees fruiting at the time I mentioned how great it would be to map them all out and do a big harvest.''

White climbed back on his bike and plotted trees in the Brunswick area. ''Suburban fruit picking is an old idea; kids have always done it. Of course, it's getting a lot more attention now because of a growing concern for the environment.''

The Cornfords say that even after swapping with fellow gleaners, they have leftovers, which they donate to their food co-op, to other families and the poor. ''We don't consider ourselves poor, although we are statistically on the low-income scale,'' Jonathan says, ''but gleaning has had an economic impact for us. And, for people struggling to put together a food budget, gleaning certainly could be significant.''

For the Cornfords, neighbourhood gleaning has its basis in an ancient Jewish rural economic practice. The Torah, especially the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, refers to it, with Leviticus saying: ''When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien.''

Refugees and the poor would gather (glean) the leftovers - what farmers didn't, or couldn't, harvest. The later rabbinical writers said farmers should not benefit from gleanings, and were not permitted to discriminate among the poor or frighten them away with dogs or lions. The gleaning idea spread to Europe and in 19th-century England, gleaning was a legal right for ''cottagers'', farm labourers who didn't own land.

Today, the Slow Movement defines gleaning as groups collecting crops from fields that have been mechanically harvested, or fields where it's not profitable to harvest. It doesn't talk about neighbourhood gleaning but says farm gleaning is one of a number of ''food recovery'' processes, including salvage from restaurants, that help feed the poor.

The Society of St Andrew in the US is dedicated to feeding the poor through gleaning, with volunteers gathering leftover fruit and vegetables from fields. Faith Feeds in Kentucky has a similar ethic, as does Island Grown on Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. Table to Table in Israel, following the biblical edict, institutes gleaning as part of its program of food redistribution. And The Three Foragers in New England explain on their blog how to collect and cook food growing wild on their doorstep.

But apart from Greek and Italian Australians continuing the practice in the suburbs, gleaning hasn't gained much traction here.

''The Hebrew Bible has numerous laws around food waste and the surplus economy,'' Jonathan says. ''The Torah has an economic vision and it's based on there being such a thing as too much and certainly such a thing as too little. The 'promised land' is a place where everyone has enough.''

The ancient Hebrews also had a challenging notion of property rights, claiming that beyond a certain point personal property belonged to the community. So, taking an ancient Middle Eastern perspective, that peach I just picked from my neighbour's tree belonged to me anyway. Perhaps this knowledge is instinctive, which is why neighbours are happy to give away their excess.

It always pays to ask the tree's owner before taking fruit - even if it is hanging in public space.

For more details, see feralfruit melbourne.wordpress.com

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Sharing the love

IN CASTLEMAINE the practice of gleaning has been resurrected, albeit in an organised fashion. Overseen by the local community house and relying on volunteers, the Growing Abundance project has harvested more than two tonnes of fruit in the Mount Alexander Shire since summer; most of it from neglected backyard trees. Much of the fruit is shared around the community - given to schools, festival-goers and some of it bottled for victims of January's floods.

But the Growing Abundance project has injected further ethical considerations into the mix. Project co-ordinator Lucy Young says gleaners have an obligation to give something else back. As such, volunteers participate in workshops about fruit tree maintenance where they learn to prune and graft trees and to keep them free of pests and diseases.

During winter, they use their skills to ensure the backyard trees remain healthy and productive. In this way, Young says, gleaning becomes a win-win practice for all involved, including the owners of the trees. The proof is in the pudding; Growing Abundance has 250 fruit trees in its portfolio but owners of a further 750 trees are waiting for their neglected trees to be added to the program.

JANE HOLROYD

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Kim's lemon cordial

INGREDIENTS

Juice of six or more lemons
1.5kg-2kg sugar
30g tartaric acid
60g citric acid
8 cups boiling water

METHOD

Put all ingredients in large pot and add boiling water slowly.

Mix to dissolve, cool and then pour into sterilised bottles and seal. Serve diluted with water or soda water, according to taste.

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