[HN Gopher] Map with public fruit trees
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Map with public fruit trees
        
       Author : dschuessler
       Score  : 331 points
       Date   : 2024-09-29 16:29 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (mundraub.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (mundraub.org)
        
       | strathmeyer wrote:
       | https://fallingfruit.org/
        
         | zikduruqe wrote:
         | Also they have a freegan section of reported foods being thrown
         | away.
         | 
         | https://fallingfruit.org/?c=forager%2Cfreegan&locale=en
         | 
         | It is a shame they we throw away so much food.
        
         | IshKebab wrote:
         | Yeah this seems to be more popular, at least in England.
        
         | croisillon wrote:
         | https://www.fruitmap.org/
        
         | INTPenis wrote:
         | https://fruktkartan.se/ for Sweden.
        
       | yreg wrote:
       | minor complaint: every single interaction with the map results in
       | a new item pushed into the browser history
        
         | teaearlgraycold wrote:
         | Rookies
        
           | ahoef wrote:
           | Rule 1: be nice
        
             | teaearlgraycold wrote:
             | That's fair. I don't want to marginally increase the level
             | of toxicity.
        
         | Unearned5161 wrote:
         | which makes pressing the back key multiple times take you on a
         | fun adventure in reverse!
        
           | Loughla wrote:
           | I don't, generally, have the emotion of hate. I believe that
           | hate is just a waste of emotional energy, and doesn't really
           | serve a purpose. Further, I believe that if most people would
           | stop and think, they would see that their hate is only
           | serving to damage themselves, with zero positive results in
           | every case.
           | 
           | And yet, I absolutely hate sites that don't let me go back to
           | wherever I was before going to the site when I hit back, but
           | instead reload prior same page clicks.
        
       | handzhiev wrote:
       | A fun coincidence - I saw this link right after jumping off the
       | plane from a trip to Hiiumaa and Saaremaa in Estonia. Public
       | apple trees are everywhere. Additionally, people leave some of
       | their apples in boxes for everyone to take for free - some are in
       | front of houses and shop, others on public bus stops etc. Such a
       | lovely tradition.
        
         | henrikschroder wrote:
         | When I went to high school, I'd walk through an allotment
         | garden to get to school. Always great for a snack on the way
         | home, someone had amazing raspberries! Some lovely cherry trees
         | as well as several varieties of apples.
         | 
         | Public? Free? Pschht, everyone knows that what's outside the
         | fence is free for the taking!
         | 
         | But there were also tons of fruit trees in nature in the city.
         | Went jogging one time at a jogging trail, saw chanterelles in
         | the forest, came back with my t-shirt full of tasty, tasty
         | mushrooms.
         | 
         | If you've grown up with always being able to pick fruits and
         | berries and mushrooms in nature, maps like this are _so weird_.
         | Why would you need a map? Nature is full of it?
         | 
         | Oh, you're not allowed? Oh, you can't access it? Oh, there
         | aren't any around, really? How sad.
        
         | whatshisface wrote:
         | There aren't a lot of public fruit trees in US cities because
         | the falling ripe fruit can create a sanitization issue.
        
           | ethbr1 wrote:
           | That's more of an inefficient allocation issue. Mostly people
           | driving past ripe fruit trees to buy fruit imported across
           | oceans at the grocery store.
        
             | nine_k wrote:
             | Would you prefer fruit that grew near a city road, after
             | many decades of cars passing by that place while burning
             | leaded fuel?
        
               | kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote:
               | But you can't be sure the imported fruit wasn't grown in
               | the same or worse conditions
        
               | ethbr1 wrote:
               | Out of sight, out of mind.
               | 
               | Food arrives at the grocery store: perfectly checked,
               | standardized, quality controlled, and ready to consume.
               | /s
        
               | hulitu wrote:
               | > perfectly checked, standardized, quality controlled,
               | and ready to consume
               | 
               | Only if there is a problem. /s
        
               | CalRobert wrote:
               | Considering that orchards had lead arsenate sprayed on
               | them it might actually be better
               | 
               | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036202
               | 8X2...
        
             | kjkjadksj wrote:
             | Theres a ton of fig and dates in socal people don't pick.
             | That being said its hard to pick these trees. They might be
             | located in clumsy areas like by some razor wire in a
             | parking lot. You aren't sure when its time to harvest
             | unless you know this tree well. Harvesting might not even
             | be practical considering the best fruit is picked not
             | dropped and picked up, and these trees could be huge. Then
             | of course these being unsprayed trees the fruit is going to
             | be full of wasp larvae at least for the figs. Then the rats
             | will eat most of whatever is there thats worth eating
             | anyhow before you realize its there.
             | 
             | Commercially its a different story. Trees are planted and
             | pruned to maintain easy harvesting. They are sprayed and
             | rodents managed, as well as being overall outproduced by
             | the yield on the farm. Fruit trees are a lot of work. Even
             | literal money growing on trees would be work, against what
             | the saying might imply.
        
               | ethbr1 wrote:
               | As a previous owner of a fig tree, figs are also kind of
               | the worst case. Crazy hard keeping those suckers
               | harvestable, compared to citrus et al.
        
               | xsmasher wrote:
               | > You aren't sure when it is time to harvest unless you
               | know this tree well.
               | 
               | This is a big issue. Every bush and tree I've added to my
               | yard is a learning experience about what "ripe" means and
               | when to harvest. The bright red plums are enticing to the
               | eye but bitter and chalky. Perfect blue blueberries that
               | taste like lemons.
        
               | ClumsyPilot wrote:
               | Spain has plenty of oranges growing in the middle of a
               | public street, most of them are perfectly edible. If
               | fruit trees are a common presence in the city, people
               | learn when to pick what, it becomes common knowledge,
               | it's not rocket science.
        
           | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
           | There's a spot in St. Paul, MN that I drive by sometimes that
           | has had treefall apples all over the sidewalk for the last
           | few weeks. I'm surprised they're left on the tree for that
           | long, since it's in a pretty busy area.
        
             | kjkjadksj wrote:
             | Might have a lot of worms and be poor eating for the casual
             | picker
        
               | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
               | Yeah, I guess. People are spoiled by the appearance of
               | grocery store produce. We have a bunch of apple trees
               | that produce delicious fruit. I just eat around the worms
               | and bug-bitten spots.
        
           | timeon wrote:
           | Not sure if it is really sanitization issue. But certainly
           | perceived one - it can be mess. This was not unique to US. I
           | remember on the other side of the Iron Curtain we planted in
           | cities mostly just male dioecious trees.
           | 
           | Finally no fruit ...just pollen everywhere. (Good luck with
           | allergies)
        
           | mananaysiempre wrote:
           | Unattended apple trees can create rotting apples on the
           | ground, certainly. Those are admittedly not pretty, but in
           | Central Russia (and, presumably, in Estonia, which is not
           | that far off climate- and fauna-wise) they're just one more
           | layer of soil by spring. Do hotter temperatures or different
           | wildlife make them a bigger problem in the US somehow?
        
             | ok_dad wrote:
             | Probably a situation with stuck up neighbors most of the
             | time. If you've heard of the homeowners association problem
             | in the USA, this could be the cause. Having rotting fruit
             | is fine for the soil and everything, but the stick up the
             | butt neighbors or HOA probably would complain or ban the
             | practice. US Americans are pretty separated from nature in
             | their big suburbs.
        
               | hotspot_one wrote:
               | hornets
        
               | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
               | I don't get it. If I wanted somebody to tell me what
               | choices to make with how I lived, I'd have just continued
               | living with my parents.
        
               | reaperman wrote:
               | Indeed. But it is difficult to find a house near work
               | that is not already part of an HOA.
        
               | ethbr1 wrote:
               | It depends on the state. Some seem to love them
               | (coughFloridacough) and others dislike them.
               | 
               | Afaik, most of them are vestigial instruments left over
               | from master planned development financing, that gave the
               | developers X years of voting control in order to recoup
               | some part of their investment.
        
               | kjkjadksj wrote:
               | Easy just live in a neighborhood built before 1970. Odds
               | are if you work in a city these are available in spades
               | in a reasonable distance to work. Nicer homes and
               | neighborhoods than the newer plastic siding stuff thats
               | come since too.
        
               | zo1 wrote:
               | HOA's can actually work really well, they just seemed to
               | have taken a horrible turn somewhere in the USA. "HOA"s
               | in South Africa are called "Sectional Titles", and
               | they're pretty reasonable. They allow for (if you ask me)
               | more efficient use of common resources (garden services,
               | security, etc). Do they have politics, drama and the
               | occasional Karen? Of course, but every grouping of
               | individuals has that as it's just human nature.
        
               | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
               | I'd be ok with something like that, but I think I'd need
               | neighbors who were interested in having common resources
               | in the first place.
               | 
               | Where we've got it wrong is that only thing we have in
               | common is a shared interest in how the market perceives
               | us, and since markets are batshit crazy, we end up doing
               | crazy things like maintaining a lawn in a drought just
               | for the aesthetics of it. If there were actually
               | something we had in common, like I dunno a lathe or
               | something, there would be something with practical
               | considerations around which to anchor HOA policy.
               | 
               | (bias note: I don't live in an HOA, but my friends seem
               | to hate it an I'm offended by the lack of character/sense
               | in the HOA-governed neighborhoods that surround mine.)
        
               | ClumsyPilot wrote:
               | > If you've heard of the homeowners association problem
               | in the USA
               | 
               | From what I heard, their level of tyranny would give most
               | dictators a worthy challenge.
        
             | Suppafly wrote:
             | Rotting fruit also quickly attract bees and wasps and
             | larger problems like raccoons.
        
             | Lutger wrote:
             | It is more likely to be seen as messy, just aesthetics.
             | Another big reason for chopping down fruit trees in urban
             | areas is they mess up cars that are parked under them.
        
               | hulitu wrote:
               | People shall not park if they don't like it.
        
             | seszett wrote:
             | Here in Antwerp there's a long street (the Markgravelei)
             | lined with _cornelian cherries_ (Cornus mas).
             | 
             | I think most people around here don't know that they're
             | edible and anyway that fruit is somewhat of a hassle to
             | pick and prepare, but anyway once they're ripe they fall on
             | the sidewalk and on cars, staining everything red, making
             | the sidewalks slippery and leaving seeds behind. And
             | there's no wild life to speak of, maybe some rats but not
             | many, and birds don't seem to eat the fallen fruit. Wasps
             | do, but it's not a positive point.
             | 
             | There's no soil (except a ~1m2 square around each tree)
             | because it's just a street in the city so although I don't
             | find them a bother and I can pick a fruit from time to time
             | while walking, I can well understand why people who live in
             | this street would complain about it.
             | 
             | I can't understand what went through the mind of people who
             | chose to plant these trees here. I think it's almost as bad
             | as if those were mulberry trees (relative to staining
             | power).
             | 
             | But it's just a remark on how fruit trees can be annoying
             | to some people, for my part I used to live in another city
             | where I was able to pick blackberries and raspberries on my
             | way to work or to the supermarket, sometimes pears, and it
             | was great. And in autumn I pick chestnuts here. Not too
             | often because of PFAS pollution.
        
               | carlob wrote:
               | There is a mulberry tree right next to a bus station
               | where I live. Between the people waiting for the bus and
               | birds I almost never manage to eat the fruit and there is
               | none on the ground.
        
               | nsp wrote:
               | mulberries are also incredibly fragile, they disintegrate
               | into little packets of effectively dark dye very quickly
        
             | vineyardmike wrote:
             | > Do hotter temperatures or different wildlife make them a
             | bigger problem in the US somehow?
             | 
             | In many places, people worry about bugs and rats eating
             | them, and the ones that don't get eaten start to rot and
             | grow moldy. Generally just things people don't like in a
             | dense city.
             | 
             | Any rotting fruit that falls on the ground will attract
             | many animals and bugs. Lots of flies and wasps, as well as
             | bigger animals like rats or raccoons. Depends on the city
             | for the specific animal, but seems like there are plenty of
             | animals in big cities (at least here in the US) - NYC
             | famously has rats, for example.
        
           | hulitu wrote:
           | > because the falling ripe fruit can create a sanitization
           | issue
           | 
           | I presume that Americans always take the poo of their beloved
           | pets from the streets. /s
        
             | blooalien wrote:
             | > "I presume that Americans always take the poo of their
             | beloved pets from the streets."
             | 
             | They're _supposed to_ by law (and just good old-fashioned
             | manners), and many _do_ clean up after their pets, but
             | anywhere you go there 's always gotta be at least one
             | jerkwad that doesn't care one little bit about anything
             | beyond the tip of their own nose.
        
             | jollyllama wrote:
             | They do, more than most countries.
        
         | space_oddity wrote:
         | I hope you got to enjoy some of those apples during your trip!
        
       | nemo44x wrote:
       | People will use this to systematically harvest what they can and
       | sell it or its byproducts. Tragedy of the commons, etc.
        
         | IshKebab wrote:
         | Yeah in my experience most people don't like giving up the
         | location of public apple trees etc. so they can harvest them
         | themselves anyway.
        
         | kragen wrote:
         | better systematically harvested and sold than fallen to the
         | ground and rotted
        
           | blackeyeblitzar wrote:
           | Animals will eat those or the composting of the food simply
           | returns nutrients to the environment
        
             | kragen wrote:
             | i don't want the rats in my neighborhood to return those
             | nutrients to the environment, and i don't like tracking
             | composting fruit into my apartment, though i guess if
             | parrots eat the fruits while they're still on the tree
             | that's okay
        
           | starkparker wrote:
           | Even better when done without profit as a motive, like
           | community volunteer efforts such as
           | https://www.portlandfruit.org/
        
             | kragen wrote:
             | that's better if it works better, but often profit is what
             | works better as a motive. ultimately what matters is that
             | the fruit finds its way to hungry mouths--and that those
             | mouths are human mouths and not rat mouths!
             | 
             | systematic harvesting is much better at that; whatever kind
             | of point-scoring exercise people engage in on the way is
             | irrelevant
        
         | tdeck wrote:
         | Commercial orchards are full of carefully pruned and closely
         | spaced trees of known varieties and the margin is still not
         | great on fruit production. It simply isn't a good way to make
         | money to drive all around town picking unknown variety fruits
         | with pest blemishes from irregular trees and then try to sell
         | them. This is why maps like Falling Fruit have been around for
         | years and yet if you walk around Berkeley (for example) you
         | will still see plenty of fruit on trees.
        
       | cmcconomy wrote:
       | Here's a detailed one for Toronto,
       | 
       | http://www.mapto.ca/maps/the-fruit-trees-of-toronto
        
       | GingerMidas wrote:
       | This reminds me of the Stanford Gleaning Project
       | 
       | https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=15Z25z2IyTYSzH0...
        
       | bdjsiqoocwk wrote:
       | Does this use OSM? Does anyone understand how to integrate your
       | own data with OSM (like this project does) without having to
       | actually add it to OSM?
        
         | fredley wrote:
         | https://leafletjs.com/
        
         | pastage wrote:
         | Leaflet lets you add POIs on a OSM base layer map, you can also
         | extract information from OSM about trees and bushes. If you use
         | dumped data from OSM your data will be considered opendata as
         | well so merging them will mean that you can not prevent other
         | people from using you data.
         | 
         | In short: You do a overpass turbo query to dump data from OSM
         | and import it into sqlite, build a GIS index, serve it as
         | geojson, display that on a slippymap with leafletjs and write
         | an end point to update the data.
        
           | bdjsiqoocwk wrote:
           | Thank you.
        
       | diego_moita wrote:
       | Edmonton, Canada: https://data.edmonton.ca/Environmental-
       | Services/Trees-Map/ud...
       | 
       | The city also has some foraging clubs that are quite active.
       | There are many more things to pick in the city's forests and
       | parks: asparagus, strawberries, raspberries, currants, mushrooms,
       | etc.
        
       | SirMaster wrote:
       | I am always on the lookout for mullberries.
       | 
       | I really like them and you can't just buy them at a grocery
       | store.
        
         | space_oddity wrote:
         | Mulberries are such a treat!
        
         | jccalhoun wrote:
         | Growing up we had a mullberry tree. So much purple bird poop.
        
       | sanchezxf wrote:
       | Ok.
        
       | blackeyeblitzar wrote:
       | Around me I see some people that are very dedicated to exploiting
       | these fruits. They'll show up with a large group - children,
       | friends, family - and systematically pick everything clean to
       | fill their buckets. It's really disappointing because they
       | clearly don't need that much, there's nothing left for others,
       | and there's nothing left for wildlife. The worst thing is they
       | usually don't pay any attention to whether the fruit is ready to
       | be harvested or not - they just grab it all - and that means
       | they're not likely to get something tasty even for themselves.
       | But there is a mindset to get them before anyone else does, so
       | they take them anyways. Personally I think it is better if these
       | aren't mapped out, so at least locals who are invested in their
       | community have a chance to pick them responsibly. These maps end
       | up just being used by the exploitative people.
        
         | umpalumpaaa wrote:
         | And unfortunately the website has several entries that are in
         | nature reserves where picking is absolutely not allowed. I
         | mailed the owner of the website to let them know.
        
           | emj wrote:
           | Do you have examples of nature reserves where this is not
           | allowed. Here there are always rules and they vary alot
           | between the reserves, but mostly you are allowed to pick
           | fruits. Digging, breaking sticks and collecting rocks is
           | forbidden almost everywhere.
           | 
           | I ask because this would be an interesting data to have in
           | Openstreetmap or Wikidata, so you can easily know what rules
           | govern what nature reserve.
        
         | wbazant wrote:
         | I reckon the main thing is to use this free resource, someone
         | valuing it is a good thing. If there's not enough for you or
         | someone else, the right solution is to just plant more.
        
       | tokai wrote:
       | Cool map. But in Copenhagen there are so many toxic lots that I
       | would never take fruit from any tree within the city limits.
        
         | Levitating wrote:
         | What do you mean by toxic?
        
           | wang_li wrote:
           | Not Copenhagen, but if you are in the Seattle area you should
           | think twice before gardening or eating fruit from free
           | growing plants if you are south of Elliot Bay on the Puget
           | Sound.
           | 
           | https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/dirtalert/?lat=47.273840&lon=-12.
           | ..
        
         | senortumnus wrote:
         | That's interesting. Leftover from industrial era? Any specific
         | contaminants that you would expect to find in the city soil?
        
       | greegus wrote:
       | A similar project to http://map.na-ovoce.cz
        
       | surprisetalk wrote:
       | I covered some of this in a recent blogpost:
       | 
       | [1] https://taylor.town/oh-theft
       | 
       | tl;dr Remember that private plants overhanging public property
       | are not necessarily fair game.
        
         | BriggyDwiggs42 wrote:
         | Hey i read some of that blogpost and I'm struggling to see your
         | issue. I'm happy to agree it's theft, but why should I mind it
         | in cases where it's a large corporation like home depot?
         | Certainly I agree with your concern for personal gardens.
        
           | surprisetalk wrote:
           | My blog post was moreso trying to explain what's legal vs
           | what's right/wrong :)
           | 
           | If you're asking for my personal moral opinion, I think it's
           | only a minor sin.
           | 
           | To me, it's like walking your dog without a leash. Of course
           | _your_ precious chihuahua doesn 't need a leash, but then
           | that somehow gives license for pomeranians, pugs, corgis,
           | collies, terriers, pitbulls, german shephards, mastiffs, etc.
           | 
           | I don't think chihuahuas really need leashes. But sometimes I
           | also don't trust people to decode nuance and to self-police.
           | I want to live in a world where chihahuas are free _and_
           | safe, and it seems like the best way to achieve that is
           | through adherence to blanket policies. I 'm still unsure if
           | that makes it a moral issue though haha I'm not a philosopher
        
       | Physkal wrote:
       | Not many places in the US.
        
       | nox101 wrote:
       | This feels like it might have unintended consequences. My mom
       | lives in a neighborhood where lots of people have fruit trees and
       | allow neighbors to take some because none of them could eat all
       | of the fruit. But, once in while, some people outside the
       | community drive in an clear out the trees abusing the system.
       | Will a map of public trees increase incidents like that?
        
         | coding123 wrote:
         | This has happened for free RV camping spots. After the internet
         | occupied the space, you can't find a peaceful area to camp
         | anymore. In fact many places in AZ closed due to people just
         | dumping their black tanks straight up on the land.
        
         | mncharity wrote:
         | Noted also in comment
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41689953 .
         | 
         | We're dismissive of "security through obscurity", but cost
         | functions and diffusive compartmentalization are structural
         | components of many systems. Yet exploring innovative approaches
         | to mitigate the costs of our barrier reductions don't seem to
         | get much discussion.
        
         | space_oddity wrote:
         | Maybe keeping the map more localized
        
         | _ink_ wrote:
         | I have an alley of cherry trees nearby. It's really nice and
         | there is plenty for everyone. Theoretically. But every year a
         | bunch of "professionals" appear and collect everything.
         | Probably to sell them somewhere. If that weren't enough, they
         | do a lot of damage to the trees. It's just sad.
        
       | gsleblanc wrote:
       | If you're interested in this kind of thing, inaturalist is
       | another great resource with significantly more activity (at least
       | in the US)
        
       | Lerc wrote:
       | There seems to be quite the split of opinion on public fruit
       | trees.
       | 
       | I encountered something like this when I planted a row of red
       | currents at the front of our property. My mother-in-law said "You
       | can't plant those there, people will take the fruit" whereas my
       | thinking was "If I plant these here, people can take the fruit"
        
         | Sirizarry wrote:
         | One of my favorite parts of visiting family in Puerto Rico is
         | the ability to stop almost anywhere and pick up a free, fresh
         | mango/passion fruit/papaya/etc.. It's a beautiful thing to
         | experience nature providing at such scale
        
           | userbinator wrote:
           | It's truly abundance when there's so much that you don't have
           | to ever think about running out, probably so much that it
           | even overwhelms those mentioned in the other comments who
           | would otherwise try to harvest as many as they could.
        
           | indoordin0saur wrote:
           | When I visited Guatemala you could so this with avocados.
           | There are so many there that most just fall off the trees and
           | rot on the ground.
        
         | rhcom2 wrote:
         | So weird because even with a backyard veggie garden I'm always
         | giving stuff away. Who can eat 20 cucumbers a week.
        
           | NetOpWibby wrote:
           | Farming is for the community. Love to see it.
        
           | robotguy wrote:
           | Reminds me of a saying I heard while living in upstate New
           | York as a kid:
           | 
           | You know you live in a small town when, if you leave your
           | windows rolled down in your car at the supermarket, you come
           | back out to find a bag of zucchini on your front seat.
        
         | throwaway290 wrote:
         | I think they are awesome but once you have it publicly mapped
         | that one person will make it their biz to harvest for free all
         | they can. The kind who has a house and a car but will go and
         | grab all samplers or free food handouts and the like out of
         | principle. Then locals will no longer benefit
        
           | GJim wrote:
           | It's true!
           | 
           | Americans would rather see food thrown away than taken by
           | somebody they feel doesn't 'deserve' it.
        
             | 0xEF wrote:
             | This is so sad to me, but thankfully, not all of us are
             | like this.
             | 
             | My neighborhood has a small park that features a pear tree
             | and a plethora of frost grapes. My wife and I are of a
             | conservationist bent, so we monitor the plants in the park
             | for any bad news and help keep the trails manicured. I can
             | say that pear tree and grapes are both used wisely and with
             | others in mind, as people from the neighborhood show up to
             | take only what they need. One lady does take a lot, but she
             | makes terrific jams then passes them around.
             | 
             | It's quite a positive culture around this park, and it was
             | in place long before we moved there. It also goes against
             | everything I otherwise tend to experience with my fellow
             | Americans, namely greed and gluttony of consumerism.
        
               | throwaway290 wrote:
               | That's awesome. Do you have tons of fruit trees around in
               | general? If not, do you think your idyllic situation is
               | possibly because your trees are not listed on a map?
               | 
               | Do you think a person who really needs to eat right now
               | and the only option is picked fruit can also be the
               | person who has access to a website with fruit tree map
               | and a car to get there?
        
             | ldoughty wrote:
             | Yep, I certainly would prefer food get thrown away then for
             | somebody to drive up to my property, harvest all of the
             | fruit, and then go and sell it to other people.
             | 
             | However, that's less about deserving it, and more about the
             | food being taken for someone's personal profit.
             | 
             | I also think most people would be happy for the food to go
             | to those in need, but then for make reasons we have laws or
             | business policies that forbid it... Starbucks doesn't want
             | to pay 10 million dollars because an employee gave a
             | homeless person food they we're allergic to... We do love
             | lawsuits here..
        
               | ryandrake wrote:
               | Yea, OP's point is that it's not about deserving it, it's
               | that there's always someone who thinks anything available
               | for free means that they can just take the whole lot for
               | themselves, and/or profit from it.
               | 
               | I remember the last company I worked for that tried the
               | whole "Free food if you stay a little late" thing. They'd
               | buy a few boxes of pizzas and set them out int he break
               | room with the expectation that you'd take a slice or two.
               | Well, of course, eventually one or two people started
               | taking entire boxes home for themselves and then that
               | "perk" inevitably ended.
        
               | rand846633 wrote:
               | Price for a box of pizza? Vs price for a hour of
               | overtime?
               | 
               | Yeah this sounds bad. If the company stops giving "free"
               | pizza bc/ someone takes not 1/8 of a pizza but 1 pizza,
               | then you know how much they value, or rather do not value
               | your time.
               | 
               | Hard to see how a manager could be this inept.
        
               | ryandrake wrote:
               | Removing the perk was absolutely not about the cost of
               | the pizza which was trivial, or the extra productivity,
               | it was about the few jerks abusing it. Of course, they
               | could have bought 5X more pizza, and then the jerks would
               | have walked out with 5 pizza boxes instead of one.
               | 
               | Same mentality is why we can't leave a basket of
               | unattended candy outside the house on Halloween, for
               | Trick-Or-Treaters to share: Inevitably _someone_ will
               | just take the whole basket. It 's not about the cost of
               | the candy, it's about not enabling jerks.
        
               | digging wrote:
               | Is this abuse? Were people taking these boxes as soon as
               | they were delivered, or were people taking home boxes of
               | leftovers? I don't think I've ever been to an event of
               | any sort which had ordered pizzas and saw someone just
               | take a box before anyone could get to it. But _most_
               | events I 've been to which had pizzas had intentionally
               | ordered extra boxes, and it's always encouraged for
               | someone to take home extras in those cases.
        
               | lancesells wrote:
               | > then for somebody to drive up to my property, harvest
               | all of the fruit, and then go and sell it to other
               | people.
               | 
               | You just described most AI companies.
        
             | karaterobot wrote:
             | https://fallingfruit.org/
        
             | squigz wrote:
             | Am I misinterpreting your comment, or are you suggesting
             | that GP is being unreasonable for being frustrated with the
             | people they described?
        
               | throwaway290 wrote:
               | I think he is, it's sarcasm
        
             | throwaway290 wrote:
             | I'm from Russia.
             | 
             | By the way if you know how plants grow and spread "get
             | eaten by humans and pooped into sewer" is not always the
             | best reproduction strategy and so throwing away is not
             | always a waste.
             | 
             | And judging that some people don't deserve something is not
             | always wrong unless you are philosophical extremist. If you
             | have so many fruit trees around that anyone in need can
             | pick one any time you probably don't live in an area where
             | a map of fruit trees is useful. It's catch-22 isn't it?
        
               | ClumsyPilot wrote:
               | > And judging that some people don't deserve something is
               | not always wrong unless you are philosophical extremist.
               | 
               | You are missing the point - ofcourse those people exist,
               | some people don't deserve to breathe, think terrible
               | crimes
               | 
               | The problems are:
               | 
               | 1 - you are so preoccupied with that 1 guy who 'does not
               | deserve' does not get free fruit, that you make life
               | worse for 1,000 people who do
               | 
               | 2 - are you the right person to judge who 'deserves' and
               | who 'doesn't'. Who is the right person to judge? What if
               | they are wrong? Who judges the judges?
        
           | wbazant wrote:
           | There's a crew like that for apple trees in Glasgow! They
           | rack up boxes and boxes from all around the city. Then they
           | run events where you can press apples, and all the fresh
           | juice gets given away.
        
             | throwaway290 wrote:
             | If locals don't mind then why not?
        
               | dhosek wrote:
               | I'm guessing the "given away" part is key here.
        
         | kjkjadksj wrote:
         | The real risk isn't even people taking the fruit. Its rats you
         | need to worry about. I like my fruit trees but there is at
         | least one rat I know of that I am directly sustaining every
         | night with this tree. Not sure what I can even do for this as
         | if I ever catch this rat, another will take its place. Calories
         | are on the table here, the environment is going to grow to
         | consume that excess I've introduced to the local area.
        
           | ssl-3 wrote:
           | > Not sure what I can even do for this as if I ever catch
           | this rat, another will take its place.
           | 
           | Just move to Alberta[0].
           | 
           | 0: https://www.alberta.ca/albertas-rat-control-program
        
         | ajsnigrutin wrote:
         | A guy had a cherry tree planted nearby, and after the first few
         | people picked the bottom ~2.5 meters, the rest started pulling
         | and breaking down branches to reach cherries higher up,
         | climbing over the hedge, breaking branches there too, and of
         | course left the branches on the ground for the owner to clear.
         | 
         | He still regrets not planting it further away from the street,
         | unreachable to shitty people.
        
           | II2II wrote:
           | A lot of it depends where you are. I lived near the downtown
           | core of a large city, and people would (usually gently) pick
           | the fruit off the tree next to the sidewalk. Few would
           | venture onto the property itself, even though there was no
           | fence and an abundance of fruit trees. It was not much of a
           | bother. I currently live near the downtown core of a small
           | city. You could go to bed one night with an abundance of
           | fruit, far from the street, and awake the next day to find
           | nothing.
        
       | patrickwalton wrote:
       | I've been thinking something like this is needed whenever I see a
       | tree dropping fruit on the sidewalk.
        
       | Tomte wrote:
       | Mundraub btw. is a German legal term that literally translates as
       | mouth-robbery.
        
         | cl3misch wrote:
         | It _was_ a legal term.
         | 
         | For non-Germans: it's a (now colloquial) term for stealing in
         | low quantities and out of direct necessity for your own/your
         | family's survival. In that it alleviates the "base motives"
         | part of the crime.
        
           | hnbad wrote:
           | It's colloquially used in a sense that suggests it's legal or
           | a legal gray area but it's also important to point out that
           | there's no such exemption. "Mundraub" is simply minor theft
           | (like shoplifting low-value products) which means you won't
           | be prosecuted unless the injured party presses charges.
           | 
           | "Stealing" fruit (or flowers) from public flora is legal in a
           | practical sense and under certain circumstances explicitly
           | permitted if it does not involve trespass, you only take
           | small quantities (which is not legally defined) and you do so
           | carefully (which is also not legally defined). There's no
           | requirement for immediately consuming the fruits on the spot
           | (as the colloquial use of the term "Mundraub" suggests).
           | 
           | As with most of the things laypeople think of as being legal,
           | it's more of a case of how much someone cares to enforce the
           | law that makes it illegal. Also note that "public land" may
           | not actually be public despite being publicly accessible. A
           | lot of former nobility retained their land despite losing
           | their titles and it's not always clear that this land is
           | actually privately owned, especially if you're not from the
           | area. Some is even tended by municipal governments as part of
           | contractual agreements for allowing access to the public.
           | Germany did not get rid of its nobility like e.g. France did
           | even if we officially no longer recognize titles.
        
       | 11235813213455 wrote:
       | My best spots are fruits trees in the border of a villa, but you
       | can catch some by climbing a bit. Usually proprietaries are ok,
       | they don't eat them most of time. I'm foraging figs and persimons
        
       | lordgrenville wrote:
       | Someone brought this up in a child comment: what are the
       | taste/health effects of near-permanent car traffic on fruit
       | trees? The fruit of the public citrus trees in my city is pretty
       | sour, but I don't know how much this is because of not being bred
       | for sweetness, vs absorbing carbon monoxide, lead etc from
       | passing cars.
        
         | ricardobayes wrote:
         | If it's anywhere in southern Spain the oranges are
         | decorative/bitter jam oranges, not for eating directly.
        
         | space_oddity wrote:
         | Def fruit grown near heavy traffic can be affected by pollution
         | yet the extent of these effects depends on different factors
        
       | cubbic wrote:
       | Very cool and we have similar in Sweden. Have used it several
       | times https://fruktkartan.se/#/
        
       | m000 wrote:
       | I'm glad to see several fig trees in Crete on the map. Just the
       | other day I was thinking it would be cool to have an app mapping
       | them.
       | 
       | Fig trees located in fields are considered public by tradition in
       | Crete. I.e. it's fair game to stop by and grab some fruit, even
       | if you cross into private property. This tradition originates
       | from older days, where farmers/shepherds were travelling the
       | island on foot or riding donkeys, often sleeping away from home.
       | Fig trees were established as the unofficial roadside snack bars
       | because of the delicious fruit, but more importantly because they
       | thrive on the rough terrain without need for human care.
        
       | b3ing wrote:
       | I knew someone that had a date tree in the far front corner of
       | their yard. when it produced fruit a car would park there and
       | like 4-5 people were picking all the fruit off the tree. they
       | ended up cutting it down.
       | 
       | Just be prepared for someone to pick everything to sell or for
       | their restaurant
        
         | lotsoweiners wrote:
         | Dates grow on palms that are quite tall. Were they climbing
         | these people's palm tree?
        
       | jlengrand wrote:
       | I live in the Netherlands but come from South of France. First
       | thing I did when buying a house was to create a "aromatic garden"
       | in front of my house. Oregano, thyme, lavender, ....
       | 
       | No only the smell is amazing in the summer and it reminds me of
       | home, but it's been so cool to see people come and pluck from it
       | for their cooking. It's been my hope all along.
       | 
       | I love this <3
        
       | zwieback wrote:
       | Oregon is plastered with fruit trees just growing anywhere in
       | public spaces. Most of the time wild trees aren't cared for
       | enough to be useful but there are some exceptions, especially
       | plums.
        
       | zwieback wrote:
       | which mapping style do they use? Reminds me of the German maps of
       | my childhood. We have nice forest service maps but the styling
       | isn't as pretty
        
       | supportengineer wrote:
       | I have a fruit tree that provides a LOT of fruit. Half of it
       | hangs over a fence. I don't mind if people come up and take some
       | of the "low hanging fruit". However the other day I caught a lady
       | halfway across the top of my fence, her torso was in my yard.
       | This is a 6 foot tall fence. The problem is that if you give an
       | inch, people take a mile.
        
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