The folks at Fallen Fruit want us to know that you don’t always have to pay for your produce. There is a bevy of edible goodies just waiting to be harvested right here in Echo Park. So here is the deal: fruit from trees that are on public land or on branches that hang over public spaces are fair game! Home owners generally seem pretty happy to share as one tree can produce way too much fruit for one home. This way you eat fruit that may have otherwise have gone bad and save yourself a little coin. After all, times are tough. You have to make that lemonade with something.

Here is what their website says about the project:

“Public Fruit” is the concept behind the Fallen Fruit, an activist art project which started as a mapping of all the public fruit in our neighborhood. We ask all of you to contribute your maps so they expand to cover the United States and then the world. We encourage everyone to harvest, plant and sample public fruit, which is what we call all fruit on or overhanging public spaces such as sidewalks, streets or parking lots.

We believe fruit is a resource that should be commonly shared, like shells from the beach or mushrooms from the forest. Fallen Fruit has moved from mapping to planning fruit parks in under-utilized areas. Our goal is to get people thinking about the life and vitality of our neighborhoods and to consider how we can change the dynamic of our cities and common values.

-Fallen Fruit is David Burns, Matias Viegener, and Austin Young

Visit Fallen Fruit for more info and fruit maps.

UPDATE:

We have also created an interactive fruit map based on the above image, click here to view!