I got all warm and fuzzy listening to a great report on ABC's Bush Telegraph Podcast broadcast on 21/2. It was about a fantastic initiative set up in Castlemaine, Victoria whereby a group of people are helping the local community help themselves to post-flood laden fruit trees in public areas just ripe for the picking. They are also going around to local growers and ordinary folk who might just have a pear tree in their garden that needs harvesting, pruning and a little tender loving care so that it may continue to produce fruit for future generations and at the same time feed the local community right now.
What a wonderful project and one that can be replicated across the world as we all strive to grow our own, buy local and eat local and help take the strain of the global food economy. One of their programmes is called Urban Food Maps, I'm still trying to find out the link to the original Castlemaine project. Such a project would work so well in London, there are countless fruit trees in parks that could be harvested. Our local Hackney City Farm has recently started a community edible garden that will be open to the public for harvesting and I have just discovered that there is a group called Hackney Harvest that mobilise the community to sites where harvesting is open and trees need planting. Why have I only just discovered this!
Well, blow me down, I have also just found out that this Australian initiative also exists right here in London and is called The London Orchard Project. It's great to know that all those plums are not going to waste this year!
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