Is foraging for fruit legal?

[resnikov]

Just saw this article on the BBC news web site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11584156

Its about as the title says Is foraging for fruit legal?

Nice little read, I learned a few things.

 

[British Red]

Pretty good article, but it does mis a few points. For example the point about "wild" in the act. There are very few wild apple trees, so bascially taking food from apple trees is pretty much always theft. Hedgrerows are planted, no wild, so by the letter of the law, the same applies. Its also important to remember than foraging gives no legal right of access to the land in the UK. Some plants, such as blackberries are frequently accessible from a footpath and usually wild, so they are a safe bet.

Red

 

[locum76]

If a fruit tree looks well managed and is being harvested I'd leave it alone. Any neglected tree is fair game for me.

 

[salan]

We have a lot of apple trees at the side of the road.
They have sprouted over the years from thrown away cores.
All the fruit just drops and no one seem to 'harvest it'.
Same with some damsons and a few others.
So long as you don't cause a danger, damage anything. To me they are fair game.
I do remember once when young 'helping myself' to some pears from an orchard.
They were great!
But I felt bad about it after and never did it again.
The daft thing was that if I had of gone to the people and asked, I am sure they would have said 'help yourself'!!
As they were an elderly couple and they couldnt harvest the crop any more.
All gone now and houses on the land.
Alan

 

[British Red]

Salan, those apple trees sound like they qualify as "wild" to me, and you have a legal right of access to the road, so no problem that I can see

 

[salan]

What do you rekon the the usability of the fruit Red?
Car fumes POV.
We could easily get 200 KG of fruit in about a1 1/2 mile stretch.
Damsons not far behind and sloes etc.
Alan

 

[Melonfish]

See the apple tree's i know of are on i believe council land inbetween houses and some farmers land, the tree's are situated directly behind someones back fence, its clear that at some point someones thrown an apple core over their fence and pop we now have 3 apple tree's growing there (1 large two smallish) these are directly next to the path i take to work, they're not managed and i think its only recently the house owners have realised they have the thing growing there themselves and so i never feel bad about the free apples.
the tree's are surrounded by a mass of bramble tho, so getting in and out with apples is...interesting

 

[British Red]

What do you rekon the the usability of the fruit Red?
Car fumes POV.
We could easily get 200 KG of fruit in about a1 1/2 mile stretch.
Damsons not far behind and sloes etc.
Alan

Plenty of peoples gardens are near roads Alan and I haven't heard of them not using the fruit in their gardens. There is also a huge commercial orchard I know right by a main road. I wouldn't worry too much

Red

 

[locum76]

I agree with BR comments about the road. I wouldn't eat leafy plants or soft fruit from a verge on a busy road but apple from a tree near a road would be okay.

 

[Paul_B]

There was a nice apple tree on the industrial estate we work on. Until the boss told the guys working on clearing the site of vegetation to remove it too. We had thought that he would leave it for us. Bloody shame as the ripe apples were tasty. It was fully laden too. His argument was that we would neve look after it. Guys had already offered to prune it and the like.

AS far as wild apples go I have been to quite a few places where apple trees are actually very common by the side of the roads. I drove through SOmerset for example and on some of thier main roads every third tree is an apple. I would have thought these would have been classed as wild and fair game. It was almost like that driving into Cornwall too. I still see the odd apple tree by the side of the main roads and even motroways up here in the NW/northern England area.

As far as eating form the roads well I see people taking blackberries from the sides of busy roads. Some even take them from the entrance ot the industrial estate with big trucks going past them everyday. I am sure any absorbtion of stuff is minimal and the skins can be washed and in the case of apples peeled. I personally am careful and wouldn't take them from such places but then I have loads of very good spots down quiet roads to go at. I used to have a thing about leaving low down ones. Reason being I had a thing about them possibly having been peed on by dogs so I'd go for the higher up ones or those further into the brambles.

 

[Bushwhacker]

I don't know if it's the car fumes you need to worry about so much, lots of people in cities must be breathing it in constantly.
In my eyes, it's when it's raining and the amount of oil and diesel, dirt, doggy doos, whatever on the roads getting sprayed up.