Green Hands USA: America Volunteers

Every time I go for a walk, I see people with apple trees in their front yards, the branches straining under the weight of all of those fresh, delicious apples that no one appears to be eating. I'd love to just reach up and pluck one and take it home with me, but would that get me in trouble? Not if I looked the tree up on Neighborhood Fruit!

Neighborhood Fruit is a free website (and $0.99 iPhone app) that tells you what fruit in your area is literally ripe for the free picking. Just register for the site, then search by your zip code. The program will tell you what types of fruit are available for free in your area, and where you can go to pick it.

The database contains two data sets: one for public land (where anyone can pick the fruit without problem) and another for fruit trees that are on private land, where the landowners have given permission for people to come and pick fruit on their property. (Property owners who register with the site must file a liability waiver, and they also may have some additional protection since it counts as donating food to the needy.)

The cool thing about the database is that tree owners not only register their trees, but let you know the specific dates when the fruit is actually ripe and edible so you don't show up and find a tree full of rotting apples.

Neighborhood Fruit is a fantastic idea, that not only embraces the locavore movement but uses decentralized technology to do it. Meanwhile, it provides food to people who can use it and helps to avoid waste by making sure that as much of the local fruit gets eaten as possible. The site is still in beta a year after launching, but maybe getting some additional users will help kick it into high gear.

Give it a try. You may be surprised by what you find!