Season of Mists and Rotting Fruitfulness

Vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more. – To Autumn

The young John Keats evidently knew a thing or two about the fruits of autumn, with all his talk of the abundant fruitfulness of the country around London.

Now John possibly picked many of these country delights. In his day, Hampstead was still mostly a rural area, not having been swallowed up by the foulness of Greater London; apples and filberts are still to be found on Hampstead Heath and there are still traces to be found of the bucolic origins of the town.

Now let’s get up-to-date and local. Davis is surrounded by farmland, indeed it owes its existence to agriculture, the University having begun life as the University Farm extension of Berkeley. We’re a green city with a climate conducive to growing fruits of all kinds, from the humble apple through exotic quince and olives. It seems that every city block has a diverse range of vegetation fruiting everything from figs and citrus fruits to pomegranate and cactus pear; I remarked on this when I first came to California just under five years ago.

Now, the bad news. In every fruiting season, I see much of this rich abundance falling, unpicked, unappreciated and seemingly, unloved. As I write this, I see (and smell) pears fermenting in piles in the street, where the armies of gardeners have swept them into piles for disposal. In a few months I will doubtless see oranges, grapefruit and the luscious Meyer lemon crop suffer the same indignity.

I have to admit that this is a mystery to me, for one of the other delightful things I learned about America was the way in which old crafts have been continued; the settlers moving West brought their craft and cottage industry with them, and I’ve seen more quilting groups, sewing circles and knitting klatches (or should that be klatchen?) than anywhere in my native England. Canning seasonal produce seems to be a major occupation, everything from dill pickles through tomatoes to zhug (a spicy chili condiment).

So why, I wonder, is all of this fruit going to waste? I suspect that it’s largely due to a reluctance to disturb our Davis neighbours, and yet on the few occasions Christine and I have approached people to pick fruit, they have been most obliging. Our housemates had great success in asking to pick fruit from local trees, harvesting superfluous fruit and canning their gleanings. We still have many jars of jams and preserves, and we’re planning more.

So what to do with this surfeit of fruit? There are clearly people in Davis who care enough; there’s a map of available fruit trees available online. and there are occasionally posts on Freecycle from people who are prepared to give fruit away for the cost of picking it. The next step is to organise the free fruit revolution, for there are countless trees unlisted. Doubtless many people would welcome a volunteer or two to help to make use of the surplus crop, in exchange for a share in the abundance, so why not look around, ask your neighbours about their ripe fruit, and stop the rot.

I’m certainly game to help pick and preserve some of this goodness, so if anyone else is interested, feel free to leave a comment.