With the harvest season nearly upon us, how can we make sure that wild fruit growing on public land in the Southend area doesn’t go to waste? Successfully trialled in other areas around the country, community fruit mapping is a great way to share knowledge of where fruit trees grow on public land, making the most of the fruit that they produce, and ensuring that the fruit that these trees produce doesn’t just fall to the ground and go to waste. The Southend Scrumping Map is a new collaborative project to map all of the fruit trees, and wild and edible plants in the Southend area, and we want as many people as possible to contribute so that, together, we can create comprehensive resource ready for us all to use every year. Fruit growing wild on public land is freely available, and can be used in jams and pickles, baking and juices. The Make it and Mend it website has some really useful information on how to get started in making your own jams and preserves, as well as other ideas on how to best use foraged food. So if you are a seasoned fruit picker and know of ‘hot spots’, if you know of any fruit trees or other wild edible or useful plants in the Southend area, or if you would like to be involved in compiling what we hope to be a comprehensive resource please contact Laura with a short description of the food source and its location (for example: apple tree, back garden, visible from Milton Road, near Canewdon Road) Happy foraging! Important note: This map will list fruit trees found on both public and private land, so that we have an idea of the types of trees and plants which are growing in the area. Exact addresses of trees found on private land will not be published (the map will just give the general area). And always remember to be responsible in your foraging and make sure that you get written permission to pick fruit where it is needed! Photo by Martin LaBar produced under Creative Commons licence
Add Southend’s fruit trees and food sources
Filed under: community, Food, Local, Stronger Communities | Tagged: abundance, collaborative, edible, foraging, fruit, fruit mapping, jams, make it and mend it, plants, project, public, scrumping, southend, waste, wild |
Southend-on-Sea in Transition 
[…] Read more >>> […]
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Laura Hyde and Neil Monnery, transitionwestcliff. transitionwestcliff said: Southend Scrumping – Mapping the fruit & wild food abundance in the Southend area.: With the harvest season nearly… http://bit.ly/9r1giV […]
Hello. Just wondering if the idea of the map came from me (via Graham), or if lots of other people are also doing such things. It would be good if it were the latter because it means that a good thing has already spread. Whatever, I love how you’ve pushed the scrumping agenda 🙂
K.
Hey Keith,
I can only reply on behalf of myself, but I heard about community mapping projects after a conversation with someone who is involved in Transition Town Stoke Newington. There are quite a few community fruit mapping projects about; the ones that I’ve heard of are http://www.fruitcity.co.uk/ http://hackneyharvest.com/
Kamil and Graham started this particular map a while back as far as I’m aware, so I just blogged about recently it to get it out to the wider community – I love the idea of community scrumping initiatives – although I’m really hoping someone will teach me how to make jam now! 🙂
I’ve just checked out amatterofscale.com and I am definitely going to download and read – looks really inspiring 🙂
Laura
Hi Keith, yes these local apple/food maps seem to be springing up all over the place, the more the merrier! I know of quite a few in London also Sheffield have been doing a similar project called Abundance.
We seem to have had a couple of hundred hits on the map since the radio broadcast this morning, I’m sure it was only about 400 hits yesterday, now its 700 and something!
Thanks for the info, Laura. I got the idea from someone in the USA, so it looks like something that’s spreading quickly. Kamil sounded really good on the radio – came across very positive.
Just starting ours in the Borders – been so busy collecting and preserving that I haven’t worked much on the map 😦
http://www.communitywalk.com/stboswellsfood
I have just made damson ketchup and making apple marmalade this afternoon. It’s really easy once you get going: best book by far is Marguerite Patten, “Jams, Preserves and Chutneys.”
Enjoy the book(s)
K.
[…] Southend Scrumping – Mapping the fruit & wild food abundance in the Southend area. […]
[…] left). And there’s another fab map from Southend in Transition…and an interview and the story behind Southend’s community fruit-mapping activities. Oh no, your secret stashes of wild […]
Hi,
I run the Abundance group in Transition Belsize. I’m also working on better website support for harvesting as part of the Transition Drupal project (which aims to create a common website installation for Transition groups).
The list of potential features is here http://www.transitiondrupal.org/node/16. Any suggestions or additional ideas would be very welcome.
Thanks
Paul
looks good Paul, just what is needed.
A friend of mine mentioned to me about trasition groups to me I would like to know more and how i can get involed too.
I live in Tilbury Town and certains issues do concern me.
I look forward on hearing from you soon.
regards
Mags
Hello Margaret
Thank for getting in touch. If you want to learn more about Transition Towns why not visit https://www.transitionnetwork.org/ or just give me a call and we can have a chat.