The (lazy) urban farmer

Free apples. The payoff of an hour-long bike ride to school and a month of tree stalking.

I heard this guy recently wondering out loud about what crops he would need to plant if he wanted to have an easy, low-maintenance plot that yields a lot of food. "I'd like it to be like a switch, so that you can kind of just turn it ON when you want stuff, and OFF when you don't". From my limited perspective, this seemed ridiculous. Growing food takes an absurd amount of time, energy, space and resources - so much so that it's often not possible to earn a living if farming is your only job.

But actually there is a way to grow organic food without all of the irrigation, battles with insects, back aches and greenhouses: let nature do it. This is also known as wild foraging. How do you do it? Find things that are growing around you that are edible, harvest them and eat them. 

Apple samples at the Salt Spring Apple Festival

There is an apple tree near school that I pass on my bike ride, and I have been watching it like a hawk. After attending the Salt Spring Island Apple Festival in September, I learned that each variety of apple ripens at a different time. Picking too early means the apples won't taste good, so you have to wait until the exact right time. One of the ways that you can tell that the apples are ready is that they fall off the tree. (kind of obvious, but it's hard to wait until that point when you see full grown apples on a tree). Two weeks ago as I rode by, I saw two big green balls on the ground under my tree. Apples = ready. So this weekend on our way out to the Saanich Organics end of year party, Josh and I played urban farmers and collected the harvest. Not only did we not have to plant the tree, worry about pests or wait 15 years for it to mature, but we got 5 pounds of apples for free. 

Now that's the kind of farming I'm talking about. Gotta tell that guy.

"Could you stop taking pictures and help?"