Ever walked past fruit growing locally for years?

Lovely to here you're in Denmark, I'm half Danish, mother from Aarhus:-)

In my garden when I lived in Hampshire there was a huge apple tree which had been planted by the previous owners who said they had bought it from Woolworths for 6d. I made jelly, plum and apple jelly , chutney and wine and the fruit wrapped in newspaper would last until the following Spring. Unfortunately we had to move to a small house and garden.
I now miss blackberrying and getting crab apples and other wild fruits and plants.
I ordered blackberries with my supermarket shopping. Not only were they tasteless but were imported!

No, everyone here has apple trees in their gardens and a lot of us have plums and pears as well.

Mirabelles, damsons and loads of different apples can be found growing in hedgerows, waste ground and small woods, and by law in Denmark you may pick enough for your own household use on waste ground, from hedgerows, or from tree branches that overhang public paths or pavements.

RakshaMK, in the 1990s I lived in MK and the development corporation had planted an orchard of fruit trees near me with the idea local residents could help themselves. For years most fruit was left to rot - probably because few people knew about it but we’d take an apple to eat when passing. Then one year the whole orchard was stripped bare. There was uproar locally. The blame was laid at a particular group, I don’t know if they were guilty. I’m not there now so have no idea what’s happened since but it was one of several good ideas that didn’t work as hoped.

I've recently moved to Lincolnshire from Bletchley in Buckinghamshire. So many more folk up here seem to recognise their over production may have a value to someone. Honesty boxes are still a thing. And several posts on social media about excess production 'come and help yourself '
It's like going back in time and so refreshing..

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My daughter made plum jam yesterday with her children, a tree that sits in an overgrown field she spotted a couple of weeks ago on one of their walks. She’s a great forager.

I'm glad it's not just me - and it's the freshest fruit we'll ever get - so full of flavour.

The estate we live on used to be a farm and many of the old fruit trees were retained as landscaping. There are old varieties of apples you never see now - the Pitmaston Pineapple for instance and Beauty of Bath and one with lovely red flesh that I’ve not found the name of yet. Lots of crab apples too. Blackberries, sloes and hazelnuts are abundant in the local lanes. I love a bit of foraging!

I always pick lots of blackberries for jam and pies, just last night my neighbour dropped a large bag of cooking apples for me, I make him a couple of pies and the apples last me through Winter. It’s very rewarding making something out of free fruit.

Right at the moment our Bramley apple tree is loaded with fruit. And windfalls also cover the ground.
Didn't spray it so lots of maggots but the wonderful thing is there is so much fruit even after you've cut out the manky bits.
So it's almost a full time job picking up the fruit sorting it and making things.
Have started putting apples outside the house " free for collection!"

I have foraged since I was a child and still do and I will never stop. I live across the road from woods and a country park that stretches for miles. My own garden produces plenty but I am always greedy for more. To produce something from what you have picked is truly wonderful and something that should never be lost.

Just took me back to post war London when I was very young. Not so much as a small apple appeared without being grabbed by someone to eat. Plums wouldn’t have lasted 5 seconds though,for some reason,blackberries did.

Damson jam - all picked from the surrounding fields - and foraged hazlenuts, blackberries, sloes, cherries and apples (there are loads and I never take too many) are freely available around here. I hardly ever see anyone else picking them. I didn't spot the cherries for decades, as they're on the river bank but not the side with a decent path.

Why not buy a Mirabelle tree (rootsplants.co.uk)? We had greengages at our last house, so I bought a tree for my friend (there's no room for it here). She'll help pick the apples and redcurrants - so I look forward to helping her too!