Below are a few simple guidelines.

Step 1: Take note of ripening passion fruit. If the fruit appears on private property, ask the residents of the property if you can harvest a few excess passion fruit they don’t intend to harvest. If your neighbors are as friendly as mine, they will definitely grant you permission to harvest the fruit, and will be appreciative that you asked permission prior to harvesting.

Step 2: Wait for passion fruit to ripen and fall. A deep purple and wrinkled skin indicate ripeness. Collect fruit.

Step 3: With a sharp paring knife, slice in half and enjoy with a friend.

Skillshare Mapping Course

This 2-hour data visualization class is brought to you courtesy of Skillshare, and is taught by Jake Levitas, the research director at GAFFTA. This class will be taught Wednesday, October 5th, 6:00 – 8:00 pm at GAFFTA: 998 Market St., San Francisco.

At the end of this class, I hope to be able to produce an interactive North Oakland fruit tree map that shows real-time data about quantity of fruit available, public/private status of the fruit tree in question, and level of ripeness.

Click here for the full article.

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) is a San Francisco-based foundation that seamlessly integrates the work of designers, coders, urbanists, and artists. They work at the intersection of these various disciplines, producing provocative work that engages people from disparate fields.

Here is a bit about their work, in their own words:  ” GAFFTA brings together the best creative coders, data artists, designers, and makers to create experiments that build social consciousness through digital culture. We fund programs aimed at the production, research, and dissemination of digital culture where art, science, technology, and society intersect. We bring diverse communities together to incubate ideas, and we support and showcase the projects they create. We host classes, workshops, seminars, and symposia taught and attended by the very people that are transforming today’s digital age.

This weekend, GAFFTA is organizing the third and final Summer of Smart: Public Health + Food + Nutrition + Urban Agriculture. The event, which is open to the public, is a weekend-long affair whereby teams of attendees will work together to create mobile applications that address urgent needs at the nexus of planning, food systems, and public health. The most promising projects will have an opportunity to present their work at the San Francisco mayoral forum, as well as become researchers-in-residence at GAFFTA this fall.  Click here for more information about this dynamic event.

I’ll be there, and I hope to see you, too.

-Asiya

Urban Edibles, an Amsterdam-based harvesting group, has released a new mobile foraging application whereby users can search for any number of fruits, nuts, fungi, herbs, and reeds, among other forage-ables. The new application is based on an opensource Ushahidi platform and is called Boskoi, which means ‘browser’ in Greek. The application is currently available in beta form for Android phones.

Download the free application and contribute to the crowdsourced list of edibles.

Thanks to all who joined us on Sunday, July 10, for a meandering bike ride from the Oakland Museum to Temescal. Despite the time constraints, we were able to harvest plums on 41st St. (thanks to Viva and Jonathan’s generosity), as well as make an impromptu stop along Lakeshore for a blackberry harvest. With a critical mass of approximately 50 people, we were a sizeable crowd, taking the scenic route down Oak St.; around Lake Merritt; and along Webster until we reached our destination.

Some have requested a route map, which I’ll post soon.

If you were able to capture any photos during the tour or subsequent panel discussion, please email me at forageoakland@gmail.com

Thanks for attending this event, and though Forage Oakland won’t be directly involved in upcoming Seed Circus events, I encourage you to attend.

Sincerely,
Asiya

This application will essentially crowd-source the labor- staying abreast of a fruit tree’s ripening schedule; contacting fruit tree owners; arranging for harvesting and redistribution- that results in a successful urban fruit redistribution program. It has the potential to increase the amount of excess fruit that is equitably redistributed to individuals, households, and community organizations in Oakland, as it will increase the efficiency by which residents can contact willing harvesters, and harvesters can- in turn- redistribute said fruit. I look forward to the application’s launch later this summer, and please check the Mobile Action Lab or the Forage Oakland blog for updates about this exciting collaboration.

Please help spread the word about this tour, and also, email forageoakland@gmail.com if you have fruit trees in need of harvest, and would be amenable to the Museum tour making a stop at your home. The tour will take place on Sunday, July 10, 1:00 pm. Visit this link, or view Sunday’s schedule below.

FORAGE

Sunday July 10th, 2011
1:00 pm

Foraging has provided sustenance to all kinds of communities of all kinds since the earliest days of California, but the practice has captured new interest as an alternative to the industrial food system.
This event begins with a bicycle tour of fruit gleaning spots in Temescal, guided by Forage Oakland. Upon return to the Museum, there will be presentations and discussion with California foragers and a screening of the film The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000). The event includes a take-away guide by artist Kacie Erin Smith, and, quite possibly, tastes of foraged foodstuffs.

Bike Tour
OMCA Oak Plaza & Temescal
1:00 pm

Meet at OMCA for a bike tour guided by Forage Oakland. The route is a total distance of about seven miles, over mostly flat terrain; we’ll ride at a moderate pace. Bike-nurse services by East Bay Bike Party, and bike valet by East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC).

Discussion
OMCA Oak Plaza
3:00 pm

Short presentations by panelists, followed by group discussion.

Eugene Ahn, FORAGE restaurant, LA
Kevin Cook, chef and boar hunter
Kirk Lombard, marine forager
Osha Neumann, lawyer
Iso Rabins, ForageSF
Moderators: Ted Purves & Susanne Cockrell, artists

Film
OMCA Gallery of California Art
3:30 pm

Screening of documentary film The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000).
“[Director Agnès Varda] crisscrossed the French countryside…in search of people who scavenge in potato fields, apple orchards, and vineyards, as well as in urban markets and curbside trash depositories. Some are motivated by desperate need, others by disgust at the wastefulness all around them…The Gleaners and I is both a diary and a kind of extended essay on poverty, thrift, and the curious [practice] of scavenging.”
–A. O. Scott, New York Times

All images courtesy of the Oakland Museum.

Click below to listen to the Hear in the City interview that features Forage Oakland, and discusses the development of the Youth Radio (Mobile App Lab)/ Forage Oakland ‘Forage City’ app.

-Asiya

Here is a bit of information about the radio program, culled from their website:

“Our show: focuses on local environment, arts, education, and culture in and around Los Angeles. Our goal is to map the city through sound-rich profiles of people living and working toward creative social change and solutions.
 
We envision our show as radio for and by community stakeholders. One main tactic in that strategy is that we, as journalists and producers, work with community stakeholders who have important stories to tell. We assign a producer to help tell that story in a way that makes for compelling radio. As opposed to speaking with “sources” or “subjects” on themes of interest and news-worthiness, we work with people who have an interest in getting the word out and are clear about what their interest and POV is.

We are producers of conversations that bring listeners to an issue of common interest through audio gathering techniques that highlight places and peoples. We encourage the people who we collaborate with to spread the word about the project and help us to create an audience of interested and invested community participants. Stay tuned as we unfold this plan.”