Imagine a future in which cities and neighborhoods across the world are not only full of fruit trees, but mapped and labeled so that you can walk up to them and pick the fruit yourself -- for free.
That's the ambition held by the LA-based nonprofit art collective Fallen Fruit, organized by Austin Young and David Burns.
With volunteers, Young and Burns have been planting fruit in cities around the world since 2004, from Guadalajara, Mexico to Denver, Colorado and Madrid, Spain.
But because money doesn't grow on trees, they're asking for $20,000 on Kickstarter to make sure "The Endless Orchard," a collection of fruit trees mapped and organized online, actually stretches across the globe.
The "Endless Orchard" will connect their already established "Urban Fruit Trails," walking trails that connect neighborhoods with public fruit trees.
They'll start in a food desert in LA, providing residents with 200 trees they can adopt and care for by either planting in their neighborhood or in public parks.
"The project relies on those who know a city best," they write on their website, "the people who live there -- to envision what their own neighborhood would be like with the addition of trees bearing fruit, knitted together with other neighborhoods by pathways of apples, peaches, apricots and pears."
Here's how it works, according to their Kickstarter campaign:
Individuals plant the trees in front of their homes and businesses, and as the branches grow over the sidewalks, anyone can get a taste of this collaborative work of edible art. It's also a way to navigate these Urban Fruit Trails (fruit trees that are planted, tended and harvested by the public) via a free online portal that allows the public to explore, create, plant, map and share these experiences.
They'll also develop a website that will let you map the trees that are available for sharing.
You can already share your fruit now. E-mail them at info@fallenfruit.org to be a part of the Urban Fruit Trails in your city.
Follow them on Twitter and Facebook for new maps, and who knows -- the next time you want a fresh apricot, all you'll have to do is pick up your phone, pull up a map, and all the fruit trees in your neighborhood appear, ready for you to pick.
That's something we can root for.
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