Enough Cherries For The Pigeons - and All of Us
Sharing economies and the thrills of fruit growing
There’s a small cherry tree in our front garden.
In the first year, as a baby sapling, it blossomed but didn’t do much else.
In the second year, it gifted a handful of gorgeous cherries in June - but we were away and so only our housesitters got to taste those first fruits.
In the third year, the pigeons had cottoned on that the tree was there, and scoffed the lot overnight in one swoop raid.
In the fourth year, we carefully netted the tree to try to keep the fruits for ourselves and not for the pigeons. Many of the cherries grew small and stunted. The fruits and also the leaves had brown marks on them from the net, and the whole tree didn’t look happy with the netting arrangement. “Stops the air from circulating properly”, advised an experienced gardener. “Rain on the net stays on the fruit and damages it”, advised another.
Fruit growing is a long-term project and takes patience.
Our plan was to plant a couple of fruit trees out the front, right near the wall, with the idea that kids on their walk past our house to school would be able to help themselves. I grew up in Kent and scrumping apples is one of my happy childhood memories. I wanted to share that experience.
In the fifth year, we didn’t net the tree, we weren’t away at harvest time, and we enjoyed a week of gorgeous sweet cherries. The pigeons had a few. There was still plenty for us.
We were sad that no kids helped themselves to a juicy fresh sweet treat on their walk to school. Younger generations have been so very carefully socialised into notions of private property, boundary walls, and privacy. Scrumping appears to be named nowadays as ‘stealing’ by many.
But - resistance is always also there! A sharing economy is defiantly emerging and gathering pace and support, as we come to accept that sharing is our basic human nature.
What does a baby do with their bit of banana or their toy? They offer it to you. Sharing is in our blood.
Here in Worthing, The Conservation Volunteers have run ‘Growing Communities’ projects - food-growing with a social aspect. Residents come together to garden, learn about food and get to know their neighbours.
Our new community orchard in Longcroft Park, Worthing, holds 12 trees. These are carefully chosen Sussex apple varieties, with romantic names like Dr. Hogg and Nanny Mareda. There are plans for more community orchards around Worthing and ‘edible landscapes’ is a concept that’s gathering pace.
A walk round our neighbourhood leads you past many houses with boxes on the wall containing produce from the garden. Growers know that when harvest comes, it's always over-abundant for one household. Digital food-sharing apps like OLIO or analog practices like the wall box out front help us all make sure that food is shared and not wasted.
Crops Not Shops is an organisation that works in communities across UK, supporting people to turn their sterile (and increasingly unsustainable) lawns into allotments and food gardens. Growing food for your community has an undeniable feelgood hit to it.
This year's cherries are ripening fast. We're ready to share with pigeons and passers-by alike.
And next year, maybe we’ll also get that salad bed set up out front. Rocket and chard, anyone? Please help yourself - we have more than enough.