North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Greg,
   Good luck with your foraging lessons!  I have found that the best 
foraging sites are human affected areas:  pastures, lawns and gardens. 
There you can find the best of weeds such as chickweed, curly dock, 
lambsquarters, amaranth, mustard and turnip.  These plants have hung around 
humans for many many generations.  We now have a large, rather unkempt 
looking garden where my favorite weeds are tolerated or even encouraged. 
The better the soil, the bigger and lusher the edible weeds.  We planted a 
patch of nettles that keeps growing, and though I grumbled the first year or 
two, they are too good to complain about anymore.
   A few years ago many apple and pear trees still stood in suburban 
backyards, remainders of former orchards or reminders that people once felt 
it wise to grow some of their own food.  Most of those trees are gone now, 
though some others have grown in the meanwhile.  Nearly always, if you knock 
on the door and ask, the owners will let you pick up all the fallen fruit 
you want.  Remember, the bigger and more productive the tree, the less 
likely the current owners have any interest in the fruit. (Hudson's theorem) 
Donna