Tamarillo Jam

Here are the little oblong globes of tamarillo

And here are the two jars they produced.

Let's have a jam exchange.

Donate Now!

Forage Oakland is a backyard neighborhood barter project that works to utilize surplus backyard fruit that would otherwise be wasted. Neighbors in Berkeley and Oakland join the project and make same season or inter-seasonal barters with one another and by doing so, reap a host of benefits including the following:

• Exposure to delicious fruits
• Creating a community that knows one another and builds together. We can begin by building a viable local fruit network and can use the model to build other networks
• Utilizing backyard fruit that otherwise might be wasted
  

In April 2008, Forage Oakland began as a simple idea to tap into the waste stream of backyard fruit in Berkeley and Oakland neighborhoods. Forage Oakland is one of several organizations working to redistribute East Bay surplus backyard fruit and the harvesting, delivering, and membership are all free of charge. While this project is a labor of love, there are several projects that I'd like to complete that do require a bit of cold, hard cash. If you think this is a worthy cause, I encourage you to donate to this project! Donors will be thanked with a gift of jams made from fruits foraged in Berkeley and Oakland.

If you'd like to support Forage Oakland by making a monetary donation, please click on the 'Donate' button below. Gathered funds will be used for the following:

A bicycle cart which will aide in the delivery of fruits en masse.

Printing of the Foraged City guide, which will be a user's guide to creating your own urban barter network in any urban area where there is a surplus of backyard fruit.

If you'd like to send a check or money order via post, please email me for the postal address. Checks payable to Asiya Wadud, Forage Oakland. Thank you!

Reading List

Here is what I am reading, and here is what informs the work and philosophies of Forage Oakland:

Jane Grigson's Fruit Book
The River Cottage Handbook on Preserves
Lewis Hyde's The Gift

Dublin Quince vs. Rome Quince

In my travels, I happened upon quince in Dublin and quince in Rome. The first photo is of the Dublin quince, times three. The other three photos are of the Rome quince, which were much larger and more familiar in shape to the variety that I've seen here in Oakland.

Dublin quince, foraged with Giles on the Trinity College campus.

Rome quince, foraged at the American Academy with Jerome.

Could it be? A 29th Street hachiya persimmon at 69 Smithfield, Dublin?

Rome was bursting at the seams with public and backyard citrus trees, much like Sevilla is bursting with the bitter orange so named in its honor. In Rome, here is a list of backyard fruit that I was able to chart: pommegranates, persimmons, olives, lemon verbena, bay leaves, citrus galore, quince, wild nettles.

Although it's not clear from the photo, my bag is actually full of bay leaves, which came from a tree near the Villa Aurelia. The tree was in the process of being pruned.

Wild nettles.


And lastly, a hill of apples from a Bavarian apple tree near my sister's house in a small city in Germany.

Tamarillo Jam, tonight.

I am home and making tamarillo jam tonight, tamarillo which I froze as I was leaving town a little over three weeks ago. Tamarillo jam will be a first.