Juneberries, the law, and discovering local fruit
Juneberries are just going out of season. I love their taste. I love the process of picking and eating them. I don’t know their nutritional value, but I understand that purple in the plant kingdom usually means lots of antioxidants and that berries in general are very healthy.
[EDIT: I got lucky and found a couple pages on juneberry nutrition and it turns out they rank near the top of antioxidant content of all berries. Score!]
So I eat tons of them. While eating them, I constantly say to myself, “Only a handful more, then I’ll leave. If I want more I can come back tomorrow,” then keep eating them. No regrets!
A few people pushed back, saying it must be illegal to take them. You’ll see from the park regulation below that cutting, removing, and a few other acts to trees is a misdemeanor, but picking fruit is not. Trees evolved for fruit to be picked so it doesn’t harm them.
Today’s huge fruit discovery
Today I went to pick juneberries on the High Line. I know where several juneberry trees are in that park. The berries were mostly gone. I checked the chokeberry plants I found there. Plenty of berries, though they’ll take another couple months before they ripen. Some people find them too astringent, but I love them.
Undeterred by the lack of juneberries, I went to another nearby park where I know the location of a white mulberry tree. It was dripping with mulberries and I went to town! I love them too.
I can’t believe people eat candy when fruit like them exists!
As if I didn’t experience enough joy there, on the way home, I took a different path than usual, and found another mulberry tree! So I ate more.
I checked the apple tree I also know of. They’re coming along. I don’t think they’ll last because people can tell apples and will probably take them. Chokeberries always last. I bet a thousand people a day pass them without trying them.
Stop the presses: Cherries!
The biggest moment of today’s berry run was finding a cherry tree walking distance from my home in Manhattan! They turned out to be sour cherries, but plenty sweet for me. Who would have expected fresh cherries on the tree here?!?
Something about their seeming too good to be true led me to eat fewer of them, maybe also since I’d eaten so many berries already.
Holy cow, fresh, handpicked cherries in Manhattan. What a day.
Beyond my incredulity at people consuming doof like candy and ice cream when fruit and vegetables exist, I can’t believe they fly other places to experience nature when even in a big dense city, it’s under our noses. It’s everywhere, and you don’t have to destroy it and other cultures or pollute and deplete to enjoy it.
The park regulation I mentioned
In New York City:
https://www.nycgovparks.org/rules/section-1-04
Destruction or Abuse of Trees, Plants, Flowers, Shrubs and Grass
No person shall cut, remove, or destroy any trees under the jurisdiction of the Department without permission of the Commissioner. Violation of this subparagraph constitutes a misdemeanor punishable by not more than six months imprisonment or by a fine of not more than $15,000, or by both. For purposes of this subparagraph, “destroy” shall include, but not be limited to, kill, carve, prune, or inflict other physical damage to the tree.
No person shall deface or write upon any trees under the jurisdiction of the Department.
No person shall deface, write upon, sever, mutilate, kill or remove from the ground any plants, flowers, shrubs or other vegetation under the jurisdiction of the Department without permission of the Commissioner.
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