Fruit for the picking

If you walk your neighborhood regularly, you'll begin to notice fruit trees in people's yards. When it comes harvest time, you'll notice that many folks don't bother to harvest what's  literally in their own front yards.

If you ask, most homeowners will let you pick from their trees. I've picked apples (for eating, pies, crisps, cobblers and apple butter), lemons (for juice), oranges (for eating and marmalade) and grapefruit (for eating and juice). Carry a folded up plastic bag, the kind you get from the grocery store, with you at all times!

A few weeks ago, I did this, and got enough apples to make a quart and a half of apple butter -- probably 10 - 15 pounds. Here's the recipe.