I had a conversation with a couple of friends, Shea and Bonnie this evening which was very enlightening. Shea talked about her urban foraging adventures this summer.

She would find people who had fruit trees or grape vines in their yards, knock on their doors, and ask permission to pick some of the fruit -- most of them said yes. She would offer to pick fruit for the owner and most of the time they would refuse her offer and let her take what she wanted.

We talked about how the people who planted the fruit trees a couple of generations ago used to can the fruit and/or make jams and jellies. In our modern age, people really don't do that anymore, and so people who own the fruit trees are at a loss with what to do with all the fruit they produce.

She and Bonnie talked about food that they foraged from City Creek Canyon, which is a small canyon in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City. They have between them harvested apples, elderberries and watercress in that canyon.

As we get closer to reaching peak oil and are in danger of losing access to our imported foods, it's important to not only buy local food to keep local farms from going under, but it's also important to relearn living off what we already have here, naturally or by human intervention.