Apples, apples, everywhere... Photo: Sara Jeswani.
A walk through one of Sweden’s residential areas at this time of the year can be a tough experience for anyone who doesn’t like seeing food go to waste. Fruit trees are common and often very productive, but not everyone has the time and interest to make use of all the fruit. Often the lawns are dotted with apples, pears, plums and other fruits that just go to waste.
Not that humans are the only ones who can benifit from the fruit (I know, it’s a bit off topic, but I have to grab the chance to link to an article about the now world-famous moose that got a bit tipsy by eating fermented apples in a garden in Särö [map] – and ended up stuck in the apple tree! Watch the photos)
Anyway: there are still a lot of fruit rotting in gardens allover Sweden. Last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to a friend’s garden to pick all the apples I could carry. But now there’s also a good solution for all those who don’t know a fruit tree owner. Victoria Qvarnström got fed up with seing apples rotting in the gardens and started the Facebook group Fruktförmedlingen (The Fruit Agency ), where people who have more fruit than they can eat write a line and those who are in need can get in touch.
In a few weeks time Fruktförmedlingen has become a huge success, with more than 3000 members and plenty of fruit being picked and eaten, allover Sweden. In her own blog (in Swedish) Victoria explains that she’s actually not very interested in making jam or lemonade herself. For her it’s rather about that “Sharing is caring”, she says.
PS. For anyone wondering how things went with the poor moose: The neighbours, who found her dangling in the tree, managed to saw off a few branches and get her down. She stayed for another day in the garden, walking around and staring at the apples, probably full, and with a bit of a hangover, according to the man who found her.
