Would You Forage at a Foreclosed Home?

When I was a little girl, I came home from playing outside, with a hand-picked bouquet of flowers for my mother.

"Where did you get those flowers," I remember my mother asking.

"From the neighbors," I replied.

"Did they give them to you?"

"No, I picked them."

"Did you ask first?"

I didn't have to reply. I knew at that moment that by not asking my neighbors' permission to pick flowers in their garden, I was in the wrong. My mother marched me across the street to my neighbors' house, made me ring the bell, and then apologize through the screen door for my transgression.

It seems the rules may have changed slightly, when it comes to picking in your neighbors' yard—especially if your neighbors' home is now a foreclosed property.

Earlier this week the New York Times ran the story "At Vacant Homes, Foraging for Fruit." This article focused on urban gardeners who have taken it upon themselves to "tend" overgrown gardens and fruit trees—with "payment" coming in the form of picked fruit and vegetables that they can take home and enjoy.

One Atlanta woman quoted in the story came away from a day's worth of picking at foreclosed homes with figs, five pounds of tomatoes, squash and watermelon. Here's how she explained her motives:

"I don't think of it as stealing. These things were planted by a person who was going to harvest them. That person is no longer has the ability to. It's not like the bank people who sit in their offices are going to come out here and pick figs."

While this Atlanta resident seemed to be working solo, on her quest to tend her former neighbors' gardens, another Atlanta resident has created a fruit-foraging organization called Concrete Jungle. It includes a database of fruit and nut trees on public land as well as commercial properties. It does not encourage trespassing. And it doesn't keep most of the produce its members pick for personal consumption—much of the bounty is donated to community food banks.

While it might seem tempting to "help" your neighbors' gardens by picking ripe fruit or vegetables, you really ought to keep my flower-picking anecdote in mind—always get permission first, then pick second, even if you're dealing with a foreclosed home.

Do you agree that foraging on foreclosed properties is a bad idea?