The Fruitful City: The Enduring Power of the Urban Food Forest

Fruit trees don't just grow in orchards. All over the world, fruit often grows in heavily urban areas, but the trees can be neglected and go unnoticed and unharvested by pedestrian passersby. In The Fruitful City, author Helena Moncrieff sets out to explore the culture that surrounds fruit trees in urban areas, and to document the community, culture, and social changes that can arise when a neighborhood starts to tend to their natural bounty. Historical and sociological in scope, Moncrieff explores how these trees came to be planted in the first place, how they fed early residents of urban areas, how they came to be abandoned and forgotten, and how urban harvest organizations are working to reclaim these valuable resources.