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

Moncrieff, a former radio journalist, reveals how foraging for fruit in urban environments does much more than put food on the table—it also connects people and communities. The book recounts the stories of immigrants who brought fruit trees—apples, pears, and even figs—to their adopted lands, keeping fragile connections with their former homes by tending and nurturing the trees. Despite harsh conditions, these trees changed the landscape and prospered, but in the hands of subsequent generations and new owners, they often fell into neglect, casualties of the convenience of the supermarket and fast-paced modern life. Now, however, Moncrief describes a renaissance in which the fruit tree is reclaiming its rightful place in the 21st century, as urbanites rediscover the pleasures of home grown food and environmentalists advocate eating local products. She meets with the two men who in 1998 founded the Fruit Tree Project in Victoria, B.C., which has steadily grown; its 2015 harvest was 42,000 pounds of urban fruit that might otherwise have rotted on the ground. Similar non-profit efforts that benefit food banks and charities have since sprouted up across Canada and in the U.S. Moncrieff eloquently reminds readers of the bounty and beauty that surround them. (Apr.)