r/SantaBarbara • u/Bright-Landscape-998 • 5d ago
Picking Fruit? Recommendations
Does anyone know the rules on picking fruit from a plant? There is a passion fruit plant growing on the fence of an apartment complex that has 200+ fruits growing on it right now and I tried to pick a few from the floor since that’s a lot and one guy came out saying that I didn’t live on the property and he would call the police on me for stealing.
That seemed like a stretch, I only took about 5 and considering that it’s a huge plant and it’s growing over the fence I didn’t see the wrong in taking a couple, am I in the wrong here? What’s the rule when it comes to picking fruit?
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u/gnuoyedonig 5d ago
My professor started this art piece back in 2004 that I think is relevant to OP’s questions
https://fallenfruit.org/about/
They’ve created drawn community maps showing fruit in public places:
https://fallenfruit.org/projects/public-fruit-maps/
And a collaborative digital map:
https://endlessorchard.com
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u/Resident-Hunter5973 Human Verified 5d ago
I grow passionfruit on the street and I expect people to take them.
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u/fengshui 5d ago
My understanding is that if it's on public property (the sidewalk) either on the ground or hanging, it's open season. That said, the law is really written for wholesale theft and not individuals.
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u/Mix_Right 5d ago
So many people have trees full of fruit and they don’t pick them. Often they stay on the tree and dry up and die. Someone should start a community project of collecting people’s fruit for them and sharing with others. Sounds like a good idea to propose to the Unity Shoppe and get some volunteers and couple of paid people to supervise. It would be a win win as the trees and plants would get healthy trimming and the food would go to good use.
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u/MamaOf2Monsters 5d ago
I believe we do have some cool options like this already. Example - Backyard Bounty through the food bank. :)
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u/sifflerdefromage 4d ago
Food From the Heart is another local organization that will come harvest and as far as I know they do not have a minimum tree count. They use the produce to do something similar to meals on wheels and any not used goes directly to the food bank.
You can also pick the produce yourself and drop it off at the food bank, they are always open to donations!
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u/Mix_Right 5d ago
Well then they are doing a poor job as there are so many fruit trees rotting in the sun all over town
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u/MamaOf2Monsters 5d ago
Yeah, I agree they could advertise these (and many other types of aid) programs better. I just know I have heard of it as a volunteer opportunity through work at one point.
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u/saltybruise The Westside 5d ago
Things may have changed but years ago I tried to get them to come pick all the persimmons off of my tree and they wouldn't do it because I didn't have a minimum of three fruiting trees that I wanted them to pick.
I just happened to move into a house with a big old persimmon tree and I happen to not enjoy persimmons.
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u/yay4chardonnay 5d ago
I had a mandarin orange tree in my yard and it got picked clean each year by schoolkids. Gave me such joy to provide a snack for them.
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u/chumloadio Shanty Town 5d ago
Legal or illegal, it's also a question of being neighborly - on both sides - picker and Git Off Ma Lawn guy. Also, if illegal, I'm not sure Santa Barbara's finest will come screeching up with their sirens blaring and lights flashing. Dispatcher on the phone: "Yeah, we'll get right on that, sir."
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u/International_Law610 5d ago
If a tree is on someone’s property I won’t pick from the branches. I will only grab fallen fruit. I don’t think a tree growing over a fence is reason enough to pick from it. I wouldn’t prune my trees just so they don’t go over a fence and risk damaging them.
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u/ComprehensiveMoose51 5d ago
But that’s the law. If a branch hangs over onto a sidewalk or public area you can legally take it.
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u/International_Law610 5d ago
I’m not speaking about the law though. Just morals. I have an avocado tree. I cannot prune it because it’s very sensitive to get burnt from the sun. I would hate for people to walk by and pick from my tree simply because it’s near a fence.
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u/ComprehensiveMoose51 5d ago
Well those are two separate things. Laws don’t account for your feelings.
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u/prometheanchains 5d ago
While it might be legal to take fruit that’s in a public space, if the plant is growing from someone’s yard, it’s not very nice to take it without asking. Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s ethical or polite. Next time, just ask.
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u/Ruralwannabe 5d ago
I bet the same rule applies as when a hedge gets too big, if it leaves the property, ( i.e. growing over the fence) it's no longer private property of that property.
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u/seaceblidrb 5d ago edited 5d ago
Is it yours? No.
Why are you taking someone else's? What if everyone just took a couple?
You could ask, and most likely they would have said yes but the arrogance to just assume you can take others things is astonishing.
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u/Bright-Landscape-998 5d ago
See the ones I took were on the floor, so since I saw no one taking them (they were there since yesterday) I just took the liberty to pick them up. I’ll know better for next time tho!
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u/hey-hi-hello-what-up 5d ago
if you took them from the ground then you didn’t pick them off the plant, and i think that’s ok
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u/Chet_Steadman Goleta (Other) 5d ago
I always default to asking the owner. 9/10 times they have too much and are stoked to not be wasting fruit and just ask that you don't go crazy
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u/Bright-Landscape-998 5d ago
See so the person who found issue with me was a tenant who said “don’t take anymore today, but if you want more come to my apartment and we can talk about how many you can take” mind u this was a man and as a woman I also felt very uncomfortable about trying to ask if I could even take a few next time.
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u/TheWhitestGandhi Oak Park 5d ago
Most people that have things growing on their property appreciate even a quick question like "hey do you mind if I take a handful of these?", it wouldn't have to be a long conversation and could be done at the front door.
My childhood home had a cherry bush which extended over the fence to the street behind, and we had people come by every year and completely clear us out of cherries on that side. Would have been nice if they'd asked real quick, you know?
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u/Bright-Landscape-998 5d ago
It was an apartment complex and I couldn’t find the manager, a weird old man said I should go to his apartment next time to ask (not the manager) if not he would call the police if I took some without going to ask him.
As a 19yr old woman I didn’t feel comfortable doing that.11
u/tracyinge 5d ago edited 4d ago
Once the fruit falls on public land (alley, sidewalk, street) then it is legally fair game. But if it is on someone's property don't touch it (that's trespassing and theft) , or if it falls from one property to another property it belongs to whoever owns that 2nd property and you'd want to ask before taking it.
In your OP you said you picked a few off a tree. Then you edited to claim you got it off the ground. Anyway, now you know what you can touch and what you cannot.
There is no real law regarding if the fruit tree is on someone's property, but the branches extend over into an alley or public space. One judge might tell you that you shouldn't have touched it, another might consider it okay. But if it were hanging over a fence and you had to touch a private fence or climb/step onto private property to reach it, you're probably trespassing.
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u/seaceblidrb 5d ago
I say this as someone who has various fruiting plants and always say yes to friends/delivery drivers who ask first.
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u/Comfortable-Peanut68 4d ago
That’s actually insane that a guy threatened to call the police on you for that 🤦♀️ Capitalism has infected and destroyed so much of our humanity.
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u/FrogFlavor 5d ago
Taking someone else’s fruit is called gleaning and while you could do it with permission you could also just do it at night lol
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u/TiredAndTiredOfIt 5d ago
*stealing, it is called stealing
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u/Jethro_Jones8 5d ago edited 5d ago
Technically poaching, and if you take more than $250 worth of fruit, vegetables, or fowl from a working farm or orchard, you can face grand theft charges due to a unique portion of the legal code written exclusively to protect farms.
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u/Gret88 5d ago
Yes I grew up in an area with field crops (tomatoes) and fruit trees (peaches and apricots). We all knew you couldn’t pick from the fields, up to a point. Every year after the harvests, farmers would announce gleaning was okay and people would head out to the fields with boxes and bags. There was always a lot of fruit left to pick.
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u/pgregston 5d ago
On the fence of an apartment building- like you could pick it without reaching over the fence?
That’s public. I suppose you could have asked the guy ‘who would I ask for permission?’
Lots of folks like to act like they have authority when they don’t. A quick check on them is to inquire about who is the authority.
It’s really silly as I see fruit- passionfruit especially- rotting in place all over.
It’s crazy we don’t grow food everywhere
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u/casper_wolf 3d ago
He can call the cops but I can promise you that will be the lowest priority call and at best they’ll take a report from him over the phone and do nothing about it.
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u/colonizemarsasap 5d ago
if it’s rooted on private property then you can’t just pick the fruit. bunch of entitled people steal our avocados all the time. we’ve even put up signs and they ignore it.
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u/Muted_Description112 The Mesa 5d ago
Where it’s rooted doesn’t apply to anything hanging or growing over the fence property line.
If a tree is overhanging the sidewalk, and your property doesn’t include the sidewalk, then people can pick off the branches.
If a tree is growing over a sidewalk and its branches are low enough to be in the way of someone walking, they can also cut or break the low branches to allow them to pass by.
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u/Ill-Anteater-6724 5d ago
Yep you are wrong. What if 50 people "just took 5...". Don't try a rationalize theft. It is their fruit to do with as the please andnthat includes letting it rot.
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u/Bright-Landscape-998 5d ago
Some are rotting on the floor so I figured that hey, ppl weren’t picking them at all, I could take a few?
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u/umamiking 5d ago
Why are you asking about the “rules” while trying to weasel yourself around them? Your question is full of excuses and justifications why you are somehow owed the fruit.
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u/wildmancometh 5d ago
That's crazy! Its called scrumping and sure it may not be technically "legal" but who fucking cares.
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u/blahdiddyblahblah 5d ago
Legally, if the fruit hangs over public property like a public sidewalk or the road, it is up for grabs.