Selfsufficientish.com

There's a beautiful apple tree, not on 'private property' and they'll all go to waste
I'm so tempted

what shall I do?

pick them and if you are challenged ask if they want some.

Sorry but I used to have a large garden with a small orchard. I'd worked really long hours to pay for it. One day I found someone in my garden picking my apples. I was both furious and terrified.

How do you know they'll all go to waste? It's early yet for apples.

If you want to pick apples on someone else's land what's wrong with just asking the owner?

Zoe

Oh come on, now, snapdragon - what exactly do you mean by "not on 'private property'"?

(That was a punctuation nightmare )

How are you trespassing if the thing is not on private property? Explain in not more than 2000 words. Then we can debate and discuss (by which time the apples may be long gone anyway).

Mike

The single track railway line where the tree is growing is not in daily use but there is an occasional goods train to or from for the small goods sidings/terminal in the village.

I don't think the railway line is someone's orchard Thomzo. I would never walk into someone's garden or field uninvited.
I'm pretty sure from previous things that have happened in relation to the railway that if I were to ask the 'owner' would be most likely to cut the tree down.

I have watched them fall and go rotten year after year.

The apples are all rosy red and look ready now.

discussions welcome - I'm just so depressed

Now I see ...

As long as I knew the train timetable, I'd have the apples.

Mike

There is no timetable

Right - I'll rephrase it ...

As long as I knew I was in no danger of being mown down by an Inter-City monster travelling at 126 mph (for instance, if the only traffic was slow-moving goods trains which I could see and hear a mile away), then I'd have the apples.

Clearer?

Mike

MKG wrote:Right - I'll rephrase it ...

As long as I knew I was in no danger of being mown down by an Inter-City monster travelling at 126 mph (for instance, if the only traffic was slow-moving goods trains which I could see and hear a mile away), then I'd have the apples.

Clearer?

Mike

nod nod it has to slow down and someone has to dismount and close the path gates before it crosses the footpath 100 yds from my house.
This time of year there are often people picking blackberries further down the track, usually within striking distance of the crossing

Well if it were me,I'd think I'd be tempted to go for it,obviously making sure it was safe to do so!I'm curious to know why someone would plant a tree there?

OK if we're talking about a railway embankment which is sort of no man's land and probably belongs to ? obviously not British Rail anymore then I would definitely go and collect the apples, especially if other people are collecting blackberries in the same area. Obviously just watch out for trains if the tree is close to the track!

I lived backing onto a railway embankment once and my mother lived there during the war and they had chickens and ducks free ranging on the embankment.

i voted NO - because i feel the same was as Thomzo

now i have read further i see its a railway embankment.. i think that is more ok.


some neighbouring farmers of ours, failing to make money from milking, converted to organic.. which took years, and they sold the rights to pick the mushrooms in their organic field (to a certain well known veg box scheme). imagine how they felt when they found someone had 'foraged' those mushrooms.

I'm personally very wary of foraging as it often is someone's crop, and there is biosecurity to think about etc.

but areas like... hedgrows bordering roads and railway embankments seem more fair game (so long as you stay safe)

I always like the apple trees on railway embankments - im sure they are the tree that grew as a result of someone lobbing an apple core from the train

You can change your vote if you wanted to Red

But as people are going to 'tell on me' and with so many 'No' votes maybe I should just watch them rot again, and go and buy foreign apples.

Hedgerows (to me) are people's property, parks are the property of someone or organisation, all land in GB is owned by someone - even commons are not common to everybody, so how and where in this land does anyone 'forage for free'?

Ok - with a little bit more information, I am a bit more inclined to be lenient. I won't tell on you but just make sure you stay safe and don't let any impressionable little children see you.

Zoe

I voted 'tell on you' for a laugh as I didn't know what else to put and we didn't have much info in the initial posting.