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Fallen Fruit Hosts "Jam" Session, Just BYO Fruit and Jars
Grapefruit along Venice canals. Photo by Renee Rendler-Kaplan via the LAist Featured Photos pool.
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The best things in life are free.
Motown artist Barrett Strong originally recorded that truism in 1959; The Flying Lizards got it stuck in the minds of multitudes with its chart-topping cover version in 1979; and some 30 years later, the LA-based organization Fallen Fruit is ready and willing to help you enact those famous lyrics. Want stuff for free? They'll show you where to go.
Fallen Fruit is founded on the idea that any produce growing on or over public land is just that: property of the public, and therefore free for the taking. To help others take advantage of this (and to ensure that the food wouldn't go to waste), the organization began mapping various areas around LA (and later around the world) where such fruits grow. Locals could then fill up their farmers' market bags without spending a penny.
For the frugal and/or resourceful type, this food movement may sound right up your alley. If so, pack up some fruity, summer fare and join Fallen Fruit tomorrow at their 6th Annual Jam Session at Del Aire Park in Hawthorne. Participants should bring any cleaned fruits they'd like, whether collected around town, homegrown, or store-bought. Guests will be encouraged to trade, share, and mash up fruits into their own original, spreadable concoctions while making new and like-minded friends. Don't forget some clean jam jars to transport your goods home!
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The event runs from noon until 3 pm and is, of course, free. The jam session will also be a way to celebrate the soon-to-be-open Del Aire Public Fruit Park, which will boast over 36 fruit trees whose bounty will be free to locals.
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