"I'm a data geek," Welty says. "I feel like there is power in getting everything onto one map. A map is like a very narrow lens on the world, but I think it's very powerful because of how narrow it is."

Clearly, with dozens of countries boasting thousands of foraging destinations, it's practically impossible for Welty and Philips to verify all of the spots. Welty says they have to rely on the honesty of the contributors when it comes to listing trees in potentially off-limits locations, like private properties or fenced-in parks. In many of those cases, the entry contributors tell potential foragers to ask the property owners for permission. The map has more than 6,700 crowdsourced entries so far.

Jeff Wanner stands among the 500 pounds of apples he picked from neighborhood trees in a couple of hours with Falling Fruit co-founder Ethan Welty in Boulder, Colo., last fall. Photo: Ethan Welty/Falling Fruit

The duo says they created Falling Fruit essentially to form a community for novice and pro foragers alike. Philips, who is a computer scientist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, says there's value in pulling a carrot from the ground or an apple from a tree to eat.

"If I can apply my skills to help people realize that there is a fruit tree down the street that they can pick, then that's just a simple thing I can do to reconnect people with how food works and get them away from the notion that food is only in a grocery store," he says.

Now, the map doesn't limit its entries to fruits and veggies. Welty says it also lists beehives, public water wells, and even dumpsters with excess food waste.

"There is someone who posted a squirrel with a recipe for him," he says. "Gray squirrel is an invasive species. He's encouraging people to hunt for squirrels, so hey, why not?"

Welty says he hopes the map and its stable of contributors will keep growing — so much so that it ends up influencing cities' land use and management plans.

"The big goal, in a way," he says, "is to make people realize that there is potential [for foraging in cities] and deliberately create food forests, like the Beacon Food Forest and others around the country — to rethink what a city should look like."

Copyright 2013 NPR.

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Want To Forage In Your City? There's A Map For That