As a diehard scavenger, I have always availed myself of the riches of untended fruit trees and other easy-access free food sources in the city. Recently, a friend of mine who has the same mindset clued me in to this website: http://urbanedibles.org/
Does anyone else have something like this in their city? If not... why not start one using Google Maps?
Avoid urban squirrel.
Hmm, I live in an ares with a huge number of fruit trees, etc. I will see if this would be viable here.
I was about to say "I don't know who "Edibles" is, let alone why they are banned" until I read this thread.
In my town, on the outskirts, there are plenty of places you can find blackberries. In fact, this region as a whole is full of blackberry plants, to the point they're almost considered a weed. There are plenty of chestnut trees too. There are a number of traditional recipes involving dandelion, also considered a weed, plus you can ferment it and burdock for a drink.
The cool thing about this is that if you do any canning/preserving, it's possible to get quite a lot of food put away for the winter virtually for free! My goal this year is to put up at least a full winter's worth of fruit and vegetables in jars. I missed berry season, but I can still get peaches, figs, apples, chestnuts, and pears, plus I can pickle beets, cucumbers, cabbage, and eggs. I can grind acorn flour and I can dry corn for soup.
At the end of the season every year, the farms on Sauvie put out their squash in large piles for the taking; you can't can squash as is without a pressure canner, which I don't have, but many of them will keep for months in the basement, and with those that don't I can make puree and freeze it. My garden should produce fresh kale and collards all winter. I have five tomato vines full of tomatoes for canning, and tomatillos and peppers galore for green chili. I got a pig carcass from a friend and already made several gallons of stock, which are in my freezer now, and I'm rendering the lard as we speak.
With some planning, all I'll need to buy this winter, food-wise, will be flour, cornmeal, meat, and dairy. I want to take a butchering class and next year, raise a hog.