Low-hanging fruit: midsummer mulberries, gathered some years before the tightening of New York City's regulations on foraging in the early 2010s. Gathering a heaping quart was the work of little more than an hour. To harvest them in even greater quantity, some folks spread a tarp and shake the berries loose with a (sheathed) pruning hook, an approach that also minimizes reddish-black fingertips. (Mulberries bruise easily.) I relied only on my own long reach — and my reflexes, to dodge the falling berries that threatened to stain me in reprisal.
Also: a few of this year's berries, two months before their prime; where I found them.
Wild mulberries in New York City
Somewhere in the territory shown in my final photo
