How to Collect Free Food for Your Next Vacation

From time to time, I escape the warm embrace of the Pacific Northwest rain to visit friends in the desert and hang out by the pool (and brag about it on Instagram). Most people talk about the sights when they visit another city – views, museums, restaurants – but there are also annoying people who go hiking. To me? I roll into the city and immediately begin my hunt. The last time I fled to Arizona was during the dead of winter, when olives, citrus fruits, and prickly pear are at their best, and although I don’t have real estate there, it’s always easy to find these edible souvenirs. Wherever you go, people have an extra crop and are looking for ways to get rid of it.

Collect your own edible souvenirs

The climate, which gives PNW excellent berries and grapes, is less favorable for citrus fruits, olives, peppers, cactus fruits, and a host of other foods. Just like my home grown canned tomatoes are superior to any store can, canning your own means less added preservatives and the product usually just tastes better. Then there’s the cost: you can’t win for free. Harvesting five gallons of olives means I can experiment with recipes and use them much more productively than if I were buying them. Have you seen pepper prices these days? This is my defense for begging friends traveling through California to grab grocery bags worth of Peruvian pink peppers that are literally falling from the sky.

Regional delicacies grow in every place you go. New Mexico has peppers, California has artichokes, and Georgia has peaches. You can find desert capers and hazelnuts in PNW. I fish for albacore on the Oregon coast in the early fall, and if you get to Alaska, salmon are everywhere. If you’ve been in the North long enough to convince someone to let you touch their trees, maple syrup is in your sights.

How to find free harvest

My first stop is always Craigslist, looking for “olives” in the sale section. In years past, I’ve found them for free on Craigslist, though lately it’s been random. At worst, you can find them for sale, but with things like grapes, olives, citrus fruits, and nuts, people are often just looking for someone to pick them up off the lot so they don’t rot on the ground.

My next hit is the Facebook marketplace where I make sure to set up my location and find local products. Keep your search simple, like “lemons” or “grapes”. You will find lists. You can repeat this with all the newfangled alternatives like OfferUp, Freeya, and your neighborhood groups like NextDoor, unless you’ve been permanently banned for anti-racist posts like moi.

The most exciting option is the Buy Nothing groups, which if you’re not familiar with, you should join. You can find them on Facebook by simply searching “Buy Nothing” followed by the name of your area, and you can also find them on Reddit. The concept is simple: you either offer or ask for something, and the only acceptable responses are “I have it for you” or “you can have it”. There are no comments on why you want it or if you should. The idea is to reduce waste by moving used goods around without questioning anyone’s needs, and it works fantastic.

The real gold mine is in the harvest sharing groups, which you will find mostly on Facebook. They are tied to your city and have many names, so I usually search for Harvest Share, Harvest Share, Orchard Share, etc. This can take a while. In Phoenix, for example, there are several groups such as Free Fruit/Citrus In Arizona , AZ Citrus Pickers & Food Rescue Volunteers , etc. If you get stuck, join a local horticultural group and ask, they know where to send you. .

How to become a good harvester

Now that you’ve contacted someone and they’ve agreed to let you harvest, make sure you’re behaving.

Prepare boxes or buckets for harvesting. In an unfamiliar city, you can always find cases on Craigslist or at your local liquor store. Do you need a fruit picker, like with apples or citrus fruits? Ask if the landlord has one to borrow or find one on their own. The same with stairs. Picking grape leaves? You will need clippers and Lysol spray for these clippers because good neighbors don’t spread plant diseases during harvest time.

Wear appropriate clothing. Remember sunscreen, hat and gloves. Wear the right shoes. Will it be cloudy? Wear boots or something with grip that can get dirty.

Also remember that this is a symbiosis. You get things for free, and in return the landlord makes someone do a little cleaning for them (actually called cleaning). Don’t leave bad things on the ground; pick it up and toss it, or at least put it in a pile and ask the landlord for directions. Be careful, make sure you don’t damage anything when you pick. Respect their wishes as to where you should harvest or not.

When you arrive, let the landlord know and always say thank you. You will meet interesting people and hear wonderful stories. While I was picking oranges, the landlord informed me that grapefruit season was open in the house opposite, and there was an amazing iris garden nearby. Both were real accounts.

How to get it home

If you take a bag of peppers, you put it in your bag and get on the plane, no big deal. But most things will require a little more planning.

If you are driving, you may only need a cooler. I have a great camping option that keeps things frozen for six or seven days. Citrus fruits are juiced, then placed in freezer bags, frozen flat, and then loaded into the refrigerator. Even if you don’t have a vacuum sealer, quality Ziploc gallon bags will do the trick and you can always buy them on the market.

If you can not freeze, you can in banks. The olives must be fully treated with alkali and brine, but once treated they are shelf stable. When processed in a bain-marie, the same thing happens with lemon curd (I used cottage cheese by default when I had enough lemon juice for a few years and my friend mentioned that they were “rich for 2023” in eggs from their herd ). Jam, pie filling, prickly pear jam or syrup are equally stable during processing. You can save grape leaves and, if you have a car cannery, albacore or salmon. Although I don’t travel with a pressurized autoclave, you can probably rent one; check the local kitchen library or garden group in the city you are visiting. Jars can usually be found at Walmart, Target, BiMart, or a farm store. Sometimes you get lucky at your local supermarket.

To find out what to do with your harvest, visit pickyourown.org or google it. We live in a time of endless resources, let your fingers walk on their own. Make it an activity with the friends you visit.

The best part is that you don’t even have to travel. You can do it in your hometown. Like everywhere else, your hometown probably has plenty of food items worth collecting. Use the resources above to find them nearby and then get to them. You’ll be amazed at how an endless supply of freshly squeezed orange juice can soothe your soul during a May blizzard.