Imagine the beauty of being able to pick fruit on your way to work or while you wait for the bus. This will soon become reality in Copenhagen where fruit trees will be planted throughout the city to offer the community healthy and genuine snacks.

Everyone will be able to benefit form these free fruits, as they will be available in public areas such as parks and playgrounds and will be helpful in reconnecting people with local vegetation. The Copenhagen administration that voted for the realization of this project infact hopes that, by planting fruit trees and other vegetation, people will have the opportunity to reconnect with natural flavors and choose to include them more often in their daily diet.

Since the Middle Ages, the collection of fruit and herbs has been a tradition in Denmark and, not surprisingly, the Danes are allowed to collect food from public lands as they wish. They are also allowed to take crops from private properties, as long as they are on the paths. Given the precedents, it is therefore not surprising that the decision of the Copenhagen city council has practically limited itself to extending the centuries-old practice of collecting wild herbs and fruit to urban areas.

An app called Vild Mad (“wild food”) has been developed to present Danish nature to visitors but also to citizens who do not yet know it well. The app instructs people on the collection of fruits, berries and herbs and can be used as a real guide that also provides tasty recipes to be made using the wild ingredients collected.

Planting fruit trees for the whole community will prove to be an advantageous situation from every point of view. People will have free delicious fruit to munch on and the city will become greener.