Berkeley as edible city: A new guide to urban foraging -

Berkeley is a great walking city. That was at the top of our list when we decided to settle our small, but growing, family on the sunny side of the bay. Walking to the store, library, or school became paramount once kids were added to the mix. With infants, sometimes just walking around the block is what the doctor ordered. And, as my wife Mia often points out, the walking happens at a slower pace, allowing one to notice more and absorb the details of the neighborhood in a different way altogether.

Around 2006, I started noticing the public edibles throughout Berkeley, and began to wonder if my kids would ever enjoy foraging, the way I did as a kid in growing up in Bucharest.

Edible Cities started as a pen and paper exercise of mapping our neighborhood. Talking with friends about the concept threw up the good suggestion of turning the paper trail into a public map on Google — people would be able to contribute and share sources as the map got passed around among friends.