legally no, morally well that depends on you :o)

If you can use it all yourself give to friends and neighbours. That is what we do with all our crops.

The sweetest plums ? And not shared with me ? Yes that sure is a crime.

I'm assuming the tree belongs to a neighbour, not you? Why not try sneaking in late at night to pick up the windfalls?

Grr... I bet these people buy them in cartons.

We bought this current house which already had big apple trees in it. We give nearly all the apples away to neighbours and friends but apparently the people we bought it from just used to let it drop and decay on the ground. All the neighbours were mad about it, but really if they are your trees, it is up to you what you do with any fruit.

Here in Arizona we have people--sometimes convicts--who pick ripe citrus that people have no use for, and bring them to the local food bank for the poor. Some churches do the same.

It is entirely up to a neighbour what they do with the contents of their garden. However, if it is a neighbour's tree and they dont pick the fruit you could offer to pick it and give them a couple of pots of the jam? Just make sure they dont spray them or you might be better off leaving them alone!

Thinking back to the just post war years it would definitely have been viewed as a crime not to gather every last piece of produce and either use or share... We constantly hear that there are food shortages yet in the western world we regularly throw away perfectly edible food or all it to rot on the tree in the the ground. Right now we are struggling with a glut of cabbage and - guess what are giving them away. I realise it is almost impossible to 'make' someone use the food they have grown but it deeply saddens me when it is left to be wasted.