On a rainy Saturday afternoon in San Francisco, the lobby at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco smelled of freshly cut oranges, limes, pineapples, and mint. People were jamming, thanks to the visit of the artist group Fallen Fruit.

The three artists who make up the collective, Fallen Fruit , Matias Viegener, David Burns, and Austin Young, started by mapping fruit trees in their neighborhood of Silver Lake, Los Angeles for a project for the Journal of Aesthetic protest. They did some research and learned that it's not illegal to take fruit in public areas, and trees that overhang private property. They moved from mapping to fruit foraging parties that brought together about 40-90 strangers from across the spectrum.

One of the group founders, Matias Viegener said that home owners were often surprised to find out that the fruit was edible. "They almost always encouraged us to pick more, and some even invited us into their backyards to pick. This project is really about connection-- the picking of fruit and jam making bring people together in a playful collaboration. They get to know people they might not otherwise meet and the jam is a product everyone has contributed to."

David Burns explains why fruit: "Fruit has always been an important symbol. It represents hospitality, bounty, cultures and goodness. It has been depicted more than anything else in art." He went on to talk about how absurd it is that our fruit now travels an estimate 1000 miles from grower to store. (In California, he claims that's 300 miles). Their name comes from a Biblical commands in Leviticus 19, ."...And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corner of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest/ And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather the fallen fruit of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and for the stranger:"

"We are also planting fruit trees and encouraging people to do this throughout Los Angeles," Burns explained. "That way you are creating beauty and food for generations to come and for total strangers. "

The crowd at the Yerba Buena Center that day was mixed. Unlikely hipsters stirred pots of jam cooking; children cut figs and diced plums, senior citizens told stories about their mason jars. This is a project that could spread nation wide, and even internationally. Neighborhoods across the country would come together to forage, to jam, and to help each other plant fruit trees.

Austin, a Fallen Fruit member told me "If this can work in Los Angeles, where people are so disconnected, and drive everywhere instead of using the sidewalks, it can work anywhere. We were in Tijuana recently, and they really need fruit trees down there."