The AmeriCorps VISTA worked alongside the Orchard Steward Coordinator to create a schedule of monthly work parties at the 14 parks City Fruit stewards. The VISTA determined the site needs and recruited volunteers using various outreach mechanisms. In general winter activities include restoration, pruning, weeding and clearing…
The Green Urban Lunch Box’s (GULB) FruitShare program is a unique program that partners with fruit tree homeowners and community volunteers to harvest and distribute fruit that would otherwise go to waste. The harvested fruit is divided up between the tree owner, the volunteers who harvested it, and local hunger relief.
Typically, IRN would lead 2 weekly harvests that involved meeting at the office and carpooling to fruit tree locations. These harvests would consist of large groups of refugees and volunteers ranging from 10-25 participants. Modifications to the gleaning approach were made to limit size and interaction of participants while still diverting viable and nutritional produce from landfills.
A variety of fruit trees live and thrive in Southwest Washington. It can seem tricky to know when fruit is ready to harvest, but here is a helpful breakdown of indicators by fruit tree type..
Urban Abundance harvests and tends backyard and community orchards in Clark County, WA. Pruning is an essential element of orchard maintenance, and pruning at different times of year can yield different results.
For its first year, the 2019 OIC’s fruit gleaning has been slow but steady. We have gleaned local orchards, backyards and a permaculture collective..
Keeping a gleaning program going for the long term can be a challenge; volunteers come and go, tree donors may move away and sell their properties to new owners who aren’t familiar with the program, and the fruit harvest varies from year to year..
Overview: In order to take advantage of the successful gleaning program and bypass the storage limitations of food relief agencies, volunteer-based workshops can process excess gleaned produce into shelf-stable items for distribution and teach food preservation and waste prevention..