The volunteers of Not Far From The Tree have been busy picking and plucking their way across the city. The residential fruit harvesting program that began in Toronto's St. Paul/St. Clair West neighbourhood has expanded this year to Parkdale-High Park and East York.
Not Far From The Tree's idea is simple: homeowners sign up to allow their trees to be harvested and volunteers sign up to do the harvesting. The food is split three ways with a third going to the homeowner, a third going to the volunteers and a third going to a local partner organization. Because of the success of the program last year - with 300 volunteers signed up and 3,000 pounds of food harvested in 2008 - the founder of the program, Laura Reinsborough was able to bring on hub co-ordinators to help her expand and grow her vision.
Laurel Atkinson is the co-ordinator of the Parkdale-High Park pickings; she had wanted to get involved last year but the timing never seemed to work for her to go out and pick. Things came together this year and now she is overseeing the homeowners and volunteers.
"It's really amazing, once you open your eyes, how many trees are around here," she said.
With ample volunteers, Atkinson said the push is on to spread the word to homeowners in the area to get more trees available for harvest. Once people learn about the program, the response is good.
"The reception when I stop to talk to homeowners has been very welcoming," she said.
So far this season they've been harvesting Saskatoon berries, mulberries and different varieties of cherries. Apples, pears, plums and apricots are still to come.
In Parkdale the last third of the harvests are going to the Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre and Atkinson said they've worked with Greenest City using its Youth Green Squad to do a marathon of pickings.
In East York, hub co-ordinator Marnie Saskin was already been cooking up the idea of an urban food harvesting group with the Shoelace Collective, a group of residents and business owners in Woodbine Heights who got together to talk about poverty issues, when she heard about Not Far From The Tree so they teamed up.
Saskin, who grew up on a farm in Niagara, didn't like to see fresh food go to waste.
"On walks with my daughter in the fall I'd often see garbage bags full of fruit and it just hurt my heart," she said. "Fresh fruit is hard to get for a lot of people."
She has been having a great time working with pickers in her community.
"The volunteers make my day. They're just so enthusiastic and the sense of everyone in it together," she said.
The homeowners have also been welcoming and appreciative.
"They're happy to see the food go to good use," Saskin said.
While many of the homeowners have been enjoying the fruits of their backyard for years, the harvest is just too much for many of them to fully utilize. Not Far From The Tree helps makes use of the fresh, locally and essentially organic harvest so it doesn't end up falling to the ground and making a mess or attracting pests.
"A full tree can give you pounds and pounds of fruit at one time and people don't have the space to store it or the time to preserve it," Saskin said.
Both she and Atkinson are interested in making the bounties last into the winter. Both said preserve workshops will take place in each of their hubs in the fall to help people eat local all year long.
Residential fruit tree owners who have a surplus to share can register online at www.notfarfromthetree.org/registration. For more information on the program, visit www.notfarfromthetree.org