The featured community group for January 2009

Not Far From The Tree

-- An interview with Laura Reinsborough

How did you get started? What was the motivation?

In the summer of 2007, I was looking to volunteer in my neighbourhood, near St. Clair and Christie. I signed up to be an extra pair of hands at a local farmer's market, run by the Stop Community Food Centre. The market manager, Roscoe Handford, had something else in mind. And so, I found myself picking apples from the remnant orchards at Spadina Museum and selling them at the market. I’d never picked an apple before, let along run a small business, so the steep learning curve offered a real adventure. As we sold the fruit at market, we heard stories upon stories of fruit trees in the neighbourhood – many of which were going to waste as their fruit would often fall and rot on the ground.

By that winter, the group of volunteers that had rallied around the Spadina orchards knew that we could take this project in many different directions. So we called some food-minded friends together for a brainstorming potluck around my kitchen table. A fantastic group showed up, including urban farmers, food security workers, urban planners, social workers, and curious community members. We realized that all of the components were there to create Toronto’s very own fruit tree project: existing sources of fresh fruit are growing right here in the city; plenty of volunteers are keen to pick fruit in the city; and many people need access to healthy food, finding it especially difficult to acquire fresh fruit. It didn’t take long to connect the dots, and so when the first cherries had ripened we had organized ourselves to pick them. Fruit tree owners centrally register their fruit trees; a coordinator dispatches teams of volunteers to help pick the fruit; and the bounty is divided up so that fruit tree owners, volunteers, and local food-providing agencies can share the harvest.

In 2008, we limited our scope to the residential fruit trees of Municipal Ward 21 to ensure that what we took on was of a manageable size. By the end of the season, we picked over 3,000 pounds of fruit from residential trees, and continued our Spadina Museum program as a Saturday morning drop-in. We’re now looking to expand to more neighbourhoods next year, developing a network of neighbourhood-based hubs so that our programs can respond to the direct needs of each area. Currently we’re talking about hubs in East York and Parkdale for the 2009 season. We’ve become a project of The Catalyst Centre, are formalizing our education programs, and seeking funding to sustain what we’ve begun.

How do others benefit from your hard work?

Volunteers

Volunteers got a chance this year to have a fruit-picking experience that we don’t tend to think of as an urban experience. That’s part of the beauty of urban agriculture: acknowledging how tasty, fun, delightful, and friendly it can be to grow food where you live. And we get to do the best parts about growing food: picking and eating it!

Fruit Tree Owners

The fruit tree owners get so much from this project:

• a clean yard, clear of fallen fruit that rots and attracts pests (wasps, raccoons) and becomes a liability (the smell, a tripping hazard, frustrated neighbours)
• lots of fresh fruit picked for them (they can keep up to 1/3 of the harvest which is often far too much for one household)
• seeing their fruit tree transformed from a private liability to a public asset (when a group of strangers convene in somebody's yard it becomes this special little public performance, a site of community building, where passersby stop to ask questions - "Can you eat that?" - and the fruit tree owners gain a renewed sense of community)

Local Agencies

And, best of all, 1/3 of the fruit that would otherwise have gone to waste now finds its way to the clients and members of food-providing agencies in the neighbourhood. We donate 1/3 of the fruit from every pick to local agencies, such as food banks, shelters, drop-in programs, and parenting centres. The agencies speak of how difficult it is to constantly supply fresh fruit, often resulting in them buying cheap fruit from far away. To have this beautiful, fresh, virtually-organic fruit donated from right here in the neighbourhood is a real boon for them. And they've often commented on how their members take great pride in the fact that the fruit is gathered by their neighbours and fellow community members.

How does this tie in with food security?

Hmm, it does in so many ways! Probably TCGN members can think of even more reasons, but here are a few to get started:

• reducing food miles by encouraging local eating
• recognizing strong cultural connections to fruit, fruit trees, and fruit-picking
• recognizing the narrative and cultural power of fruit (they tell so many stories, and illustrate so many cultural connections!)
• making use of an existing source of local food
• bringing awareness of the variety of fruit that can be grown locally (fresh apricots, serviceberries, nectarines, figs, plums, peaches, cherries, and so much more!)
• connecting inter-generationally, particularly by sharing techniques to grow, graft, and preserve

- reclaiming the knowledge of how to extend the harvest through fruit preserving workshops

What goals did you set in the spring- how successful were they?

I didn't know where this project would go. I wasn't even sure if there were enough fruit trees in Ward 21 to sustain the project. I looked at the fruit tree projects in BC and I thought wow, we'll never get a harvest like theirs. Much to my surprise, the Toronto project has exploded. There is an abundance of fruit trees waiting to be picked, and volunteer pickers, we just need to keep building our organizational capacity to make it happen. We picked over 3000 pounds of fresh fruit in our first season.

What is the mission statement?

Oh, that’s a good idea! We should really have a mission statement. For now, let's say:

Not Far From The Tree aims to ensure that Toronto-grown fruit is picked, shared, eaten and enjoyed.

Werbsite www.notfarfromthetree.org

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Content last modified on February 16, 2009, at 11:11 AM EST