Not Far From The Tree
One of the cool projects we heard about at EcoSuave was “Not Far From the Tree.” They are a non-profit organisation in Toronto that “help fruit tree owners make use of the abundance of fruit that their trees offer by dispatching teams of volunteers to harvest it for them. One third goes to the fruit tree owners, another third goes to the volunteers for their labour, and the final third is distributed (by bicycle or cart) to community organizations in the neighbourhood who can make good use of the fresh fruit.” Last year (2008) they picked 3003lb of fruit!
We thought this was a GREAT idea and will consider calling them if our lonely pear tree is as abundant as it was last year.
Here are some similar organisations in the rest of the province and Canada:
- Appleseed Collective (Guelph, ON)
- The Hamilton Fruit Tree Project (Hamilton, ON)
- The Fruit Tree Project (Vancouver, BC)
- Lifecycles Fruit Tree Project (Victoria, BC)
- Nanaimo Foodshare (Nanaimo, BC)
- Richmond Fruit Treee Sharing Project (Richmond, BC)
- Harvest Rescue (Nelson, BC)
- SADI Tree Fruit Project (Summerland, BC)
- Powell River Fruit Tree Project (Powell River, BC)
Tags: fruit tree, local eating, Not Far From the Tree, urban farming
Do you know if there is a similar organization for vegetables? We always have tomatoes-a-plenty and can never pick or eat them all. We give bags away to neighbours and friends but there are only so many tomatoes a family can eat. I’m in Etobicoke, Ontario (west end Toronto)
Great question! I just sent an email to Not Far From the Tree and will get back to you (via the comments here) when I find out.
Here is a reply from Laura at Not Far From The Tree:
Josh,
We specialize in tree fruit for the time being, and don’t have any plans to venture much farther afield in the near future. Maybe some nuts this fall, but that’s about it. There are some other ways to connect for other plants in backyards, though. I’ve heard about a SPIN farming network starting up in Toronto, and there’s a website called Sharing Backyards that may be of use.
I hope that helps.
Cheers,
Laura
Laura Reinsborough
Project Coordinator
http://www.notfarfromthetree.org