Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association

Fallen Fruit Rescue
By Gael Blackhall, Community Garden Resource Network
Reprinted with permission from the Calgary Horticultural Society. The CGRN program is supported in part by The Calgary Foundation.

There’s a hidden harvest in Calgary. Urban food foragers know that within the city limits there are luscious stands of Saskatoon berries and raspberries growing wild which are free for anyone to pick. I am determined to train my community gardening eye in fresh new ways to discern edible possibilities with the penetrating gaze of a civic food forager and an urban bounty hunter.

In my usual role as Royal jester of the Backyard Fruit Court, my fruit sampling takes the form of snacking from friends’ apple trees when I am caring for their teenagers, canines, felines, gerbils or amphibians as they sojourn somewhere for a week or two. In these edible food fair pockets I have discovered that fruit tree owners struggle with The Problem of More, The challenge of What and The Adventure of How. More harvest than the tree owner can pick or use. What can be done with the fruit when it is fallen to the ground prematurely or when ripe? How to get the fruit picked, juiced, jammed, jellied, sauced, slurried, leathered, buttered or baked in crumbles when time, energy or knowhow are scarce.

The Fallen Fruit Rescue Project is an initiative started by Adrian Buckley of Big Sky Permaculture. He coordinates teams of volunteer gleaners and gatherers who harvest fruit for you. One third of the harvest goes to you as the owner, another third goes to the volunteers doing the picking, and the last third goes to the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank and other organizations serving Calgary’s hungry. No need any longer to lament fruit going to waste on the tree or on the ground!

Right now Adrian needs to identify and map the fruit trees for next year’s harvest. Is there a fruit tree you are willing to share? Sign up one of your fruit trees to be part of a shared fruit harvest or to find out more visit www.bigskypermaculture.ca/fruitrescue. Then contemplate the compotes, cordials and concoctions your fruit tree will bring to others because you enlisted your tree as a fruit hero!