not far from the tree

Not Far From The Tree is getting pretty excited about participating in the upcoming Foodprint conference this Saturday July 31^st.

Never heard of the Foodprint Project before…?

“Foodprint Toronto is the second in a series of international conversations about food and the city. With the Toronto Board of Health having just formally adopted a new city-wide food strategy, the timing is perfect for a truly cross-disciplinary discussion that explores the past, present, and future of food and the city. From the fight for street food to the transportation infrastructure of the Ontario Food Terminal, and from the evolution of school meals to the challenge of scaling up urban agriculture, panelists will explore the forces that shape Toronto’s food and speculate on how to feed Toronto in the future.”

Representing Not Far From The Tree, Program Coordinator Laurel Atkinson will be a panelist alongside Darren O’Donnell, Mark Fram, and Chris Hardwicke. Delectably entitled “Culinary Cartography”, this panel’s discussion will center on the question, what can we learn when we map Toronto using food as the metric?

Those of us who have picked fruit with Not Far From The Tree have already made changes to our mental maps, consciously or subconsciously. Those who have gleaned know that something magical changes in the way you see your urban streetscape when you start harvesting Toronto’s fruit.  It’s as if our internal GPS systems have suddenly downloaded a new fruit tree-finding app. We begin to notice sidewalks stained with mulberries, or littered with cherry pits. Our curiosity forces us to peer into curb-side yard waste bags and take a second glance down alleyways. We are always looking up, down, and sideways – usually without even thinking about it. A gleaner’s city is the urban orchard.

It would be wonderful if you could join us at Foodprint Toronto this Sunday from 12:30 – 5:00pm at the Artscape Wychwood Barns – either to join in our Culinary Cartography discussion, or to attend any number of the other special panels.

Note:  This post comes by way of Supreme Gleaner Lisa Pitman. It was originally posted June 21st, on her beautiful blog Vegan Cookbook Critic. She agreed to cross-post and share her first cherry pick with Not Far From The Tree and our readers. ENJOY!

After a busy Saturday full of food, friends and revelry, this Sunday I started to work through my summer to-do list (even though it was actually the last day of spring). I have started  visiting my regular rotation of farmer’s markets and finished my swimming lessons last week. Yesterday, I had the chance to lead my first local pick of the season with Not Far From The Tree (cherries have ripened three weeks earlier than usual). My team of amazing volunteers were up early and ready to climb to capture the amazing bounty of organic fruit.

We took turns on the ladders, the shed roof and climbing the tree itself to capture as many beautiful ripe bunches as possible. We were very lucky to have two young volunteers join us and collect any precious cherries that fell to the ground unexpectedly as the adults gleaned from above.

In about 90 minutes we picked 30 lbs of beautiful, organic cherries. We all wished for “go-go-gadget arms” to reach the fruit that was just out of reach. I found myself contorting around branches in hopes of grasping just one more cherry.

I carried 10 lbs of cherries to the Native Men’s Shelter and they were very excited to receive this special delivery.

With my haul I’ve already made a few different dishes including a super simple ice cream:

Super Simple Ice Cream:

In your food processor combine:

• 1 cup frozen banana
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cherries.

Note: To get a Black Forest flavour add 1 heaping Tablespoon of cacao powder.

Enjoy the local bounty while it lasts!

Super Gleaner

Lisa Pitman

Find more recipes and fun at www.vegancookbookcritic.blogspot.com

Not Far From The Tree is delighted to be named a finalist for Earth Day Canada’s Hometown Hero Award. We’ve joined the ranks of a select few individuals, groups, and organizations from across Canada to be recognized as an environmental leader who fosters “meaningful, long-term community awareness and action.” Thank you to all our dedicated supporters for once again allowing us to achieve such recognition. (Truly, YOU are our heroes!)

It’s an honour to be named alongside so many wonderful people working together towards similar goals. Our hats go off to Toronto-based Green Here on their win. Thanks also to Earth Day Canada for bringing more awareness to all of the amazing groups in Canada that are working to make our home towns a little greener every day. You can read all about the other Hometown Heroes as well!

Not Far From The Tree will continue to ensure that the fruit growing in Toronto is picked, eaten, shared, and enjoyed throughout 2010 … and beyond!

The trees are loaded…
The pickers are waiting…

…And they’re off!

Nearly three weeks ahead of schedule, Toronto’s cherries ripened hastily and set us off on an early start to the season. We’re still in the midst of hiring seasonal staff, so our amazing team of specially-trained and super-dedicated volunteers, who we call Supreme Gleaners, set to work leading picks in the meantime.

Supreme Gleaner Dena Warman returned from a pick today:

“It was a great pick – beautiful tree.  A lot of fruit was very high and could not be reached, but by the end we found a good way – one person gently pulling down on a branch, one person on the ladder picking and one person on the ground picking – that way we got to much more of the ripe fruit near. There was still a lot of fruit very high… for the birds and squirrels.”

During this one pick, Dena and two volunteers picked a whopping 35 lbs of cherries, 21 of which were donated to the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre (PARC).

At another site, 107 lbs of cherries were harvested. We are off to a great start, team!

The fruit picks that Not Far From The Tree organizes have many magical qualities, but there’s nothing quite like the happenstance of gleaning from trees and shrubs on public land. The picking is determined by the watchful eye of the passerby, lending a spontaneity to the act.

And you never know who else might also be keeping a watchful eye for the perfect moment of picking. The fun is in convening at the same time as your mysterious colleagues – or at least arriving before the bounty has already been harvested.

Suzanne Long, a friend who I’ve met through her volunteer work with Not Far From The Tree’s program at Spadina Museum, has been one of those careful watchers over a City-planted serviceberry patch along the Dupont railway. Earlier this evening, she wrote to tell me that the time was ripe. She descended upon the site at the same magical moment as many others:

“was one of the those nights with heavy winds then pockets of sunny warm. weird but nice. mostly sunny by the end too.

“anyhow. magda and andrea showed up because they’d seen my last minute twitter invite. the neighbours and locals were out in full force. it was incredible. impromptu. laid back. two sets of parents w/ kids. a couple out for a stroll stopped to ask, and picked a few.

“one woman was there before we showed up, a local. she actually picked the lion’s share. but there was enough to go around, just not the big cupfulls we had last year.

“and, this master gleaner dude showed up at the tail end. he had tupperware containers of sweet cherries and mulberries from elsewhere in the annex. and he was totally cool with sharing, sort of proud of his haul, almost forced them on us in a gentle way. magda, andrea and this father/daughter combo were enchanted. so was i.”

Tags: community, public fruit, serviceberry, urban

We know that you’re all eager to start picking — and so are we!

But before we can load up the bike trailers, and get our hands stained and sticky-sweet, we need to find those special folks who can make it all happen! Not Far From The Tree is hiring three youth interns and two hub coordinators for the upcoming season. Please visit our jobs page to learn more about who we’re looking for, including how to apply.

Looking forward to hearing from all of you — and good luck!

Tags: "not far from the tree", employment, intern, job

Early bird online tickets are over — but still lots of tickets at the door! Come on out TONIGHT (Thursday May 20th); or join us for the party afterwards!

The blossoms are out (or even finished), wee little fruiting buds are appearing on trees, and folks are anxious to get out and pick some fruit. This means one thing: Not Far From The Tree is gearing up to pick some urban fruit!!!

But we need your support!

In order to run our amazing programs this year, we still need funds to help us for this season. That’s why we’re happy to be hosting a film screening of “The Gleaners and I”, a French documentary about — you guessed it — gleaners like you! You can buy tickets online, or by calling 416-908-3022.

We really hope that you can join us — we’ll have music, amazing food, and prizes. This will be a great chance to meet other cool people who, like you, are interested in supporting Not Far From The Tree. It’s also a chance to lend your financial support to ensure that we can continue to run our programs this year.

If you’re not able to join us — don’t despair! You can still make a donation to our organization online – and we’d be happy to offer you a charitable tax receipt, too!

See you on Thursday!

Tags: gleaners and I, nfftt

Not Far From The Tree is delighted to announce that we’ve been selected as one of thirty-three community groups across Ontario as recipients of the Community Go Green Fund! Awarded through the Ministry of the Environment, this provincial funding will help us expand our residential fruit-picking program this year, as we continue with our important work in educating about, and taking action on, climate change issues.

Expanding is wonderful — but so is ensuring that our existing hubs are able to operate at full capacity! This is why we hope you can join us at our Gleaning Screening event on Thursday May 20th — to help support our programming for the upcoming season. Even if you can’t attend, you can still donate to help support our programs!

Our residential fruit-picking program is a proven way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (43 tonnes last year alone!), and achieves this through providing outreach and education, promoting long-term behavioural change, and advocating actions that create measurable results.

Through our innovative and hands-on programming, we’re not only ensuring that the fruit growing in Toronto is picked, eaten, shared, and enjoyed, we’re also encouraging others to take action through their own lifestyle choices. We’re delighted to know that our programming will continue to impact even more Torontonians this harvest season!

Next stop: cherry picking!

Tags: community go green fund, gleaning screening, nfftt

Not Far From The Tree is delighted to be selected as the 2010 Recipient of the Canadian Urban Institute’s City Soul Award!

The City Soul Award “is given in recognition of pursuits which inspire, inform, enrich and engage our collective spirit, and which celebrate nature and/or the authenticity of place. This can be achieved through culture, nature, the arts, entertainment, heritage, sports, recreation or politics by reigniting the soul and passion of a city.”

This award is shared by all who are involved with Not Far From The Tree – our dedicated volunteers, partner agencies, supporting chefs and restaurants, staff, supporters, fruit tree owners, and generous funders from our 2009 season. Congratulations to all!

An awards ceremony will take place on June 3rd 2010 as a fundraiser for the Canadian Urban Institute’s internship program. See http://canurb.org/content/urban-leadership-awards for more information.

To make a donation to support our upcoming season, please visit http://www.notfarfromthetree.org/make-a-donation or send an email to laurel@notfarfromthetree.org.

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For media inquiries about Not Far From The Tree receiving the City Soul Award, please contact info@notfarfromthetree.org or (416) 908-3022.

Fruit trees have started blossoming around the city, much earlier than usual. The above photo of an apricot tree blossoming at Ben Nobleman Community Orchard was taken on April 4, 2010, whereas last year’s first apricot blossoms in the same neighbourhood were only on April 29th (and still they were nipped in the bud, so to speak, by a late frost, resulting in a significantly reduced apricot crop). The unseasonably warm weather that we’ve been enjoying lately is just that – unseasonable.

To find out more, we went to Not Far From The Tree volunteer Leanne Moss, who helped research what this could mean:

“In certain circumstances, warmer-than-average early spring temperatures can cause flowering buds to begin blooming early. This can spell trouble for subsequent fruit production, as the buds become much more susceptible to frost once they begin to bloom. According to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the buds of fruit trees may be damaged if they begin to bloom but are then exposed to -2 C temperatures for more than 24 hours, whereas they may survive if exposed to -6 C for less than 2 hours. The blossoms of apples, pears, cherries, and plums are susceptible to damage if exposed to -1 to -2 C temperatures. Damage to either flower buds or blossoms can lead to a significant decrease in fruit production. Apple growers in New Hampton are currently experiencing the earliest bloom seen in 50 years, which is causing distress as frost temperatures are likely up until mid May. Similar concerns are being raised in New York. Covering, heating and sprinkling with water are techniques employed to help prevent frost damage on early bloomed buds.”

Keep your fingers crossed that Toronto’s already-blossoming fruit trees will survive any upcoming frosts. And in the meantime, let’s try to enjoy the beauty of their flowers, one of the most delightful displays around. Have you spotted any fruit blossoms around town?

Tags: blossom frost risk