not far from the tree

This backyard was made for jelly. A beautiful elderberry tree provides the bulk of the berries, and a crabapple tree makes for natural pectin. The fruit tree owner, who has long made her own jellies, showed off some of her canning equipment, shared a few jars with those who came to pick, and offered to host a jelly-making session at her place one day.

Since elderberries can make many people feel nauseous when eaten raw, this pick wasn’t immediately gratifying. The berries contain cyanide, but cooking rids them of the toxin. So I boiled mine down into the base for saft, a Scandinavian-style juice that I came to love while living in Norway.

The emails and phone calls keep coming, with Toronto fruit tree owners happy to find a use for their overly-abundant backyard pears.

We picked a total of six trees (apples, pears, elderberries, and crabapples) over the Labour Day weekend. Our volunteers were happy to offer their labour for this community initiative and were rewarded with a plethora of fruit. They have yet to unionize.

One unassuming tree was only 10 feet tall but offered us over 160 pounds of fruit (with many remaining on the tree). This has pushed our residential fruit tree total to over 1600 pounds! Another tree had a bonus crop of grapes entwined in its branches, which the folks at NaMeRes and Wychwood Open Door eagerly accepted.

Last night I was greeted by two beautiful pears when I arrived home. Rachel led a gleaning team on our first pear pick then generously left me two to sample. Antonietta led another team this morning, and yet another package arrived at my doorstep. Fresh, local, beautiful, hand-picked pears - wow!

We’re learning more and more about when to harvest pears, what signs of colour to look for and how firm they should be. Turns out they should be picked before they ripen to ensure they do not rot, but we’re not clear when is too early. Are there any knowledgeable pear pickers out there who can offer some advice?

I hope to post some photos of the pear expeditions soon, but in the meantime let’s celebrate the success of this year’s apricot crop once again! Stan Krzyzanowski has isolated his time-lapse photography so that we can see how the branches lift the more we pick. Check it out here. Can you sense how liberated the branches must feel after we’ve come for a picking visit?!? He shows the clip backwards and forwards so we can see the branches lift and then fall then lift again.

Update: Photos of the pear pick have now been posted on our Flickr site.

Half apricot pickers, half media types - we created quite a spectacle while picking yesterday morning. Local artist Stan Krzyzanowski captured the whole thing through time-lapse photography. (While browsing his site, I found some kindred content here, here, and here.)

I’ll be keeping a good part of the apricots to try some home preserving, a bit of an experiment before planning a public jam session for the fall. I’ve found some good recipes to test.

While scouting a tree for tomorrow’s pick, I strolled through the neighbourhood to see what other fruit trees I could find. The evening had big plans for me.

Some of the fruit tree owners we work with ask us to pick their fruit because they’re not sure how to go about doing it. But then there are those who know exactly what to do, who toil away in their urban orchards to create the most dazzling arrays.

First I met Natale, whose small slice of a front yard contains six or seven incredible fruit trees, each with three or four different plum varieties. Four of the trees were once apricot trees, onto which he has grafted his favourite plum varieties. He was generous with his tour, showing me a dozen new grafts that he made this spring, explaining how the ripening times rotate from branch to branch, inviting me to try a green one and a yellow one, giving me a couple for the quick walk home. I didn’t ask if we could pick his fruit - he obviously knows exactly what to do with it. And his roses - wow!

With a few extra plums in hand, I walked happily off. Then just around the corner I met Francesco. He was tending his plums, checking on the year’s grafts and the week’s ripening. An expert in fruit trees since his childhood spent on a farm in Italy, he claims to have grafted onto trees all over the neighbourhood (perhaps he’s a guerrilla gardener?). Again I was offered a generous handful: red plums, golden plums, and even a fresh fig! The tour continued with new fig growths, zucchinis climbing among plum tree branches, cherry branches grafted onto plum trees, and even some containers from which he grows lemons and limes. He packed me up a bag of golden plums and sent me off full of awe, into the good night of plenty.

Part I
At the end of July we picked plenty from an apricot tree. The tenants had just moved in and were just sitting down to celebrate on their back porch when we showed up to provide the entertainment for the evening - a circus performance of apricot picking! It was well-staged, with pickers at every level and in a variety of positions that showcased our strength and agility.

Part II
I walked through the laneway a week or more later and it looked like we had never been there. The tree was bursting with apricots yet again! I plucked a few to show at Harvest Wednesday (that we dubbed “Hillcrest apricots“) and scheduled another pick. We picked and picked and picked (in the misty afternoon rain) until we’d filled all of our bags and then some. Still there were more apricots on the tree. I walked past two hours later and more had fallen to the ground where we had just swept.

The fruit was flawless, and the tree was giving. Picking from this tree also brought our total of residential fruit harvested beyond 1000 lbs! Shucks, what a great tree.

It comes down to one of the most puzzling ethical debates for any fruit tree project coordinator: Am I allowed to pick favourites?

Yesterday evening Suzanne and I hosted a table at the Gladstone Hotel’s Harvest Wednesdays “Summer Tasting.” It was such a lovely event, filled with inspiring producers, businesses, and organizations. The menu was tantalizing, particularly the prosciutto-wrapped apricots mixed with walnut sage butter and wrapped in phyllo - although we here at not far from the tree have an affinity for apricots.

We had local apricots on show (picked the afternoon of) and a plethora of heritage apples from Spadina’s orchards. Samples were offered to brave passers-by and the fruit tree story cards from Seedy Saturday were on prominent display.

Every event we participate in is an opportunity to get people thinking about Toronto’s wealth of fruit trees. In addition to the many fruit picks we’ve led, we’ve co-hosted a Jane’s Walk, tabled a local eco-fair, and soon we’ll be co-hosting an “edible tree tour” with LEAF and the TPSC! So much to look forward to as the apples begin to ripen and pears are just around the corner.

The other day I was asked how long we’d been picking for, and I answered, “Oh, it must be 7 or 8 weeks now…” but when I checked the math I found that our very first residential fruit pick was on July 2nd. In our first month of picking, we’ve gathered (drumroll, please!) almost 1000 pounds of fresh, local fruit.

The accolades for this must go to the gleaning volunteers. They have offered their time, but even more importantly they have offered their enthusiasm and excitement. I’m already planning a thank-you party after the picking season is over so get ready to celebrate!

Ayup. Spadina Saturdays are wonderfully unpredictable. I’d thought we were in for a quiet day but the Rexdale Women’s Centre visit to the museum livened things up considerably. Learned that ’setur’ is another name for mulberries. I’ve got my fingers crossed for a repeat visit from Prasanna and her posse.

A mulberry sampler pack was, again, a fast seller at the market. And we had several baskets of apples, courtesy our newest star picker. They were great eating apples, called Early Mac. Lots of other market table produce too: Savoy and the football-shaped Early Jersey Wakefield cabbages, Stringless Green and yellow Ice beans (nicely pre-picked by Spadina staff), Summer and Golden Ball turnip, curly kale and onions. Didn’t have time to pull together our usual small flower bunches but they were sure missed. Next time!

Tags: "Early Mac", apple, heritage, tree, variety