not far from the tree

LEAF has been supportive of not far from the tree from the very beginning. Last weekend we co-hosted the Edible Tree Tour as part of their Toronto Tree Tours and we’ve swapped even more ideas on how to collaborate in the future. After all, fruit trees make up a significant portion of the urban forest - LEAF’s raison d’être.

Way back in July, after we’d only picked 60 lbs of fruit, LEAF arborist Todd Irvine did a mini harvest of his recently-planted serviceberry.

At the time, Suzanne and I had just harvested from a serviceberry at Spadina Museum and given them away as a sampler at the market. Most market-goers hadn’t tasted the serviceberry before, and were thrilled to try a new fruit. Serviceberries not only offer delicious fruit, but they are a native species that offer many benefits to Toronto’s ecosystem - such as our birds, bugs, water, and soil. The serviceberry goes by many other names: shadbush, juneberry, and some dispute that it is the same as the saskatoon berry. Suzanne’s favourite term for the fruit is “the cosmopolitan blueberry.”

I planted one on my tiny front yard this summer and am looking forward to my first harvest, hopefully next year. For the first year of picking, I’m impressed with Todd’s half-cup full!

Tags: serviceberry frontyard Todd LEAF Spadina