Since the first week of July, 132 Not Far From The Tree volunteers have harvested fruit from 32 trees – and we haven’t even hit our busiest part of the season yet!

You may recall from a previous blog post that a wetter-than-normal spring affected this year’s cherry crop. Across Ontario, cherry farmers have experienced a drastic decline in their yield.

On the up side, this has given Not Far From The Tree the opportunity to pick more mulberry trees than ever before!  Ever-inventive Supreme Gleaner Steve even created a fantastic mulberry-picking contraption to help us with our efforts. He affectionately dubbed it the “Mulberry Poppins.”

At this time in the season, our volunteers are usually busy harvesting apricots and plums. Like cherries, however, both of these supple fruits seem to be experiencing the same low production. Although we’re still planning on a few plum picks, many homeowners have sadly told us, “Don’t bother coming – there’s nothing to pick!” In cases where this lack of fruit is a surprise, our amazing fruit picking volunteers have been just as eager to pick whatever yield there is, be it 2 or 200 pounds.

After plums and apricots have come and gone, we usually enter a time in the season that we’ve come to know as “the lull.” While we await pears, apples, crab apples, and grapes, this breathing room gives us a chance to bring the equipment we need for heavier fruit out to neighbourhood storage locations.

Now that we’re picking in fourteen neighbourhoods, we’re looking forward to the next round of delectable fruit.

Tags: cherries, fruit-picking, mulberries, nfftt, Ontario