Posted in Foraged, In Backyards, In the Media on Jan 17th, 2011
An excellent collection of stories about food waste was recently featured in The Toronto Star. Among articles about the social, economic, and environmental aspects of food waste, one article presents “creative solutions to handle food waste,” with Not Far From The Tree as an example of just that. The article begins, “If you want to [...]
Posted in In Backyards on Jan 11th, 2011
My family members have always been a big support in my life. When word spread among them that I would be part of the wonderful Not Far From The Tree team, it did not take long for them to join me and jump for joy. (Thank you to The George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation for [...]
Posted in In Backyards, In the Kitchen on Jan 1st, 2011
I recently had the chance to help out Robin, the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation Leaders in the Field Intern with Not Far From the Tree, with a preserving workshop for one of our partner organizations, Sistering. I first met the lovely ladies at Sistering half-way through this season, and we immediately hit it off. It [...]
Posted in In Backyards, In the Kitchen on Dec 26th, 2010
Editor’s Note: Pollie joined Not Far From The Tree for the 2010 season as our Parkdale-High Park Coordinator, with thanks to the YMCA Youth Eco-Internship Program. She did her research on ginkgo nuts and presents you with this tale of trying to harvest and prepare them, not unlike the story that Marnie Saskin shared here [...]
Posted in In Backyards on Nov 15th, 2010
From June to October, the weight of our 2010 urban fruit harvest totaled… 19,695 lbs! (That’s 8,934 kgs or 8.9 tonnes.)
Posted in Events, In Backyards, In the Kitchen on Nov 10th, 2010
At our fundraiser tonight, the featured drink at the open bar (yes – an open bar!) will be The Gleaner, our signature elderberry cocktail. It all started in 2008, our first harvest season, when a great elderberry harvest from a little tree on Alcina Avenue left us with a surplus of the fruit. Elderberries can’t [...]
Posted in In Backyards on Sep 17th, 2010
At the beginning of this season, we hoped we might reach a 10,000-pound-harvest. Last weekend we reached this exciting mark and so I started to write a short article to share the news. But by the end of the weekend we had already reached 11,000. And now the total is racing past 13,000, far surpassing [...]
Posted in Foraged, In Backyards, Resources on Aug 27th, 2010
In early July I couldn’t wait to get started as the new hub coordinator for Riverdale. It’s safe to say I was itchin’ to get pickin’. Although I’d missed the cherries, serviceberries, and mulberries because of our unusually warm spring, I was still looking forward to the next crop: apricots! I began scouring Riverdale looking [...]
Posted in In Backyards on Aug 21st, 2010
Editor’s Note: This story has been generously shared by one of our volunteers, Barbara Fine, and is cross-posted from her blog Planet Friendly Kids. Thanks so much to Barbara for allowing us to post her story here. We went on a pear pick the other day. Last year I signed us up as volunteers for [...]
Posted in Foraged, In Backyards on Aug 16th, 2010
Cherries caught us by surprise this year. The warm spring weather we experienced meant that cherries were blossoming and producing fruit about three weeks earlier than last year. While Not Far From The Tree was in the process of hiring our seasonal staff, I was fortunate to have the incredible help of our dedicated team [...]
