Many of us have fruit trees on our plot, and some years they provide a lot more fruit than we or our friends can eat. What to do with all that extra fruit?
That’s where Barnet Community Harvesters can help. This is a group of volunteers who, if you contact them, will come to your tree, pick the excess fruit for you, and distribute it to the local community. All you need to do is to make sure you are on hand to let them in, chaperone them, and let them out, and they will do the picking for you. It doesn’t take long. And it’s not just about allotment trees – many jobs are in people’s back gardens.
It’s a great idea and the service has been building up over the last couple of years. This season so far has resulted in an amazing 1500 kg of fruit going to local food banks and Homeless Action in Barnet. You can see more pictures at Barnet Community Harvesters Instagram page.
Last weekend on a gloriously sunny Sunday lunchtime, a group of us visited Friern Barnet Central Allotments and picked over 70kg of apples just from a single tree in about forty five minutes – so many many thanks to Jane and Jim Canavan for allowing all that fruit to be picked! There are many other trees on the allotment full of apples and other fruit – if one is on your plot, please let us know via the email below.
Barnet Community Harvesters goes wider than picking and distributing excess fruit. There is lively menu swapping of tasty ideas for your crops, as well as helping to research Barnet’s fruit tree heritage by identifying and mapping fruit and nut trees on public land. Who knew that Barnet has it’s own lost apple cultivars – the “Finchley Pippin” and “Voyager”, a Hertfordshire raised apple developed by A.R. King? The project is especially looking out for unknown or rare apple varieties – Finchley Pippin may soon turn up again!
If you have some excess fruit that could be picked and used, instead of wasting on the tree, please contact barnetcommunityharvesters@gmail.com. It’s a great idea – so please do contact them if you have any fruit on your allotment or garden that you would like to feed the local community.
Friern Barnet Central Allotments 