Fruitful Harvest is a community movement -- a simple idea -- of how we can better use water in the Phoenix metro area to grow fruit trees to supply food banks with much needed produce.
So simple, actually, it can be summed up like this: plant a tree, pick some fruit, feed a kid.
1. Plant a tree. Are you interested in planting a fruit tree? Don't know where to start or how to access how much land, water, sunshine you need?
Fruit tree planting classes are available through the Phoenix Permaculture Guild. So are the trees. Attend one of their classes and you'll get a discount on a tree. Anyone can plant a tree. And! It will take very little time, land and water to make your tree a success. As for the sunshine, we have plenty. They need plenty. (See how easy this is?)
Ideally, you'll be planting this tree on irrigated land so it will require no more water to grow that you'd already be using. However, we can work with you no matter what your water situation is.
The trees available through the PPG are the best you can buy; they are selected by a team of garden folk who know what thrives in our desert climate and experts will be available at tree day -- when you'll pick up your order -- to answer more questions. If you are going to order a tree -- leave a comment and I'll send you the code to get a discount with Fruitful Harvest.
2. Pick some fruit. For the first three years or so, your tree will still be growing away and not producing fruit. So, how about you use your picking skills to help out on a gleaning team? Gleaning is a fancy word for volunteering to pick up left over crops, in this case citrus. Many neighborhoods in the Valley have excess citrus come January-April. Can you spare a few hours? Or even a few more to organize a gleaning team for your street?
3. Feed a kid. The fruit grown with fruitful harvest and gleaned will be donated to the local food bank system. Food banks participate in a national gleaning produce, so once their shelves (and hungry local bellies) are full -- the produce will be shipped to other states in need. They, in turn, will send back trucks of produce they have in excess.
How great is that?
So, how do you get involved? This is also very easy. Leave a comment and give me an idea of what you'd like to do. Take a class? Plant a tree? Sign up for a gleaning team? Organize a community group to glean?
Thank you for your interest!
Kind regards,
Kelli
