Helping to Harvest

(2013 EDIT: We've moved this information to a new page about Western Washington Gleaning Groups to reflect current updates)

It's summer, the fruit ripens and hopefully finds its way into your mouth or preserves, or perhaps into the hands of the many Seattle based harvest groups.

Here at Lettuce Link, we have the Community Fruit Tree Harvest for Ballard, Central Seattle, Capitol Hill, NE Seattle, South Park, and Wallingford. City Fruit harvests in Phinney/Greenwood, Crown Hill, SE and West Seattle. Colman Park has their very own neighborhood harvest!

(Donate your fruit in Seattle by calling Seattle Tilth's Garden Hotline, 206-633-0224)

But what if you live outside of Seattle and want to donate or harvest? Here are a some gleaning groups we know of in Western Washington. Know of others? Send us a note (fruitharvest@solid-ground.org) or leave a comment. We'd love to have more contacts to direct folks to...

• Bellingham: Small Potatoes Gleaning Project (through the Bellingham Food Bank)
• Issaquah: Issaquah Harvest
• Kitsap County: Doris the Fruit Lady (great example of volunteers making it happen!)
• Olympia: Thurston County Food Bank Gleaners, gleaning@thurstoncountyfoodbank.org
• Port Angeles/Sequim: Olympic Gleaners
• Port Townsend/Jefferson County: Quimper Community Harvest
• Tacoma/Pierce County: Pierce County Gleaning Project
• Whidbey Island: Gleeful Gleaners

In 2009, Lettuce Link published an urban fruit harvest guide, written by harvest and fruit tree extraordinaire, Gail Savina. Gather It! How to Organize an Urban Fruit Harvest -- all the steps and resources to start a harvest project of your own.

Live on the Eastside? We get many a call from people looking for help harvesting their fruit. Could hold great potential for a future gleaning group...

Want to start something in your neighborhood? We'd be happy to talk with you about tips, resources, and ideas.

Happy harvesting.