Last year's disappointing fruit year left many of us gun shy this year. We fretted over the fickle weather and lamented the lack of fruit in July and early August. Surely we were in for another slow, slow year! But just when we were starting to give up hope, summer—and the fruit it brings—arrived fashionably late. Luckily, we were ready with a fantastic team of volunteer Harvest Leaders ready to organize harvests in their neighborhoods and even more volunteers eager to pick! And of course, local food banks are excited to reap the bounty of Seattle's fruit trees.
All in all it's a winning combination, and we've harvested close to 4000 lbs of fruit so far. Although we’ve moved on to apples and grapes now, there were a few weeks when the Italian prune-plums kept us busy. This is a fantastic change from last year, when prune-plums were few and far between!
In fact, visiting trees that had almost no crop to speak of last year and walking away with pounds and pounds of fruit is an incredible reminder of the cyclical nature of, well, nature. I often laugh at the irony that the tree owners I talk to are either shocked to hear that others have fruit because they have none, or are shocked that others have none because their trees are loaded with fruit. It is laughable, but it's also fundamental to the fruit harvest—communities coming together to share the bounty and the burden.
If you'd like to harvest in your community, please contact Molly at fruitharvest@solid-ground.org or 206.694.6751. Or if you need help harvesting your extra fruit for donation, please contact the Seattle Tilth Garden Hotline at 206.633.0224 or help@gardenhotline.org.
Don't forget: Our friends at Homegrown Sustainable Sandwich Shop have created a tasty Seasonal 10 sandwich, Turkey + Red Pepper Relish, and 10% of the proceeds from the sandwich will go to Lettuce Link. Stop by one of their shops in Fremont, Queen Anne, or Capitol Hill this fall for a delicious treat, and thank them for supporting Lettuce Link!
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