The Fruitful Forest: Developing a Fruit Tree Care Program for Toronto (Finalist)
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Tucked away in backyards and along alleyways, Toronto’s urban forest is teeming with fruit trees. Approximately 1.5 million pounds of fruit are produced from our urban canopy every year, and yet most of this fruit goes unpicked. Not Far From The Tree sprang to life in 2008 as a bright and hopeful solution to this surplus of local fruit. Volunteers are mobilized to harvest the fruit and then the bounty is shared: 1/3 to the homeowner; 1/3 to the volunteers, and 1/3 to a neighbourhood food bank or shelter. It’s a win-win-win solution.
As the lead partner in this venture, Not Far From The Tree will house the fruit tree care social enterprise upon its implementation. Operating since 2008, Not Far From The Tree is a charitable project whose mission is to pick and share the abundance of fruit growing in Toronto. In this short time, Not Far From The Tree has proven itself to be a game-changing approach to environmental engagement, particularly in an urban setting.
Not Far From The Tree has a database of over 750 homeowners with fruit trees on their properties, over 900 volunteers looking for adventures with fruit trees in the city, and a solid management team supported by Tides Canada Initiatives Society. We also have a strong Steering Committee who are very keen to see the development of a fruit tree care program to help support the overall work of Not Far From The Tree.
Tides Canada Initiatives Society, the parent charity of Not Far From The Tree, is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to environmental sustainability and social change. It provides a shared administrative platform (comprehensive financial, human resources, risk and grant management) for 40+ projects across the country.
Three members of the Ontario Institute of Agrologists are already involved in the initial research phase of this program. They have received their expertise from international training programs and are now faced with the dilemma of finding meaningful work in their fields in Canada.
MaRS is where science, technology and social entrepreneurs get the help they need. Where all kinds of people meet to spark new ideas. And where a global reputation for innovation is being earned, one success story at a time. The SiG (Social Innovation Generation) practice of MaRS offers programs and services for social innovators and entrepreneurs. Clients like Not Far From the Tree access to a range of expertise and resources (all on a pro bono basis) that help them turn their ideas into positive outcomes for society, enhancing the quality of life for people in Ontario and across Canada. SiG@MaRS is contributing market intelligence to quantify the demand for fruit tree care services in Toronto including the finer details of a business plan.
The George Cedric Metcalf Foundation has contributed start-up funding for the initial research phase of this program. This has allowed us to hire the team of agrologists and to cover some overhead costs to develop the idea.
UPDATE: The feedback we have received through ClimateSpark has been so helpful in refining this project idea. As we move further into developing a fruit tree care program, each piece of advice and feedback lays out the path. In addition, we have had several opportunities outside of ClimateSpark since we first submitted this proposal in Round 1. Here's an update:
- During a leadership training session at the Hollyhock Centre in mid-October, Not Far From The Tree's Director had two one-on-one sessions to workshop the fruit tree care program with nonprofit social enterprise expert Andy Robinson, author of Selling Social Change (Without Selling Out):
Earned Income Strategies for Nonprofits. He counselled on several aspects of the business development for the fruit tree care program. One very salient piece of advice that he offered is that, in addition to the existing list that we have of homeowners with fruit trees on their property, we should also look to large landowners in the city to bring the program to an economy of scale. He suggested bundling these services for wholesale to landowners such as the Toronto District School Board or the Toronto Transit Commission. In these cases, this would likely begin with planting new trees to meet landowner sustainability targets. - Thanks to feedback about GHG emissions, we've implemented more exact measures to quantify all aspects of GHG emissions reductions with our work. Whereas beforehand we only had exact numbers for the emissions offset by local fruit vs. conventional sources, we now have numbers for the GHG emissions reductions value of the trees themselves as well as the emissions reduced by using bikes for the distance travelled rather than cars. All of this data pertains to our fruit picking program - which is different from though related to the fruit tree care program being proposed here - though the data paints a picture of what the quantifiable effects of the fruit tree care program could also be.
- Not Far From The Tree's inaugural Steering Committee has convened and a working group has been established to further develop the fruit tree care program. There is much enthusiasm and, specifically, business expertise in order to work towards the creation of a full business plan through the organization.
- Related opportunities to support the development of this project have been sought out. Two grant applications seeking support for social enterprise development within Not Far From The Tree are currently pending, one of which is exclusively for the apprenticeship phase of the fruit tree care program. A third opportunity is now being sought that would provide matching funds for business plan development.
The venture
11% of trees in Toronto are fruit-bearing trees, though few homeowners have the capacity to provide the special care that these trees need. Not Far From The Tree already houses a database of over 900 fruit trees from 750 Torontonians, and so many people have already approached us seeking help with pruning, organic pest control, what kind of fruit tree to plant in their yard, and general care for their fruit trees. To better steward this portion of our urban canopy, we see great potential to develop a meaningful social enterprise that can both respond to this demand and generate core revenue to support our other programs. We are in the midst of an initial research phase with three expert agrologists and are looking to launch a fruit tree care apprenticeship program for 2012.
The wet spring and dry summer of 2011 have really driven home how urban fruit trees are particularly susceptible to fluctuations and disease. This program's immediate aim is to provide enough care to prevent trees from being cut down. The long-term aim is to steward the existing fruit trees so that they thrive and are productive as well as to enable homeowners to plant more fruit trees thereby increasing the overall urban canopy.
Although some fruit tree care services are offered by arborists, home gardening companies, and landscapers, the specific care required for each type of fruit tree is often lost among other tree care services. There is a gap in services for professional agrologist knowledge to be applied to the fruit trees that make up our "urban orchard" - a significant portion of our urban forest. Fruit-bearing trees account for 11% of the urban canopy, the majority of which are on residential property. Not Far From The Tree has achieved a strong community identity in the neighbourhoods where we operate, and so a natural fit is to meet the need for fruit tree care with excellence while sustaining our core mission.
So here’s the plan: We’re already in the midst of an initial research phase with the help of three fruit tree experts through the Ontario Insitute of Agrologists and are compiling an advisory council to oversee the project in the long-term. These three in particular are internationally-trained individuals who are finding it difficult to apply their expertise in the Canadian context. They are now in the field, checking out some of the 800 trees that we’re already working with in order to assess the knowledge, skills, equipment, and strategy needed to deliver proper urban fruit tree care. (By providing employment opportunities, we’re already engaged in social purpose enterprise even in the research phase.)
In 2012, this team of agrologists will start training a group of apprentices who will ultimately deliver the fruit tree care services. They will be overseen by a special project steering committee comprising orchardists, agrologists, and arborists. We envision that many of these apprentices will come from our current pool of 900+ fruit picking volunteers, except that now they will be finding employment through what was once a volunteer opportunity.
The final outcome will be a social enterprise housed within Not Far From The Tree to deliver fruit tree care services. The exact model has yet to be decided although we are strongly considering a worker co-op comprised of graduates from the apprenticeship program. Homeowners would connect with Not Far From The Tree for the care of their fruit trees and pay a fee for the service offered. Depending on the needs of the homeowner, this may range from attending a workshop on small steps that the homeowner can do to better care for the trees themselves to hiring a worker to provide year-round care for their tree. Once the worker is paid fairly and the overhead costs for equipment and administration are covered, Not Far From The Tree earns a portion of the revenue to provide core support for their high-impact programs.
The impact of this work on climate change is huge. First of all, we are directly cutting emissions by making use of an extremely local source of fresh fruit. You can’t get much more local than the fruit trees in your own backyard! It’s the 1-mile diet, delivered through a community-driven effort.
For the purpose of this proposal, we'll use the numbers from our 2010 fruit picking season to get a sense of similar GHG emissions reductions that could be achieved through a fruit tree care program.
Encouraging urban agriculture is an incredibly powerful way to reduce carbon emissions and change behaviour of city-dwellers. With 80% of Canadians living in cities, it's important to produce our food close to where the eaters are. This dorectly reduces carbon emissions associated with food miles and, by connecting city-dwellers with hands-on opportunities to understand where food comes from, we are providing a crucial educational link in order for us all to make changes elsewhere in our lives.
- In 2010, we picked 19,695 lbs of fruit from trees in Toronto. This is an existing source of fruit that otherwise wouldn't have been harvested. We divided these fruits into categories (e.g., apples, pears, berries) and compared the GHG emissions that would have been created had this same weight of fruit been imported from the conventional sources. The conventional sources (e.g., Chile, Washington, New Zealand) and transportation modes (e.g., boat, plane, truck) were determined through research at the Ontario Food Terminal according to each category. Ultimately, we determined that this same harvest from conventional sources would have resulted in 109 tonnes of GHG emissions.
The overall health and vigour of the urban forest, of which fruit trees make up a significant 11%, will increase with the addition of these targeted services. We know that our picking program has stopped many a homeowner from cutting down their trees. We anticipate that the fruit tree care program will also grow to have a tree-planting component to encourage more homeowners to plan fruit trees on their properties and thereby increase the urban canopy as a whole.
- In addition to the fruit-bearing properties of these trees, we cannot forget that they also serve all of the other wonderful functions that all trees do. Live Green Toronto has calculated that "the average tree in Toronto sequesters approximately 5 kg [11 lbs] of carbon/year for an average tree size of 16.3cm in diameter." In 2010 there were 228 trees that we harvested fruit from (i.e., the first level of fruit tree care), thereby totalling yet another tonne.
We transport all of our fruit and equipment using a fancy fleet of cargo bikes, keeping our own carbon footprint extremely low. The bikes we have acquired can be outfitted with electric-assist systems in anticipation of our future expansion into more spread-out neighbourhoods and possibly requiring heavier equipment. We are investigating ways to launch the fruit tree care program in keeping with our mandate of sustainable transportation and welcome ideas about this aspect of the project in particular.
- In addition, we transport all of our equipment by bicycle (and are exploring a similar no- or low-emission technique for the fruit tree care program) and so we can also add this calculation to fill out the bigger picture of our commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While we have yet to complete this calculation, we do know that in 2010 we travelled a total distance of 1120 kms. Live Green Toronto reports that bicycles give off 0 eCO2. If we had used fossil fuels to travel this same distance, our footprint would have been much larger.
Not Far From The Tree's senior management team is comprised of Laura Reinsborough, Founder & Director, and Laurel Atkinson, Program Manager. Laura's hard work and dedication in starting Not Far From The Tree has earned her numerous accolades and awards:
- Received a Women of the Earth Award from the Yves Rocher Foundation (2011)
- Awarded a Vital People grant through the Toronto Community Foundation (2011)
- Named an Agent of Change through the Centre for Social Innovation (2011)
- Featured as an inaugural GreenHero on GreenHeroes TV (2010)
- Portrayed in a chapter in former Toronto Mayor David Miller’s book, Witness to a City, for contributing to the strength of Toronto (2010)
- Named a “local hero” by The Village Post and a “local food visionary” by the Toronto Star (2010)
- Presented as “We’ve got our eye on…” in Chatelaine Magazine (2009)
On behalf of Tides Canada Initiatives Society, Todd Jaques works with Not Far From The Tree as Project Specialist. As past Director of Operations & Agriculture Partnerships at the Ontario Association of Food Banks, Todd brings a wealth of experience to this position.
Rounding out the team is Not Far From The Tree's Steering Committee: Derek Smith, Joshna Maharaj, Jodi Lastman, Ravenna Nuaimy-Barker, Chris Chen, Ben Marans, and Jordy Gold.
The initial research phase is already underway, linking our current team with agrologists who are assessing the needs of fruit trees in the urban context. This initial assessment will enable us to prepare a business plan to set out a clear strategy to achieve our goal of creating a fruit tree care program.
Phase two will involve training of apprentices in urban fruit tree care under the supervision of the expert agrologists, to be rolled out starting in the spring of 2012, from within a portion of Not Far From The Tree’s total operating area (which is currently at 1/3 of Toronto’s total area). At the same time, we will be developing promotional material to attract interest from landownerrs. For the apprenticeship phase, landowners will be offered a discounted price for services delivered to care for their existing fruit trees or the planting of and care for new trees. The crew of apprentices will be fully able to deliver fruit tree care services starting in 2013 when landowners will be offered the services at full price.
Our five-year goal is to offer a full range of fruit tree care services in the full geographic area where Not Far From The Tree will be operating at that time (approximately one half to two thirds of Toronto’s area).
Comments
Lazy or lacking capacity?
Thanks for your comment. I love the part about discovering 70+ lbs of pears from one tree! Pears are incredibly productive. We've had some trees yield 350+ lbs! But this year the pears really took a hit because of pear trellis rust, a good reminder that these trees need to be taken care of.
The part about "convincing" is dead on. For the most part, our current database of landowners comprises homeowners who don't have the capacity to care for the trees themselves. Whether it's due to physical ability, equipment, time, or so many other reasons, many people are not able to give the special care required of fruit trees.
From these existing connections, however, Not Far From The Tree is often contacted by folks wanting to take care of their trees and not knowing where to begin. So we know that there is some "market pull" where potential customers are already coming to us. There may also be some members of our current database who would be interested if we were to contact them and offer the services, i.e., "market push." In addition, we have done some informal research with members who would switch from the current landscaping company that they use to take care of their trees - as part of their overall landscaping services - to a specialized fruit tree care program by Not Far From The Tree with the added value of knowing that they are supporting a charitable project that they know the value of.
A strong component of our fruit tree care program will be the planting of new fruit trees, meaning that we would target an audience that is potentially much bigger than the homeowners who are already connected with what we do. While the existing database of fruit tree owners is a good place to start, it is only one market for the broader scope of this program.
A worthwhile project for Toronto
Toronto has lots of fruit trees and it is very difficult to find people who have experience and knowledge around caring for and maintaining the trees, especially in an urban environment.
One challenge might be in terms of educating people on the value of the fruit tree maintenance services and the long term value of both the tree and the service, but with Toronto's growing awareness of food issues, I believe this to be a great project and something that can benefit Toronto greatly not only in the short term, but long term as well!
Hi, Young Urban Farmers!
Thanks for your support. We're really excited about fruit tree care being the next step of our broader vision for stewarding the fruit trees of Toronto. What we've found so far is that homeowners are really keen to take part in our programs and clearly see the many values that this brings. We are looking forward to the market intelligence phase of our work - coming up soon! - when we can test out the market feasibility of this with different audiences, including our existing list of homeowners and others. Stay tuned!
Some thoughts re: GHG emissions
This is a great project for multiple reasons beyond climate change, but the greenhouse gas and energy savings are dependent on what is being substituted. For each of the main types of fruit in the project, you would need to examine current consumption of domestic and imported fruit. For example, we know that about 55% of apple consumption is from domestic production and the other is imported, probably a lot from BC, Washington and Michigan and New Zealand. The New Zealand apples come in primarily by boat whereas the others come primarily by truck. Truck emissions are way higher than boat emissions on a tonne*km basis, so paradoxically importing from New Zealand may produce less total emissions than truck from BC (there might be some coming by rail which would be better).
Now, presumably some of the backyard production would substitute for Ontario fruit production, especially if eaters were used to those varieties, many of which would be similar to backyard varieties. Consequently the savings would not be as significant as when substituting for imports. Many of your participants might already be conscious of local food issues and already be eating locally when available, so they might just substitute backyard for Ontario production. The more your project targets those buying imported fruit, the more advantageous.
Might there also be possibilities to extend the life of the fruit? Most fruit is of course very seasonal, and the more the eating season can be extended with low impact processing, the potentially greater the benefits.
Also, it partly depends on what was happening to the unharvested fruit. Presumably, much of it would be collected as yard waste? And would feed urban wildlife? There would be emissions associated with this, some of which would be saved by eating it.
So, these might be things to consider, perhaps important to clarify your assumptions and build your business case.
Perfect
This idea is been seen uptil now is excellent based on research that fruit carried by the truck having more emission rather than the boat. So, good way to transprot the fruit stuff by sea transportation methods
It is not so easy to transport the fruits and food stuff as quickly as possible by sea but Government grants can help out to contribute some finance that transportion of eating stuff make easy and possible to transport by sea can have the less emission.
To Rod, the expert!
Rod,
Thanks so much for your comments. It's great to have somebody so knowledgeable in the field participate in this forum.
At the time of your comment, we were only quantifying the GHG emissions reductions for fruit coming from an immediately local source (assuming 0 km's travelled since we work on such a neighbourhood-based level) vs. the same category of fruit (e.g., apples, pears, cherries, berries) from a conventional source. We developed the formula for these calculations in collaboration with the Stop Community Food Centre, FoodShare, and ERA Architects who were all fellow Live Green Toronto grant recipients and needed to show caulcuations for urban food production GHG emissions reductions. Once the initial formula was prepared, we researched a bit further to get exact numbers for tree fruits since the other organizations weren't harvesting those.
There are so many other elements that could be factored into these calculations, as you've stated in your comments. As you know, the current food system is so complex and intricate that the calculations could go on almost endlessly. Participating in ClimateSpark has been extra impetus for us to provide more well-rounded numbers. As you'll see in our updated entry, we now also include numbers for the GHG emissions that the trees themselves contribute, as does any non-fruit-bearing tree, plus we've included a note about the sustainable transportation methods that we use, with some figures attached.
So we're starting to build a more well-rounded picture of the full GHG reductions that our programs provide. This is all currently based on our fruit picking program but we know that our fruit tree care program will have an even more positive impact as we increase the urban canopy by planting more fruit trees in Toronto.
For the many problems that we now face because of climate change, fruit trees offer a multitude of solutions. For the amount of soil that they take up, they are the most productive resource for urban food production - and they provide all the benefits that other trees do while they're at it! They fit in small spaces, they produce beautiful blossoms, and they make our lives richer in so many ways. We're excited about this program's potential to plant more and more fruit trees across this fertile city!
Volunteers enjoy picking fruit
A co-worker of mine participated with Not Far From The Tree harvesting fruit this year and had great things to say about the process, everyone at the office loved the jam too! We need to care about our urban orchard and training new agronomists is a great way to look after our local trees.
Perhaps use of an electric vehicle could be "shared" through one of the existing car shares, or an agreement with another organization or two to build capacity through a time share electric vehicle, maximizing the use of expert's precious time - I do love the use of cargo bikes for the harvest.
Yes, such great ideas!
Thanks so much for your comment. We're grateful for the ideas you've offered and can happily say that we too have considered electric vehicles.
Currently, the cargo bikes that we use for the fruit picking program have been chosen in part because this model of bike can be outfitted with electric-assist. (This is particularly important as we expand the fruit picking program outward to the inner suburbs where roads are more circuitous and neighbourhoods more spread out.) So we've been thinking ahead to electric transportation already!
Since the fruit tree care program will likely involve year-round care (e.g., winter pruning), it may not be as feasible to operate the venture with cargo bikes, even if they are outfitted with electric assist. We are therefore considering using electric vehicles, or partnering with other organizations/companies who own electric vehicles, to stay committed to our mandate of sustainable transportation.
If you have particular interests in the area of electric vehicles, we'd love to hear more. Please be in touch!
Thanks for picking
It is great that your organization of pickers have made such an impact. It is great that you donate a lot of the produce.
Why is it that the city of Toronto doesn't help to create a tree map for us all so that we can make sure the fruits of mother nature don't spoil.
The bees and birds love it, but it is a shame that we don't care enough to harvest our trees.
How are you addressing the future contraints for diseases and lack of fruit on trees?
Are you getting into plant more fruit trees for the future?
A vision for a fruit tree care program
Thanks so much for your words of encouragement. It's amazing to see how our fruit picking program is so well-loved by Torontonians.
For ClimateSpark, however, it's not the fruit picking program that we're proposing. Indeed, it's the two things you suggested - diseases and the need to plant more trees - that our Fruitful Forest program is all about. It's a fruit tree care program to better steward our urban orchard and increase the canopy of fruit-bearing trees. We would love some feedback on how to make this clearer in the proposal as you're not the first to say so.
Great Two Questions
Thanks for the questions.
I am one of the members of Not Far From the Tree's Steering Committee.
As Laura said, it might be helpful if you provided a little more detail to your question.
The idea is that by working with three members of the Ontario Institute of Agrologists this would help avoid future contraints for diseases and lack of fruit on tree.
Above, under 'update' we talk about how we would also be planting new fruit trees as well.
CSA Collab?
Over on the CSA page (/node/147) this comment was made: "At least in my area, I often see heavily laden fruit trees (persimmons, apples, choke cherries, oranges, lemons...) with no one bothering to pick or eat the fruit. In addition to growing food, would an urban CSA would work with those homeowners in incorporating and distributing unused food sources that are already there? "
I'll make my suggestion there again here: "Perhaps if this CSA and Fruitful Forest teamed up an even stronger proposal could be put forward!"
Oh, this is great!
Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. We're somewhat connected with the folks at YUF CSA but could be better networked. It sounds like there would be many possibilities there to bridge their CSA model with our work through a meaningful partnership. Perhaps even the landowners they work with would be interested in having fruit trees planted on or taken care of on their properties as well. There are planety of options to explore!
A cash crop opportunity
I love this idea on many levels. And if you crunch the numbers there are huge agricultural opportunities already in Toronto just waiting to be exploited.
There are 4 million trees in Toronto – so if 11% of canopy is fruit trees then this translates (assuming canopy area = number of trees) to over 400,000 fruit trees – yet Not Far From the Tree is only collecting fruit from 228 trees - that’s less than 0.05%!
About 20,000 lbs of fruit was collected in 2010 (so roughly 100 lbs per tree) and at $1.30 per lb (recent price of apples at a grocery store) that puts the harvest at having a retail value of $26,000. But remember that is only 0.05% of the potential value!
Using this local food source rather than buying food which is imported into Toronto (regardless of if it's from Niagara or New Zealand) means that those dollars are kept in the local economy.
While the proposal is to deliver fruit care services and charge the owner for this service I'm wondering if the project developers "can't see the forest because of the trees" on other potential sources of revenue?
With everyone so busy nowadays and the economy the way it is it may be challenging to get a significant number of the fruit tree owners to take fruit tree care workshops (and then find the time to apply the knowledge) or to pay for these services.
Has any thought been giving to looking at opportunities to market the fruit directly through local farmers markets or bringing in a local fruit supplier as a partner (i.e. to sell the fruit to)? There might be regulatory challenges but this could be an excellent source of revenue for the project.
While the harvest right now is split between the homeowner, volunteers and food banks – with "paid" workers as is proposed then the amount of harvest might go up providing opportunities to dedicate part of the crop to earn some income.
Great insight, thank you
Thanks very much for your insight on our fruit picking program. It's always helpful to give thought to the structure of how we operate our core program.
When Not Far From The Tree was just getting started, we did indeed consider whether we should establish a structure whereby fruit was sold, homeowners paid for the service, or there was some other core component of the model that was monetized. In the end, we chose the model that we currently operate (where we share all of the fruit) as a values model that we felt - and learned - would be most meaningful to the communities where we operate. We believe strongly that so much of the success we have achieved is due to this model. With that in mind, it's difficult to envision changing our model now that we're four years in and have become so well-known across the city.
The logistics of becoming a fruit producer and vendor are much different than our current set-up. For example, we would require cold storage in all neighbourhoods where we operate and, where we currently have 950 volunteers willing to help pick fruit, they would instead need to be differently compensated (perhaps paid) for their efforts. As well, the quality of the fruit is surprisingly high given that these trees are rarely cared for; however, it would be difficult to compete with commercial crops when quality is compared.
Despite all of this, we are actually selling some of the fruit - without compromising the model or requiring further infrastructure! Here's how: Quite often, the homeowners decline their portion of the fruit. This gives us 1/3 of the harvest to play with. It began with chefs like Jamie Kennedy approaching us to use our uber-local fruit in their restaurants. Now, when surplus fruit is expected from a pick, we put a call out to a list of chefs and restaurants in the neighbourhood who have expressed interest in purchasing last-minute fruit deliveries. After we harvest the fruit, the surplus is delivered to the nearby business and we issue an invoice for the cost of the fruit (at market rates for local, organic fruit) and a flat fee for sustainable delivery.
To go back to your insightful point, selling to chefs and restaurants has enabled us to stick to our mission, respect our core values for which the broader community has embraced this project, and generate some revenue to support the work we do. 2011 was our first year piloting these sales so the financial impact has yet to be calculated, but we envision that overall it will have a very positive impact on our work.
Rob, do you have time for one more go?
Rob,
We wanted to reiterate how much we appreciate your insight on our fruit picking program (i.e., where we pick fruit and share it in the community).
Since we are proposing the fruit tree care program (i.e., the caring for existing fruit trees and planting of new ones) through ClimateSpark, we wondered if you might have a moment to speak directly about this? Any thoughts or advice you have would be greatly appreciated, especially since this program is starting fresh and we don't yet have any expectations or precedent to model.
Thanks,
the team at Not Far From The Tree
Great Numbers
Hello Rob,
I am one of the members of Not Far From the Tree's Steering Committee. Laura did a pretty good job at responding to your comments.
I wanted to reiterate how much we appreciate the input and that I particularly like how you have crunched the numbers, demonstrating the tremendous potential that exists. I might add, that while 2010 was a good season, we still harvested fruit trees that did not receive any particular care and could have potentially produced even more/better fruit. So, by expanding our core 'business' and properly caring for the trees, you might be able to even further increase the numbers you put together.
Thanks
An apple a day ...
Great idea. Spread urban agriculture. Too many fruit trees do get neglected as there hardiness and resistance to disease is a lot higher than evergreen and most other deciduous trees. Tree care education is a great aspect of your proposal.
Set up “Donate a fruit tree” campaign
Much appreciated
Thanks for your comments! It's great to hear your enthusiasm for the project.
We'd love to hear more about your ideas for a "Donate a fruit tree" campaign. Please, do tell!
Donate a Fruit Tree Campaign
Great idea about setting up a "Donate a Fruit Tree" Campaign.
I am one of the members of Not Far From the Tree's Steering Committee. As Laura said, I would be curious to hear how you envision this campaign working.
That said, I could imagine us partnering with different schools and having people in the neighbourhood donate funds so that we could plant and care for trees on school ground with the students.
Life without fruits
It is a good idea to harvest a fruit tree in your garden and donate it for good purpose. Because now-a-days people in the city do not get time to take care of their garden's and trees in their garden properly.
It is better to educate and realize people about the importance of fruits and fruit trees in the city. If we take care of these trees then Canada do not need to import fruits at all. It will help in reducing the outflow of money.
Thanks for your response
It would be great to hear more about the education component as you envision it. Do you think this would be about teaching the landowners to steward the trees themselves? Or about the apprenticeship aspect of our program, so that a new crew of urbanites are able to deliver these services? Or perhaps it's about raising awareness about local food?
We'd love to hear your ideas!
Keep the fruits coming!
There are too many fruit trees that go unharvested. This is a great program for community involvement and opportunity for volunteers.
Thanks for your encouragement
We always love to hear compliments about our fruit picking program, thank you!
The proposal we're pitching through ClimateSpark is about a fruit tree care program in particular. We'd love to hear your thoughts/feedback/ideas/advice on this program in particular. It would also be helpful to hear how we can make it clearer in our proposal that it's the fruit tree care program that we're proposing, not our fruit picking program. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Could Not Agree More
Great comment about ensuring that we don't leave all the fruit in the city unharvested.
I am one of the members of Not Far From the Tree's Steering Committee. I could not agree more that far too many fruit trees go unharvested. That said, we really learned this summer how damaging bad weather and pests can be to fruit trees. We really need to create a fruit tree care program to make sure there is all that fruit to harvest in the first place.
Thanks for the encouragement.
An apple a day
I really like this program. The community building aspect is very strong and I could see schools getting involved for both the land available and educational purposes.
Yes, schools!
Schools - yes! This is right on the mark.
What we've learned since initially proposing this to Round 1 of ClimateSpark is that the key to this program's success is quite likely with larger landowners.
The TDSB, as one example, is a landowner who would have much to gain from having small orchards on their properties. Here is why:
- They have an abundance of prime agricultural land (given that 80% of Toronto soil is classified as prime agricultural land), which they have already mapped;
- They have many mouths to feed and have shown support for student nutrition programs;
- There is so much potential for educational opportunities that tie into the curriculum, including harvesting the fruit itself, and;
- They have a powerful sustainability mandate that has resulted in excellent partnerships with nonprofit FoodShare at Bendale CI and with Amp Solar Limited Partnership for the installation of solar panels (enough to produce 66 MW of electricity per year!) on TDSB school roofs.
We believe that partnerning with large landowners like the TDSB is a strong strategy for reaching an economy of scale with our fruit tree care program. We are keen to explore this idea further to see its full potential.
This project brings things
This project brings things down to such a basic level. How do we protect the environment? Eat locally, save energy, and create a mind shift. This does it all.
This project would be improved most by increasing its scope, as McMonagle says, receiving the private and govt funding it needs to actually harvest all of the potential in Toronto. Let's put our money where our mouth is. Literally.
Protecting the environment
Thanks for your encouragement. We're interested in starting this project off with private and government support (in fact we currently have applications pending with two levels of government for start-up funding for this proposal and have received initial support from a private foundation). But after some time, perhaps 2-3 years, the project will sustain itself as a social enterprise within Not Far From The Tree.
And yes - money where our mouths are. The more we connect with the urban ecology all around us, the more we'll value and care for what we have.
Yes, eating!
The way the trees are now, the harvest can't be relied upon from year to year. We're looking to steward the fruit trees so that the harvest will be steadier from year to year - and the benefit for all will be increased!
Awesome Idea!
There is a clear need for the program. It will fill a much needed gap.
Bridging the gap between trees and eaters
All the best in your future endevors. It is great that Not far from the tree has come so far along.
Are you working with http://www.trca.on.ca/ ?
Can you work along side city mapping department?
How can you engage your 950 volunteers to do other activism in the city? With that kind of human capital a lot is possible.
"A small political party!"
When we first told David Miller about the size of our volunteer base, when he was Mayor, his reaction was, "That's a small political party!" There is even more organizing for advocacy and activism that we could do with such an enthusiastic group, even beyond the fruit picking that we're currently mobilizing these wonderful folks to do. But that would be a whole other ClimateSpark proposal. Maybe next time? You interested in contributing to those ideas?
Great suggestion to work with TRCA. They could be one of the large landowners who might be interested in planting more fruit trees. Likely they would be interested in native species so we could work on planting serviceberries, sumac, native cherries, mulberries, etc. There could be a strong engagement strategy for community education with the edible aspects of these plants, too.
And are you suggesting that TRCA's mapping department could connect in with our mapping application (outside of ClimateSpark, but happening now)? That's something we hadn't yet considered, but could be quite, um, fruitful!
Food Banks & Restaurants
I would love to see some food banks sharing some of the bounty from this. You could also sell produce to restuarants in the city!
Selling to chefs and restaurants
In our fruit picking program, we donate 1/3 of the fruit to nearby food banks, shelters, and other community kitchen programs. (The other 2/3 are shared equally between the owner of the fruit tree and the volunteers who come to pick the fruit.) As well, when homeowners decline their portion we have piloted a program whereby we sell to chefs and restaurants.
Thanks for your comments on our fruit picking program. Any ideas on the fruit tree care program that we've proposed here?
Timely Project
Hey Not Far From the Tree!
I've known about your lovely community service over the last few years from some friends who "glean" the city's fruit along with you. One comment that comes up often is the logistics of taking care of the tree so that it produces healthy fruit every year. From deciphering the variety of the tree to pruning to pest management it appears to me that many homeowners are a bit in the dark with what they should do. With so many unknowns it's easy to see why frustration can set in leading some to figure that cutting down the tree is their easiest solution.
I would love to see your fruit tree care program get off the ground. This resource may very well save fruit trees from an untimely end. The loss of any tree is a debit from our ecological heritage and doubly a shame when it happens to bare delicious fruit that can be enjoyed by so many of your participants. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for your words of
Thanks for your words of encouragement!
Saving Fruit Trees and Understanding our Urban Forest
The insight of this proposal into the nature of our urban forest and the need to maintain it is of major importance. The ability for citizens to see their urban forest through the trees (as it were) is what The Fruitful Forest idea brings home. There is still a need to generate understanding of the potential of our urban forest and how to raise awareness and this proposal should include resources to have a communications campaign if it doesn't have one already.
Getting people to care about trees is a hugely important task - more language, branding and community-minded engagement around inspiring people in this way is critical - perhaps there can be a demonstration site on Toronto Islands?
not impressed
not the greatest idea
An invitation
As Round 2 comes to an end, we wanted to make a comment about how useful this process has been. Pitching this idea through ClimateSpark has resulted in feedback here, but also lots of behind-the-scenes moving and shaking to get the wheels really spinning for us internally. We've been seeking support elsewhere throughout this process and the idea - which was very raw to begin with - is now starting to take a different shape.
It now looks as though the initial landowners that we look to are large landowners such as the TDSB, the TRCA, the TTC, or others. We already have the successful planting of a community orchard in a public park (the Ben Nobleman Community Orchard) in partnership with a local community group. It is now run entirely by local community members with our help of establishing a community management plan. With this experience setting the precedent, there could be many other places where we could partner to plant, maintain, and establish community management of fruit trees in the city.
This new direction doesn't mean that providing fruit tree care services to residential properties would be out of the picture. To the contrary! It would in fact lead to more concentrated opportunities for us to train folks in how to offer fruit tree care services, which would then become a service we could offer to our current list of homeowners. We would be increasing the "urban orchard" systematically in partnership with large landowners and building skills for fruit tree care that all fruit tree owners in the city could make use of.
This idea is still taking shape and so it's an exciting time for many to get involved and lend their feedback/advice/support/suggestions. Whether we "accelerate" this proposal through ClimateSpark or elsewhere, Not Far From The Tree is eager and ready to take the next step of fruit tree stewardship in Toronto: fruit tree care. We welcome anybody who's interested to keep in touch by contacting Founder & Director of Not Far From The Tree, Laura Reinsborough directly at laura [at] notfarfromthetree [dot] org.
Best of luck to all finalists! What a wonderful world it will be when we realize all of these ideas.
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Leveraging lazy homeowners
I'm loving this idea. So often I've heard of people complaining about not knowing how to care for and maintain trees they've inherited after purchasing a home. I had a friend who bought a house with two mature pear trees in the backyard. In their first year alone, they collected something like 70+ delicious, juicy bartlett pears. The following year, they had the trees cut down. What a shame.
I guess the real kicker is convincing a homeowner to sign up for your service versus just being lazy and cutting down the tree to "save time/money".