Today we are putting out a call to owners of fruit trees in and around Westcombe Park: will you sign up to have volunteers come in and harvest your trees?
This new project aims to make use of the vast amount of fruit that goes unused in back gardens and other parcels of land.
Tree owners would get the first share of the fruit, with the rest distributed through the community – for example to Sure Start centres, nursing homes, schools, the Westcombe Society's squad of jam-makers or individuals – while the bruised pickings can be turned into delicious juice.
Plenty would be left on the trees for the birds and on the ground for the good of the soil.
But why do this? Well...
About 95 per cent of fruit in Britain is imported, including 71 per cent of our apples, with some coming 12,000 miles from New Zealand. They, and even the British apples we buy, are often grown using intensive methods and then transported a long way to and from distribution and packaging centres.
In the meantime our gardens have trees groaning with fruit that we don’t use, so harvesting it for local use makes perfect sense. Similar projects elsewhere have even identified as many as 50 varieties of apples in a small area, so imagine what we might uncover on our own doorsteps.
If you have a tree you would like to see harvested in or near Westcombe Park, email growing.transitionwestcombe@gmail.com and tell us your name, address, phone number and the type of fruit you have.
If you would like to get involved in helping with the harvest project in other ways, there are lots of jobs to be done, and every little helps. Just email the same address.
For more on Transition Westcombe, visit www.transitionwestcombe.blogspot.com.
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