Every year, hundreds of fruit trees in private gardens and backyards, abandoned properties, parks and other green spaces go unpicked in Ireland.
But since 2015, the voluntary organisation Falling Fruit has organised teams of volunteers to harvest apples, pears, plums and nuts to distribute to local charities with the permission of the fruit tree owners.
When harvesting the fruit, the first share goes to the owner, the second share to local charities (and/or Food Cloud for distribution or juicing). Volunteers also get fresh fruit that they can eat, juice, cook with, freeze or make into jams and preserves. There are also longer term plans to organise jam-making and cross-cultural cooking workshops.
If you would like to join a team of volunteers picking fruit this autumn (or set up a group in your area) or indeed if you’d like to donate fruit, contact Falling Fruit on bernie@fallingfruit.ie. Alternatively, if you know any group or centre willing to take batches of seasonal fruit in various parts of the country, ask them to make contact with Falling Fruit.
Sylvia Thompson
