Enthusiasts devise scheme to share out city's fruit harvest

Published on Thursday 17 September 2009 09:51

HARVEST-TIME is hardly the most important fixture in most city dwellers' calendars.

But that could be soon change as a group of enthusiasts encourage us all to make the most of Edinburgh's abundant fruit harvest.

Environmental group Transition Edinburgh South estimates that a stunning 6,000 tonnes of apples grow on trees in Edinburgh every year, and up to 60 per cent of that is thought to go to waste as tree owners struggle to cope with the glut in their gardens.

To make the most of the home-grown apples and other fruit, the group is arranging for volunteers to pick it and distribute it free to neighbours and to homelessness charities.

The aim is to cut food miles and encourage a sense of community, according to organiser Olly Cooper.

He said: "It's a community project, it's meant to be about meeting your neighbours and having a lot of fun and reconnecting with the food supply, rather than just buying it from the supermarket.

"Not everyone's going to be able to be supplied by this but it's also about the positive feeling that it generates.

"The owner of the fruit tree might not be able to pick it due to not being fit enough, or not having the time, or just not wanting to do it.

"We're looking at any kind of fruit, but mainly apples at the moment, because that's what's there."

This year the group is concentrating on the south of Edinburgh, and hopes to go Capital-wide next autumn.

Volunteers have been putting flyers through doors in their neighbourhood with their contact details, and anyone who has a fruit tree which they can't harvest can get in touch and welcome an army of pickers.

The tree owner will get a share of the fruit, and the rest will be shared around via charities or by placing bins full of free fruit in local shops for people to help themselves.

Trees in public areas could also be picked.

One picking session has already been held, but the group anticipate the peak harvest will fall at the end of September and beginning of October. Mr Cooper said: "The idea is also that we process the fruit.

"There's always a glut, so we'll make chutney and apple-based products and then we'll keep them over the winter and share them out later."

Amitasuba Goodman, owner of the New Leaf organic supermarket in Argyle Place, said she hoped to support the project by offering the fruit to customers to help raise money for charity.

"Quite often people have just given me stuff from their garden and I have a charity box and people give money for Shelter, so I think we could do the same with this.

"It's a nice idea and it means people can buy local food. People have stuff in their back gardens and it just goes to waste," she said.

Anyone who has fruit for harvest, who would like to volunteer as a picker or could distribute fruit can contact Rob Kyle on rob@ forage.rs or log on to www.abundanceedinburgh.com for more details.

WHAT DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

DR Max Coleman, science communicator at the Royal Botanic Garden, said many people's home harvest will be of the most common varieties – Coxes, Orange Pippins, Discovery and Bramley apples.

But he said there are some rare treasures to be found: "There are lots of more obscure things that you might encounter with names like The Bloody Ploughman.

"The James Grieve variety originated in Edinburgh at the end of the 19th century and became a very popular apple for its distinctive flavour. The skin is striped red and develops a waxy feeling shortly after picking. It doesn't transport or keep well, which is why you don't encounter it on supermarket shelves."

Smaller trees are most likely to be a common variety, but any tree with a trunk more than a foot in diameter is likely to be an older tree, and could be of a more unusual type, he said.

The Royal Botanic Garden will hold a Celebration of Scottish Apples from 10am-5pm on 17 and 18 October. The event will offer the chance to taste, try and buy local apples, or to bring your apples along for experts to identify.