Fruit Gleaning Season

When my husband and I bought our first home, we were excited about the two mature apple trees in the backyard. Our minds sparked with all the things we could do with a bounty of backyard apples: we could can apple pie filling; we could eat all the apple crumble our hearts desired; we could pick straight from the tree for a healthy afternoon snack.

But when the first apple season occurred, it coincided with a very busy season of life for us, and instead of diligently harvesting them, we found ourselves mostly picking them up from the ground where they were rotting and subsequently throwing them away. There was no fresh apple pie to be found, but there was certainly a lot of apple waste.

What we unfortunately didn’t realize, was that there was another option for our excess fruit: gleaning. This is the act of harvesting leftover crops, and it turns out there are many programs on Vancouver Island that will happily pick and distribute your excess yard produce (tree fruits, nuts, vegetables). About a third is donated to local charities, a third goes to the volunteers, and the final third goes to the homeowner.

If you’re in the Comox Valley, check out Lush Valley’s Fruit Tree and Farm Gleaning Program. Volunteers harvest and distribute into the community thousands of pounds of produce from homes, orchards and farms. This helps provide nutritional, fresh food to those who need it while cutting down on food waste—which also decreases visits from bears and other animals.

The Alberni Valley Gleaning Project is put on by the Food Group of Alberni Valley Transition Town Society, and you can schedule a time for volunteers to come glean from your garden. And if you’re worried about strangers traipsing through your property, don’t be: the respectful volunteers are trained on proper project operations and safety and will come harvest according to your availability. 

Victoria residents also have a great option for gleaning season: LifeCycles offers their Fruit Tree Project program, which not only distributes the fruit to homeowners, volunteers and the community, but even takes the less desirable/aesthetically pleasing fruit and transforms them into artisanal fruit products. One example is their collaboration with Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub to make their Backyard Blend cider, which provides a unique flavour blend of apples from the backyards of Victoria. 

The Cowichan Valley operates their FruitSave Project, and they distribute the harvested fruit between the homeowner, the volunteer pickers and the community through the Valley’s many emergency food providers, and CGC’s programs, such as their cooking classes.

If you’re on Galiano Island, you’re also in luck: The Gleaning Project put on by The Galiano Club organizes volunteers to harvest excess fruit and redistribute in thirds to charity, volunteers and homeowners. The one-third that goes to charity goes to the Food Program, which distributes their share to the clinic, school and foodbank.

And, don’t forget that these programs wouldn’t be possible without volunteers. Whether you would love to stock up on fruit yourself or simply enjoy spending time in a garden setting with others, volunteering with a gleaning program is a great opportunity to spend a bit more time outdoors before winter hits.