Ripe for harvest

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, September 5th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: gleaning, with a g.

Maybe you’ve seen numbers about food not used for human consumption. That might include produce grown on backyard trees or just left in forgotten orchards somewhere.

BROWN: The Bible has stories about gleaning that lets people in need collect unharvested produce from the edges of a field. These days, gleaning is rarely practiced, what with property rights and lawsuits. Still, there’s food to be collected and people willing to collect it.

WORLD reporter Amy Lewis brings us the story from Victoria, Australia.

COURTNEY MATHEW: Just this week, we had our first harvest—77 kilograms of lemons. So it's been a raging success.

AMY LEWIS: Courtney Mathew doesn’t usually harvest 170 pounds of lemons in one go. In fact, this was her first time. But she had a team of volunteers to help her.

MATHEW: I was sort of a bit of a newbie, but I think that's the beauty of the program. It's not rocket science, so anyone can come along and have a great time together in the sunshine.

A homeowner in Mathew’s town registered their fruit tree with her Fruit Rescue group—granting her permission to pick as much fruit as possible.

In theory, a third of the picked fruit goes to the volunteers, if they take it…

MATHEW: One came and said no, no, I don't want any fruit I just came along to help.

A third goes to the tree owner, if they want it…

MATHEW: The person who registered the tree was like, I’m just glad to see it going to some good use.

And the rest goes to local charities who distribute it to people in need.

MATHEW: And then when I dropped it off to our FoodShare, they just went, ‘This is so amazing.’ They rely on donations. And so we're just filling a gap that something was going to waste. It's now serving this purpose for our community. I think that is the best part. The, the harvesting is the fun part. But the feeling afterwards is, it goes on for days.

This win-win-win situation all stems from a real problem—lots of under-utilized fruit.

ELLEN BURNS: And it's a very simple concept. We have unused and unwanted fruit from people's backyards, and public land, and some private land as well and redistribute it through the community.

That’s Ellen Burns. In 2017 she started The Hidden Orchard, a nonprofit in Ballarat, Victoria. She’s orienting a group of new volunteers for the upcoming harvest season.

BURNS: You know, Ballarat is a very old, old wealth town. So there's a lot of fruit trees that are 100 plus years old, and a lot of fruit going to waste.

At the height of the 1850s gold rush in Ballarat, six thousand people a week streamed into this hilly area west of Melbourne, Australia. Some people found gold. Others just settled down. They built houses and planted fruit trees. Lots of fruit trees.

BURNS: The actual season can be quite intense. Because you know, fruit doesn't wait for anyone. When it's ripe, it’s ripe, and we've got to go and harvest it.

At any time, the group could simply ignore the languishing fruit. After all, it’s not in their backyard. But there are all kinds of motivations for helping. One volunteer, Kara Rysava says she wants to use resources more effectively, eat seasonally, and buck the system of big grocery stores.

KARA RYSAVA: But also, it's about meeting people. For me, it's about community.

The relationships formed stretch beyond the gleaners to include the homeowners. There are all kinds of reasons someone’s backyard fruit trees get neglected, like someone’s health for instance.

MICHAEL RINGROSE: Emphysema, which we kind of reached a stalemate, okay, doesn't get better. I did have other things that messed me around for a while. Yeah, anyway, got past that. Now, I just can't breathe very well.

Michael Ringrose made his living as a gardener. His corner lot boasts about 20 fruit trees including three kinds of limes and espaliered apple trees. His compromised health means he depends on others to care for his yard. That includes picking the fruit.

TAMARA GOLDSMITH: And you've got lots of lemons now. Yep, so I was, I was sharing just a little bit, and I said that you can trade them with a restaurant. Yeah, a favorite place. Yes.

Tamara Goldsmith is part of Hidden Orchard and became a harvest leader this past year. She organizes groups to pick ripe fruit in her assigned quadrant of Ballarat. Today it’s lemons at Ringrose’s house. 

Tamara Goldsmith gleaning lemons. Photo by Barry Feldman

Another day, it’s grapefruit, apples, and elderberries in the backyard of a rental house. The renters already picked all the fruit they want. They want the rest gone.

AUDIO: [Clipping, whistling, “I think that’s about all the big clusters,” tumble of apples into box]

The settlers even planted fruit trees in the cemetery. Bright red crabapples overhang the final resting place of settlers—and make delicious jelly.

COLLINS: Here we go. Oh, it's 5.1 kilos of crabapples. Awesome.

Fruit that needs processing gets turned into jams and marmalades. Their sale at local markets helps pay for ladders and picking bags.

Result of Tamara Goldsmith’s labor Photo by Barry Feldman

There is one more group that benefits.

COLLINS: So we're just collecting damaged, fallen fruit down here that will just take to the wildlife.

Emus, cassowaries, and kangaroos at the wildlife park get the damaged fruit.

In the end, the challenge of the harvest builds relationships between the gleaners…

NATASHA: Thank you for doing the hard stuff up top.

CHRISTINA: That's alright. Thanks for spotting the bottom. Make sure I don't die.

…ensuring they’ll be back for next season.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

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