Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard

Our little Ben Nobleman Park looks great with people in it. Over 400 people from our community and beyond flocked to our park for our harvest festival last week and it was a huge success.

The food we supplied....pears, plums and apples from Bizjak Farms, finger sandwiches from Nortown Foods and Allen's Apple Juice, disappeared in the first hour. Pine Villa Retirement Residence's signature chocolate chip cookies lasted about 15 minutes.

Loving Hut kept replenishing their fantastic vegan snacks from 5.00 pm till 6.30 pm then we had Mamma's Pizza to share around. Thank you to both of those businesses for their incredibly generous contributions. Folks, if you like the food...go and visit the restaurants and support our wonderful local businesses!

Lynn did a great job at handing out our free raffle tickets and about 300 folks took tickets. The prizes, organized by volunteer Leanne Moss, were amazing. All were donated by members of the Upper Village BIA and they were worth anywhere from $25 to $500!

The martial arts demonstrations done by Classical Martial Arts captivated visitors.

Kids loved Garden Jane's wild bites salad making activities and enjoyed nibbling on the salads they made and sharing them with friends.

And our local police officers from 13th Division found some young recruits who enjoyed playing with their vehicle's sirens and horns.

Our partners brought great displays. Fran and John from the Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative brought their glass covered demonstration hive and visitors learned about the importance of pollinators. Thanks also to LEAF and Not Far From the Tree.

The event attracted special guests...like these two beautiful horses and their police officer companions.

Another special guest was our much loved city councillor Joe Mihevc, who helped make our dream of planting a community orchard a reality...thank you Joe!

Hats off to Growing for Green's fabulous volunteers who managed the event on the day. And thank you to Margaret Irving, a professional photographer and artist who was our official photographer on the day (these are all her photos).

Last but not least, thanks to our sponsors: Live Green Toronto, Walmart Evergreen, Fiskars, Carrot Cache, Richters Herbs and The City of Toronto. And a big hug to our good friends at Parks Forestry and Recreation who helped us every step of the way. You guys rock!

The volunteers at Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard are finally getting into the flow...of our new irrigation system that is.  We raised money for it's installation in 2009 and it was installed in October that year. But due to various circumstances we haven't been able to use it since then. No longer! Thanks to Tom Feeney from Parks and Recreation the system is now working perfectly. Instead of dragging buckets across the park from Lynn's house, we'll be stretching a hose across the park to water our 14 fruit trees and we can set  a sprinkler up near the pollinator garden to water that perennial bed.

Today was also a special day because we welcomed two wonderful new volunteers. Newcomers Hani and Michael joined our regulars: Lynn, Sherry, Susan, Cliff, Alex, Ildie (who came by for moral support), Debra and Rocko the dog (or is it Franco) who barked his encouragement from under a nearby shade tree. We completed the mulching of the pollinator garden and cut down any thistle as a way to weaken the plants. It is looking great and we'll meet up next Sunday for more of the same.

So what's up and out in the perennial bed? Black Eyed Susans are now blooming along with the Bee Balm and Daylillies. The sage is thriving and the lavender and thyme are digging in their little roots. Come and join us next Sunday for more stewardship. For more information look at our stewardship calender on this website.