In spite of the cold weather and the rain, 38 brave souls came out to learn to care for fruit trees at Growing for Green’s Pruning Workshop on April 10th. This year our group planned two workshops – one started at 10.00 a.m. and the second workshop started at 2.00 p.m. This way we could keep the groups small – under 25 students per group – while still accommodating the number of people from around the city who wanted to learn these skills.

The 10.00 a.m. workshop was hampered by a light drizzle but our teacher, Ken Slingerland, took that in his stride. The recently retired soft fruit and grape specialist from the Ontario Ministry for Food and Rural Affairs had prepared a handout for the students who huddled around the harvest table. By the time the group was up and about and had pruned three of the orchard’s fruit trees, the thunder and lightning had arrived and it was time for us to move to a different location.

So we hiked up the road to our favorite local pub, The Thirsty Fox at 1028 Eglinton West where Tony, the proprietor, served us coffee and encouraged us to get comfortable and take over half of the pub to continue our workshop.

The afternoon group got lucky. Despite the forecast of the rain continuing throughout the day, the sky was clear and the sun was out by 2.00 p.m. and those attending the afternoon workshop were warm and dry for the full three hours. So how was the workshop? We asked participants to fill out a survey on Survey Monkey and 87% said they found the workshop “very successful”. 100% of respondents felt it was good value for money and 100% also wanted to be updated on future workshops. So we at Growing for Green are thrilled.

Coming up next month we have four more workshops, this time taught by Norm Herbert, former orchard manager of ED Smith Farms. We hope to see some familiar faces at the workshops on soil for fruit trees, organic pest control, choosing a fruit tree and on grafting. And we would love to see some new faces too. And our hope? That the weather for the upcoming workshops will be perfect. But if not, the coffee and atmosphere at Thirsty Fox is warm and welcoming so we’ll be happy to go back there again. Interested in our upcoming workshops? Sign up soon to reserve your spot by emailing us at growingforgreen@gmail.com.