Our Community Orchard’s Tenth Anniversary

Susan leads an orchard tour as part of our tenth anniversary celebrations in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard. We also had a bake sale, a raffle with fantastic prizes from local businesses, and the unveiling of a new mural! Read on to learn more…. (Photo Credit: Rafaela da Silva)

Amazingly, ten years have passed since we established our community orchard in Toronto, Canada. As the first community orchard in a public park in our city, it was a big deal. And we’ve had lots of adventures over the years. We have had harvest festivals and community events. We had an ice storm. We’ve had beautiful harvests. And we’ve had lots of fun.

So this year was a perfect year to celebrate our tenth anniversary and we did so this weekend during our annual spring fundraising event. Despite a rainy start, the skies were clear when we launched the event at 10 am and it was a beautiful day for a bake sale, an orchard tour, for unveiling a new mural and orchard signage, and for all of us to get to know our neighbours over coffee donated by our local Starbucks!

Our friend and former city councillor Joe Mihevc was the MC who raffled off fantastic prizes donated by local businesses including massages, reflexology, hair services at Ergys studio and a dinner for two at Jerusalem Restaurant. (Photo Credit: Susan Poizner)

Because it was our tenth anniversary we wanted this year to be very special. One of the things that made it special and will mark this year is a beautiful mural that freelance illustrator Caitlin Taguibao created on our electrical box in the centre of the park. Caitlin is a Toronto-based PATCH artist and her murals can be seen across the city. 

This year we partnered with award-winning arts charity The STEPS initiative to create a mural celebrating our community orchard’s 10th anniversary in Ben Nobleman Park. Here, Toronto-based freelance illustrator Caitlin Taguibao beautifies this box with fruit tree blossoms, cherries and bees. (Photo credit: The STEPS Initiative)

The mural was made possible thanks to our partnership with The STEPS initiative, an award-winning arts charity that uses art to transform public spaces. And by the time Caitlin was finished her work, the box was truly transformed!

Caitlin poses beside the new mural. (Photo credit: Susan Poizner)

Creating the mural was just part of the preparation for the event. We also designed and installed new orchard signage that tells park visitors about the orchard and how to volunteer. The new signage was made possible due to funding from The Canadian Tree Fund’s Jack Kimmel Grant. And our friends at Parks Forestry and Recreation also helped by installing the new signage for us.

What else did we do to prepare for the day? Volunteers spend hours and hours baking for our bake sale, sourcing raffle prizes from local businesses and posting and distributing about 200 posters. It was pretty busy!

Lynn, Susan, Janina, Marilyn and Gail pose in front of the new signage that tells passersby about the community orchard in this Toronto public park – and tells them how they can participate. (Photo credit: http://www.margaretirvingpopart.ca/)

Another partner in the event was our fantastic City Councillor Josh Matlow. His staff arranged our permits and helped us with posters and supported us any way that they could. And our wonderful new provincial MPP Jill Andrew attended the event and loaned us her “Jill Andrew MPP” tent – which came in handy as it rained in the hour ahead of the event!

Ruth, Rafaela and Lynn pose in front of Jill Andrew’s fantastic tent. Thanks Jill! It kept us dry during the prep time for our anniversary event. (Photo credit: Rafaela da Silva)

At 11 am, I led an orchard tour with the help from my friends! I taught visitors a bit about the trials involved in growing fruit trees in an urban environment – and the lessons that I’ve learned over the years which I wrote about in my book Growing Urban Orchards. Our beloved former City Councillor Joe Mihevc spoke about why he supported the project back in 2009 and the importance of having community gardens in every ward. Then Ruth was up to bat and she spoke about how she found out about the project and why she joined us. Even her dog Luna made a guest appearance during her talk.

Susan hands the mike over to Ruth during the orchard tour. In just a minute her dog Luna would make a guest appearance on the tour. Luna didn’t say much but the loving look on her face showed how much she loves the park…and how much she loves Ruth! (Photo credit: Rafaela da Silva)

Other guest speakers included Janina and Rafaela, who also spoke about their experiences as orchard volunteers. Renee Castonguay told us about the STEPS initiative and Diane Borsato, an artist who is also a bee keeper, spoke about the importance of bees.

Diane, an artist and beekeeper, speaks about the importance of bees in front of Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard’s pollinator garden.

The education continued in the booths at the event. Diane Borsato set up the first booth and taught visitors what is involved in beekeeping. In the second booth, Annemarie of Live Green Toronto taught us about native bees, pollinator gardens and about urban agriculture.

We learned about beekeeping and identifying bee eggs in a honeycomb at Diane Borsato’s beekeeping table.

Now, one of our goals during the event was to raise money for orchard supplies and needs. We spend hundreds of dollars each year on mulch and other materials necessary to feed our fruit trees and keep them healthy. The money also goes to plants for our pollinator garden and replacement trees when necessary. And most of the money raised came from the bake sale. Our bakers included Gail, Sofia, Giselle, Rafaela, Marilyn and of course Sherry! Her army of beautifully hand decorated gingerbread men made many children (and lots of adults!) very happy!

Two of our star bakers, Rafaela and Sherry, helped us raise almost $600 for orchard supplies and events. (Photo credit: Rafaela da Silva)

Last but absolutely not least, much of the money raised on the day was due to our annual raffle and our local businesses were so generous in donating amazing prizes. Here’s a quick rundown of what participants won:

  • A delicious dinner for two (valued at $44) at Jerusalem Restaurant
  • $50 gift certificate to buy a native tree from LEAF
  • One full membership for one year ($55 value) to The Toronto Tool Library at 830 St Clair Ave. W as well as three, one-month promo memberships
  • A 30-minute massage ($65 value), and two 30 minute reflexology treatments (valued $65 each) from JCJ Massage Therapy
  • Two gift certificates for blow drys (each valued at $40) at Ergys Studio
  • A gift basket of Kevin Murphy hair products (worth $152) courtesy of Toronto Barber and Beauty Supply
  • A $20 gift card for 3SK Cafe (COR) at 1054 Eglinton Ave West.
  • Rexall Pharmacy donated a beautiful gift basket filled with nuts, candies and other treats valued at $30
  • EcoExistance donated $25 bottle of “Forever Peace” Bath Salts .
  • Ontario Honey House donated a $25 gift certificate.
  • Author Steven Biggs donated his books: Grow Gardeners: Kid Testing Gardening with Children ($14.95), No Guff Vegetable Gardening ($26.95), Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t ($19.95) and Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can’t ($23.95)
Time to pack up! And we look forward to celebrating in the orchard again with you next year!

All in all, it was a very successful and magical day. Thank you to the many, many people who made it possible and especially to those who came to celebrate with us and to have fun! Many of you signed up to become volunteers in the orchard this year. We look forward to getting to know you all!

Susan Poizner is the coordinator of The Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto and the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book Growing Urban Orchards. Susan teaches fruit tree care skills online at he fruit tree care training website OrchardPeople.com. Susan is also the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast, a show that explores topics relating to fruit trees, food forests, permaculture and arboriculture. She is also an ISA Certified arborist.