Summer Pruning & Tart Cherry Tasting

Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard Volunteers harvesting a handful of tart cherries from our sour cherry shrub. Photo credit: OrchardPeople.com.

This weekend, the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard team of volunteers was out in full force! Our jobs included:

The team included Susan, Giselle, Leah, Rael, Zeny, Annie, Cliff and Laurence and two of our teenage volunteers.

Rael, Cliff and Laurence tackled the cherry trees. Summer pruning is a great way to improve tree health and the quality of the annual harvest while keeping a fruit tree compact.

Rael and his pruning team, including Cliff and Laurence, worked on pruning various cherry trees in the park. The goal of summer pruning is to increase air circulation in the trees without spurring excessive branch and leaf growth.Learn about summer fruit tree pruning in this article. Photo Credit: OrchardPeople.com

Leah, who recently completed Orchard People’s online fruit tree care course Certificate in Fruit Tree Care, pruned one of the apple trees in the park which had become overgrown.

Leah admires the apple tree she pruned. This is the very first tree that she tackled after completing her Certificate in Fruit Tree Care.

Zeny, Giselle, Susan and our teenage volunteers worked on cleaning up the pollinator garden, removing weeds and suckers growing from the roots of the trees. Our goal was to prepare everything for next week’s activity. We will be feeding the trees and plants by mulching them with a two inch layer of compost.

Our sour cherry shrub is from the Romance series of cherries developed at the University of Saskatchewan. These hardy plants survive and thrive even in colder climates and the cherries are tart but tasty.

In the meantime, our generous garden continues to feed us. This week the tart cherries on our Romeo bush cherry shrub are perfectly ripe.

Who knew that tart cherries are rich in melatonin, and just a handful of them each night can help promote a deep sleep? Tart cherries have also been shown to fight inflammation, reduce muscle soreness and boost our immune systems.

A number of team members harvested some of the Romeo cherries and they will be testing out that theory in the next few days!

Giselle, Zeny and Leah beside the sour cherry shrub. Tart cherries have been shown to contain melatonin and can improve sleep, immunity and overall health.

But do you know what really boosts health and happiness? Getting great excercise and spending time with your neighbours and friends! It was wonderful to be out in the park with the team, working in our garden and enjoying the fruits of our labours.

Would you like to join us as a volunteer for the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto? Just send an email to growingforgreen (at) gmail.com and we’ll invite you to future stewardship days. Enjoy the lovely weather everyone!

Susan Poizner is one of the volunteers for The Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto. She is the creator of the fruit tree care education website OrchardPeople.com.  Susan is the author of four fruit tree care books including Grow Fruit Trees Fast: A Beginner’s Guide to a Healthy Harvest in Record Time. She is also the host of the Orchard People podcast and an ISA Certified Arborist.