Coffee in the Orchard 2023 – Thanks for Joining Us!

Susan leads the orchard tour during the event. Photo credit: Butterbox.ca.

We had over 75 people of all ages come to join us in the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard this weekend!

People came from all around our neighbourhood to enjoy Starbucks coffee and Butterbox Cookies and to participate in a tour of our community orchard!

It was a chance for neighbours to meet the park volunteers to learn about our project and what we have achieved in the past 14 years.

Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard volunteers pose at the harvest table. Over a dozen volunteers showed up at 9am to work on weeding the pollinator garden before the event. Photo credit: Butterbox.ca.

The day started off strong with over a dozen volunteers flocking to the orchard at 9 am to work on weeding the pollinator garden. Our main challenge was to remove cherry suckers and weed tree seedlings and other weeds. We are preparing the bed for wood chip mulching in the weeks to come.

Then we set up the harvest table with a huge vat of coffee donated to us by the local Starbucks and some fantastic cookies donated by our neighbour Liza from the local baking company Butterbox.ca.

The cookies for the event were donated by our local baking company, Butterbox.ca.

After a few words of welcome, Susan lead a group of park visitors on a tour of the orchard so they could learn the history of this wonderful project.

One of the topics covered was the history of our harvest table, which is made from heirloom wood that was once part of Toronto’s original docklands, buried underground for over 100 years.

It was a wonderful day and thank you to all the volunteers who helped make the day a success. And thanks to all the visitors who came to celebrate with us!

Stewardship next weekend takes place on Saturday, June 3rd at 9am. And you can see the entire stewardship schedule for 2023 here. Want to join our list of volunteers? Send an email to growingforgreen (at) gmail.com. We hope to see you in the park soon!

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.