Well, it’s mid-October, and that means it was time for our end-of-year potluck — and what a wonderful gathering it was!

With rain in the forecast, we decided to move the celebration indoors to Susan’s house, and it turned out to be such a cozy, fun afternoon. The food table was overflowing with delicious treats: bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon, egg salad, deviled eggs, fresh salads and baby carrots and even a gorgeous Japanese-style rice cake. Annie brought her famous olive oil cake, and Eleanor’s pumpkin cake was also a hit — and lots more goodies!

After lunch, we held a little apple tasting. The day before, Susan, Zsuzsa, and Giselle had visited Whiffletree Nursery for their annual apple tasting, so we brought back a few special varieties to sample and compare. We all love exploring new apple flavors, and it was a perfect way to wrap up the afternoon.

One of the favorite apple cultivars for the group was Wickson Crabapple which is a small, yellow and red applewith a tart sweet taste. We all loved the Shenandoah European Pear she brought for tasting as well. We also had fun tasting the two red fleshed varieties. Hidden Rose is a green apple that surprises you when you cut it open by having lovely pink flesh. And Rubaiyat had beautiful ruby red flesh. Both were quite tart.

A huge thank-you to everyone who came, brought food, shared stories, and filled the room with laughter. You make this community orchard project such a joy.

Now, a bit of orchard news: since we didn’t make it to the garden this weekend, the peach trees didn’t get their final watering. Hopefully, nature lends a hand with some rain soon — it’s important that fruit trees, especially younger ones, go into winter well hydrated. If a tree is well-hydrated in the winter, their cells are nice and plump and filled with water that helps protect them from frost damage.

We also discovered a bit of a mystery at Ben Nobleman Park. Someone has placed strange plastic bags filled with something all over our plum trees. We’re not sure if this is someone’s experiment in propagation or something else entirely, but it’s definitely concerning. Plastic pressed against bark can trap moisture and cause rot, so we’ll likely remove them soon. If anyone knows who might have done this or what it’s about, please let us know!

All in all, it’s been a fantastic season at the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard. Thank you to every volunteer who lead stewardship days, organized our schedule of events, helped care for the trees and gardens, shared photos, and kept the spirit of this project alive.

Here’s to a fun, restful winter — and maybe a cozy crafting afternoon at Sarah’s house before the snow melts! Then we’ll be ready to kick off another great growing season together in spring 2026.

Thank you all again for being part of this wonderful community. Have a beautiful fall, 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.