Ripening cherries on our tree before the tree was totally harvested by an passer by who filled up two bags of cherries and took them home. We welcome visitors picking and eating ripe fruit they find in our orchard. If you see something ripe, harvest one or two pieces of fruit..but leave the rest for someone else.
There’s some good news, and some bad news from Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard this month. The good news is that four years after planting our first fruit trees, we have our very first harvest. The bad news? Well, it’s that an unknown woman was witnessed stripping all the cherries off our three cherry trees. She walked away with two bags full of cherries leaving none for anyone else to eat.
This happened just days after another visitor was caught hacking away at the winter savoury in the pollinator garden, giving those little perennials a haircut that left them looking like a monk from the middle ages – all bald on top, but leaving a few strands of winter savoury around the edges. By the time she was caught, crouching over with scissors in hand, she had already filled two bags with clippings. When a volunteer asked her what she was doing, she just said “No speak english” and slowly sauntered away with her booty. A tablespoon worth of the herb is delicious on chicken dishes, but how much winter savoury can one person use?
Winter savory after being sheared by savory thief
The winter savory before “harvest”. Usually visitors will take one or two clippings and leave the plant looking nice….
Winter savory after thief helped herself. She was caught before shearing this plant completely.
And yet, at stewardship last Sunday, it was time to prune the beautiful sage in our pollinator garden. That herb is perfect for drying and using throughout the year in so many dishes. After pruning the plants, we spread the sage clippings out on a nearby picnic table and left signs on it, welcoming park visitors to take some home. A few people happily helped themselves but lots was left over and will be composted. I wish the cherry and winter savoury thieves would sign up for our email list. We’ll notify them when there is something that they can take without breaking our hearts!
Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard volunteers with sage for the community
Our community orchard is in a public space. It’s a labour of love and a small group of volunteers (there are about 7 of us at the moment) do the work to maintain the trees and the pollinator garden unconditionally. We devote about 150 volunteer hours a year mulching, pruning, weeding and watering the trees and caring for the pollinator garden. We love what we do. And while we would love to also be able to enjoy some of the harvest, we understand that the park is in a public space and the trees therefore belong to all of us. Our dream was that visitors to the park, especially children, would be able to visit and pick a ripe cherry or two, an apple, or an apricot, and nibble on it. But the hope was that people would pick a little bit and leave the rest for others.
Community orchards I have visited around North America, as part of the research for my book “Growing Urban Orchards: The Ups, Downs, and How-tos of Fruit Tree Care in the City”, all have permanent signs near the fruit trees outlining the rules of the orchard including who can pick and when. We know we will have to do that in the future at some point. In the meantime, we know that most people visiting our park are more considerate than the cherry and winter savoury thieves. Come and visit our park. If you see something ripe, pick one or two. And leave the rest for someone else.
Susan Poizner
Director, Orchard People
Coordinator, Growing for Green & Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard