Tag Archives: Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard

Harvest Festival on August 26

Come join us for our first harvest festival

Come and join us on Thursday August 26, 5.00 PM to 8.00 PM to celebrate the planting of our community orchard in Ben Nobleman Park across from Eglinton West Subway station. We’ll have free food, music, information booths, orchard tours, a free raffle and activities for kids.

The event is being organized by our group, Growing for Green together with Parks Forestry and Recreation. Our festival partners include Not Far From The Tree, Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests and Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative.

There will be lots of free treats (while supplies last) including:

As for free activities, we have lots of them…great for folks of all ages:

We'll have orchard tours, live music, children's activities, and much more

  • Orchard tours at 5.00, 6.00 and 7.00 PM lead by Susan Poizner of Growing for Green, meeting at the harvest table
  • Ribbon cutting ceremony at 5.30 PM at the orchard shed to celebrate the arrival of our Fiskars tools as part of our Project Orange Thumb Grant
  • Activities for children with Garden Jane and her crew from 5.00 to 8.00 PM teaching kids to make a “Wild Bites Community Orchard Salad” mixing fresh greens and veggies from local farmers with some of the fruits we’ll harvest for years to come in the orchard
  • Martial Arts Demonstrations at 5.30 PM and 6.30 PM  with the students of Classical Martial Arts Centre
  • Raffle prizes announced at 7.00 PM. Stick around till then if you want to win a prize!

So how will the free raffle work? Everyone attending the Harvest Festival is eligible to get a ticket and can win prizes worth from $25 to $500! Here are just a few of the prizes:

Planting an apricot tree in March 2009

This event has been generously funded by Live Green Toronto and we also thank our other funders including Walmart Evergreen, Carrot Cache, Fiskars Tools, Richters Herbs and City of Toronto Economic Development.

Our group,Growing for Green, planted Toronto’s first community orchard in a public park in 2009 with 9 fruit trees (cherries, plums and pears) and added 5 more trees this year (apricots and crabapples). We have also renovated the park’s perennial bed, turning it into a pollinator garden, installed an irrigation system in the park, raised funds for a harvest table made of heirloom wood. And much more.

We look forward to meeting you at this wonderful event!

Getting into the flow

Cooling off at the harvest table

The volunteers at Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard are finally getting into the flow…of our new irrigation system that is.  We raised money for it’s installation in 2009 and it was installed in October that year. But due to various circumstances we haven’t been able to use it since then. No longer! Thanks to Tom Feeney from Parks and Recreation the system is now working perfectly. Instead of dragging buckets across the park from Lynn’s house, we’ll be stretching a hose across the park to water our 14 fruit trees and we can set  a sprinkler up near the pollinator garden to water that perennial bed.

Today was also a special day because we welcomed two wonderful new volunteers. Newcomers Hani and Michael joined our regulars: Lynn, Sherry, Susan, Cliff, Alex, Ildie (who came by for moral support), Debra and Rocko the dog (or is it Franco) who barked his encouragement from under a nearby shade tree. We completed the mulching of the pollinator garden and cut down any thistle as a way to weaken the plants. It is looking great and we’ll meet up next Sunday for more of the same.

Black Eyed Susan

So what’s up and out in the perennial bed? Black Eyed Susans are now blooming along with the Bee Balm and Daylillies. The sage is thriving and the lavender and thyme are digging in their little roots. Come and join us next Sunday for more stewardship. For more information look at our stewardship calender on this website.