Alas, this is a special day. Our long awaited Harvest Table has arrived in the park. There is a story, of course that goes with this table. The heritage wood was part of Toronto’s original docks – some of them built as early as the 1830s. In the 1880s, the docks were covered with landfill so that the city could expand southwards and new docks were built further south.  A century later, developers excavated the land to build new condos and found the original docks perfectly preserved. The wood was salvaged and we were lucky enough to acquire some of it from the wonderful Lambos of Canadian Salvaged Timber Corporation in Toronto. The rough design for the table was done by landscape architect Jane Hutton and OCAD graduate Casey Wong built the table with the help of Mark Wilson of Metal Art Studio. As you may have noticed in a previous blog, landscape architect Sander Freedman of Sander Design integrated our lovely tabletop into the urban forest booth of the Green Living Show where it made it’s grand debut. So what’s next for this lovely table?

Well, we’ve got some temporary benches from the Green Living show that we’ll be using with it for a while and we’re raising money to make some matching benches that go with the table. Soon Parks and Rec will put the table and the benches on concrete footing. Ultimately, it will seat up to 20 people and will be a place for orchard picnics, pruning workshop, fruit sorting, chatting, relaxing, having fun and other stuff.  The wood is old pine, so each spring our volunteers will go out and sand down the wood and prepare it for the year to come. We hope the table will be a place for us to play, learn and socialize together for many years to come!

Toronto's Original Docklands...covered by landfill for over a century

Uncovering Toronto's Historic Docks

Orchard Harvest Table in Park