We’re looking forward to another very fruitful (pun intended!) year ahead at Fruit Share.  Our mission continues to be rescuing unwanted fruit in Winnipeg.

This year our objectives are to grow in several more neighbourhoods, develop more effective and efficient processes and to introduce more people to the wonders of prairie fruit.  To that end, you’ll see the following activities in 2012:

Presentations

• February 9 -TEDxManitoba where I’ll share the story of Fruit Share and a sharing model that can apply in other sectors as well
• February 24 –  Growing Local Conference where Fruit Share will present “Bushels of Apples – Enjoying & Preserving Prairie Apples”
• March 16 - Ag in the City where we’ll have a rousing game of Prairie Fruit Jeopardy
• June 6 – Dig in Manitoba where we’ll introduce, present information and share recipes and techniques for identifying and using Prairie Fruit

Book Launch

Prairie Fruit: The Essential Guide for Picking, Preserving and Preparing Backyard Fruit will be available for purchase this spring!  Including over 130 tested recipes and preserving techniques, this book includes everything you need to know about 9 different prairie fruits.   Stay tuned for updates on the launch event, the website and how to get your copy.

Process Improvements

We experienced a 2000% increase in volunteers last year and we increased the amount of fruit harvested by 430% (from 1600 lbs to 7300 lbs).  As you can imagine, we were thrilled but alsovery busy!  Now, we’re investigating easier, more efficient way of doing things.  So don’t be surprised if you get an email asking for your input or feedback on how things went last year or requesting more information for our database.  It’s all part of our attempt to ensure more fruit is rescued and shared between more people.

Promotion

If we’re going to continue to attract more volunteers and more homeowners, we need to keep spreading the word about Fruit Share.  We’ll be updating our Resources link to ensure we have to tools needed to so.  We’ll also be looking for your help in distributing these resources in your neighbourhood.  Your help might include submitting a pre-written article to your community newspaper, posting a flyer on a community bulletin board, sharing a post on Facebook or dropping a note in a neighbour’s mailbox if you spot unused fruit.

Crab Apple Plans

Crab apples are under appreciated and under used.  In 2012, we plan to make better use of these gems.  Perhaps it’ll include workshops making crab apple pie, or a cider press party in the park or another road trip to Apple Junction for some incredible fresh squeezed apple cider – we’ll think of something!  More mouthwatering info to come.

Along with our amazing volunteers on our Advisory Team, we have the pleasure of working with several students who are doing a practicum placement for their Critical Thinking course in Environmental Studies.  These students will be spending 40 hours between now and April to help us gear up for the picking.  We look forward to working with them.  Thank you Anna, for making this possible and thank you to the students for choosing Fruit Share!

That’s a quick look ahead on this lovely Sunday afternoon.

Enjoy the day.

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