Fruit Share is all about fruit, or is it?

On the surface, it sure looks like that’s what it’s about, but the fact is, Fruit Share is so much more. It’s as much about people and community as it is about fruit. The fruit is really just an excuse for bringing together people and giving them an opportunity to get to know and help their neighbours.

That’s why I love when people share their stories with us. Being the one to receive the emails and phone calls, I often get the chance to hear and read these stories. They have such a positive impact on me, I often wish I could “share” them with you. The other day, I received an email that was a great example of the enthusiasm and passion that many of our volunteers have. Ellen has allowed me to share a bit of her email with you, I hope you find it as delightful as I did.

I’m SO glad to have found this fruit connection!

We have just settled back into the city, after raising our kids on a farm for 25 years. While there, we grew mega gardens, fields of pumpkins, and harvested and processed tons of wild and domestic fruit. I miss some of that, and have spent the last year searching for fruit in the city, especially fruit that folks don’t know what to do with! In our new yard, I have planted one saskatoon bush, a chokecherry tree, some strawberries, and a patch of raspberries, but there won’t be much coming off those for a few years… So you can see why I am very excited and just registered to be a volunteer with your project.

I am a retired school teacher who always took my classes to the farm, had them plant gardens, hike berry trails, and show them how nature and food grow hand in hand. We used a juicer, a dehydrator, and explored the many ways we could work with food.

Since I have retired, my sister, Lydia and I have been picking and processing many types of seasonal fruit, and have made it our mission to produce jellies that have more fruit than sugar, thereby deeming them semi-healthy. Those jellies made good use of everything we could find to pick: apples and crab apples, cranberries, saskatoons, wild plums, chokecherries, grapes, mint, and elderberries. As we experimented with interesting combinations of the above, we also played with naming them creatively (you can tell we were spending too much time in the kitchen heat…). We made labels that read Grapple, Crabby Elder, and Crap (!), as well as more traditional names. In fact, we have a lovely collection of photos of our process, from picking, through washing, cooking, and jarring – such BEAUTIFUL colours!

Elderberry, the fruit of the elder tree, was new to us. It offered a lovely flavour and colour. When we researched its properties, we learned that it used to be used in parts of Europe, to “cheat” in the making of wine (instead of grapes), to the point that it was outlawed in places! It has a deep red, rich flavour. It can also be used in hair dye – we tried and have some VERY interesting pictures to prove it!

So, we’ve had a lot of fun with fruit the last while!

My sister is out of the country at the moment, so she doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll be signing up as well, because she and I are a team, each with our experience and expertise. (She is a retired Home Ec. teacher – hence the jelly recipe adaptations!)

Having enjoyed the bounty of country living for many years, now that we are back in the city, it’s exciting to find a bit of what we left behind, thanks to Fruit Share.`

Yours Fruitfully,

Ellen K.

Thank you for your story, Ellen and Lydia!  I can’t wait to see some of those pictures and try out some of your recipes.

Please note, while Ellen and her sister have tons of experience with fruit, everyone is welcome to participate in Fruit Share.  Fruit Share is a great option for anyone new to the world of backyard fruit.  Rather than planting your own fruit tree, why not explore different varieties and see which one you like best – or if you like them at all?!  Young or old, novice or expert we welcome anyone to be part of Fruit Share.