Village Harvest

Stop by the Village Harvest table !

If you are a gardener who has fruit trees…whether you have one tree or ten (or even more!)…you should know about Village Harvest.  A few weeks ago I was at the Farmers Market and stopped at the Village Harvest booth. There I found out that this nonprofit volunteer organization was looking for both tree owners and volunteer harvesters. The logic behind this organization is wonderful! They bring together those having fruit trees with fruit going to waste and groups such as STEAC (Short Term Emergency Aid Committee) and Davis Community Meals. Simply put they send a group of trained volunteer harvesters to wherever a tree owner has a tree with excess fruit. They will harvest the tree, leave the owners with as much fruit as they can use and donate the rest to the above groups.

Village Harvest is part of a larger organization which is based in San Jose and operates throughout the greater San Francisco Bay area. Founded in 2001 Village Harvest expanded to Davis in 2009. In only eight months of operation in that year the Davis group was able to harvest 10,734 pounds of fruit! This year they are already at  17,667 pounds and the number just keeps going up.

The homeowner has a few responsibilities…refrain from using pesticides, herbicides or fungicides at least 2 weeks before the harvest date, be home when the harvesters arrive, hose down the tree a day or two before harvest, clear a path to the tree, provide buckets or boxes for rotten fruit and supervise children and pets to keep them safe.

You can find out more by visiting their table at Farmers Market or by visiting Village Harvest You can also call 530-759-9792 for more information.