Even if you aren’t familiar with City Fruit, you’ve undoubtedly seen their handiwork. They are the ones that put the netting over apple trees in our neighborhood in order to save the fruit from insects and other pests until they can harvest it for local food banks. They’ve had a contract with the City to harvest the apples in Meridian Playground, and I think I’ve seen their nets on trees along the Burke Gilman trail.
If you’d like to help this organization out, and at the same time learn a thing or two about pruning, City Fruit is holding an Orchard Party at Meridian Playground this Saturday from 10am to 1pm.
They write:
City Fruit is hosting a series of Pizza & Pruning Orchard Parties over the next few months. They are part workshop, part volunteer opportunity, and part hands-on practice session. The first Orchard Party will be held at the Meridian Playground on Saturday, January 26 between 10am and 1pm.
The first hour is dedicated to learning how to prune. City Fruit staff will go over the benefits of pruning, different pruning tools and techniques, and other useful info. Then volunteers will get to test what they learned by pruning the trees in the orchard. Volunteers will finish the day with some pizzas, while sharing their success stories and newly discovered tips from the day.
Winter is an ideal time for pruing most fruit tree varieties. Winter pruning is important for tree health, and helps the trees produce healthier fruit. The “fruit” of their labor will be harvested by the City Fruit harvest crew and volunteers come fall, and the majority of it will be donated to local food banks.
These Orchard Parties are perfect for novice backyard growers, or anyone who is looking for ways to give back to the community or connect with like-minded neighbors.
RSVP is required. Registration info and the schedule for the other upcoming Orchard Parties are available here.
I participated in one of these events and the people are very nice and I had lots of fun.