This past year I had the pleasure of spending many hours in the lunchroom of the joint “McDonald-Lowell APP Elementary Cohousing Unit” at the former Lincoln High School (sometimes also referred to as the “home for wayward elementary schools”). There’s not a ton of great things to be said about a high school being used as a holding space for 600 elementary school students, though each program really did make the best of it. However, one of the shining lights of last year was Joanne Querin-Sorenson, the kitchen manager (who also responds to “Lunch Lady,” “Cafeteria Lady,” and “Kitchen Lady”).…

Last month’s post about the orchard pruning class resulted in lots of inquiries about what to do with a bumper crop of fruit. We are lucky that local options exist: City Fruit and Solid Ground’s Community Fruit Tree Harvest (CFTH) work with other organizations throughout the city to harvest fruit and to make sure it gets into the hands of hungry people.

The easiest and most direct action to take with your surplus fruit is to harvest it yourself and drop it off at a local food bank. Solid Ground has a handy list here of local food banks, hours, …

Nearly every house on my block in lower Wallingford sports a fruit tree of historic age, reportedly hearkening back to a time when our section of Wallingford was an orchard. Our home’s tree of advanced age is a pear tree, which rises more than 30 feet into the air and drops thousands of pears each year. [And that’s truth, not hyperbole. One year I picked up 3000 pears].

Each August when the pears start dropping, I think to myself how great it would be if I knew more about this tree and its care. Luckily, the Meridian Park Orchard Stewards …