This past weekend, OFRE volunteers trekked outside the city to pick apples on a farm in Namao. The owners had 15 different types of apple trees!
They were kind enough to label all the trees for us by name so that we could learn what different types of apples grow in Alberta. Some of the names of apples we picked were: Norkent, Norland, Rescue Apple Crabapple, Dongo Crabapple, September Ruby, and Fall Red Apple.
Since we had such a large place to pick, we invited lots of pickers and with lots of pickers, why not hold a fruit mob and see how fast we could all pick one tree! Neighborhood fruit captain, Mike Johnson oriented all 8 pickers on how to do a fruit mob and led the attack. It was picked in 18min and 59 sec. Way to go fruit ninja’s!
Everyone had a fun time, it was beautiful weather, and it was a pleasure to take a short jaunt out of the city and hang out in a farm orchard for the day. Our hosts were kind enough to make us fresh carrot juice from carrots them had just picked in their garden. How nice! It was delicious too! Our youngest little helper was a bit pooped by the end of the pick, but was a joy to have around. She got passed among the pickers as we entertained her with cuddles, apples, and explored the orchard with her.
With such a nice orchard, we got to thinking of other ways we can work with this grower and suggested doing a group pruning event to give his trees a needed trim and enable other fruit growers to learn techniques for pruning their own fruit trees. They were quite excited about the idea, so we are going to work on this and try to plan an event in the off season. It’s best to prune fruit trees after the harvest and before spring. Stay tuned!
