Tag Archives: edmonton

OFRE goes to MEAET 1.0 with pedal powered apple crusher design, Nov. 26

This past summer, OFRE pitched an idea at a great Edmonton initiative put together by Next Gen called MEAET that strives to put micro-funding in the hands of people doing good for the city and community. Everyone who attends the event contributes a fee, and then after all the ideas are pitched, everyone enjoys a meal together and casts their vote for they idea they feel should  receive the funding at the end of the night. We pitched an idea for funding to go towards the development of a pedal-powered apple crusher. Here is our MEAET 0.5 proposal from MEAET 0.5. One of the conditions of winning is that you will come back to the next MEAET in 11 weeks time to present what you have accomplished so far with your micro-grant funding.

Mike Johnson, the team lead for the project, put together a great progress report that captures the people involved, the ideas, the design questions we tackled in building a pedal powered crusher that can work for a variety of people who differ in age, height and body weight. Here is our OFRE MEAET Presentation given at MEAET 1.0.

 

It’s peak apple season and ofre had a labourious weekend!

OFRE may have set some new picking records this weekend. Way to go neighborhood captains and pickers!

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So what did we accomplish this long and labourious weekend?

  • Most number of picks organized in one weekend (7)
  • Largest geographic area covered in one weekend (St. Albert, Bonnie Doon, Millcreek, Buylea Heights, Castledowns, Oliver)
  • Most number of picks in one day, Labour Day Monday (4)
  • Amount of fruit picked (still need to weigh it…but it’s taken up a significant portion of my yard)
  • Possibly the largest variety of fruits picked: apples (several types), crabapples ( a few types), chokecherries, red currants.
  • Highlight: Apple crushing Garburator is built! Thanks to the amazing handiness of Mike Johnson for getting a brand new garburator on kijiji for a steal and turning it into an awesome apple crushing machine! (photos coming soon)!

It was a weekend of firsts for OFRE. Congrats to everyone for their hardwork! We have come a long way this year in many ways: the number of pickers we have attracted to our organization, getting some much loved media attention (Edmonton Journal, CBC, Radio-Canada), winning our first grant, our stellar new logo and postcards, winning our first grant, producing cider for the Alberta Ave Farmers Market!

I hope there is more exciting things to come for OFRE in the coming months and we will look back at this at the beginning of many exciting things. I have lofty dreams for our little organization. I hope someday we have a space in the urban core where we can teach and help people not only find the fruit hidden in our city, but educate and learn from each other on how to sustainably grow fruit within our urban environment. A place where the wealth that urban food production can bring to spaces, places, and people’s lives is spread and share with others.

June 5-11 is Alberta Environmental week – June 5th Urban Food Production

There are a series of events going on next week regarding the environment, sustainability, et.c pleasantly a few of the events going on in edmonton involve food such as: yoga and garden party, urban food production, and even a sustainable cooking class. All the events are free. Some require rsvp, I believe. Check out the following event page for more information. Click here.