Thank You for a Great Season!

A big thank you goes out to all of the volunteer pickers for helping harvest almost 840 pounds of unwanted fruit and vegetables! We could not have made that number possible without your help!

 

And thank you home owners, for calling in to register your fruit trees or to let us know about your excess vegetables. Your surplus went to those who wanted and needed it.

It was wonderful meeting so many new people who are interested in rescuing unwanted fruit in Yorkton! Thanks for a great season.

Crab Apples! What to Do With Them?

We picked a lot of crab apples tonight and the big question seemed to be: what to do with them? They must have been a popular fruit at one point because so many yards have crab apple trees.

Lots and lots of crab apples.

Our volunteers Ethelda and Rebecca recalled eating them as children canned whole in syrup. Probably much like peaches or pears, but with a lot less prep time.

Of course, there are the old standbys: crab apple jelly - which I recall eating as a child - or crab apple sauce if you're feeling really ambitious.

Volunteers Stacey and Julie.

After a little looking, I came across an excellent idea: crab apple chutney! The same site also suggested roasting crab apples whole with cinnamon (probably akin to baked apples, but on a smaller scale). Or how about crab apple butter or crab apple cider sorbert?

Thank you again to the volunteers who came out to pick tonight - we certainly couldn't do it without you! 

It seems that there are all sorts of great ideas to be found for using up those crab apples! Tell us, what do you do with yours? We love hearing new ideas!

Recipe: Flourless Apple Pancakes (Gluten-free)

Need to eat apples for breakfast, lunch and dinner right now? Here's a recipe we really like:

Flourless Apple Pancakes

1 large apple, cored and grated (or 2-3 small)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, or extra to taste
Butter or coconut oil for frying

Pre-heat your griddle. Beat the eggs and cinnamon and then prepare your apple. Grate your apples and squeeze out the juice (preferably into a cup for drinking later). Mix the grated remains into the eggs. Scoop one heaping tablespoon of batter onto a greased griddle and wait until they firm up enough to flip. If you get liquid oozing out the sides, push it back and up the sides of the pancake to keep them looking respectable.

One recipe is good for one person, so double, triple or quadruple as needed. Keep them warm in the oven at low heat (170°) until they're ready to be served all at once. Plate, top with maple syrup and dig in.

Apples, Apples & More Apples

Grow 'N' Share would like to thank homeowner Robert for sharing his big, beautiful apples with us! They're crisp and tart and we're wishing we knew the variety!

We're unsure of the variety... Battleford, maybe?

Volunteers this week harvested over 222 pounds of delicious apples that will go on to become apple sauce, crisps, juice and nourishment for people in need! It's amazing how fast an apple tree gets picked when a group of volunteers comes together.

Rebecca in the foreground and our nimble 'monkey' Sarah way up the tree in the back.

If you're interested in apples, but are unsure about going up a ladder, rest assured there are plenty of other jobs available onsite besides climbing trees to the top like our Sarah. Ladders need to be held, buckets of apples need to be passed down from up high, and the ground needs to be cleared of fallen apples and debris.

We hope you'll come out to join us at our next picking!

Hurray for Apples!

Grow 'N' Share picked its first apple tree this week - an excellent early eating variety that was both juicy and sweet! A big thank you goes out to our hosts, Diane and Jim, for not only sharing their apples with us, but for keeping us company and helping out while we picked.

Thanks also goes to the fun group of volunteers for helping make the picking time go by so quickly! We had the tree gleaned in just over an hour, with over 230 pounds of fruit in bins to divvy up and donate afterwards!

Looks yummy, doesn't it. Interested in volunteering to pick some fruit? Contact us!

A Red & Green Delivery

Thank you to Pat for not only picking, but delivering, her excess carmine jewel cherries so that Grow 'N' Share could donate them this week! They are beautiful, large sour cherries that make your mouth pucker when you eat them fresh!

We also dropped off giant fordhook swiss chard to the Salvation Army today. If you're not familiar with eating chard, it tastes amazing sauteed with onions, garlic and dill!

Cherries & Rhubarb & Raspberries, Oh My!

A big thank you goes out to two homeowners this week: Marie for sharing her raspberries, rhubarb, shell peas and lettuce, and David for sharing his beautiful nanking cherries - we picked close to 37 pounds from just two bushes!

The large amounts of produce picked could not have been possible without countless volunteer hours - your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Tricia removes rhubarb leaves for composting.

Our junior volunteer picks a bucket of shell peas.

Tricia, Amber and Amanda busy picking in the raspberry patch.

Nanking cherry packages ready for drop off at the Salvation Army.

On Harvesting Rhubarb

Manitoba Fruit Share wrote a wonderful little post about how best to pick rhubarb, and here is an excerpt:

• pick from the outside in
• slide your hand to the base of the stalk and pull gently
• if pulling does not work, carefully cut the stalks as close to the ground as possible
• leave 1/3 of the stalks on the plant so it can continue to grow and thrive during the summer – NEVER pick all of the stalks from a rhubarb plant
• if you cut the leaves off the stalks at the picking location, ask the homeowner permission to put the leaves in their compost pile or take the leaves with you to compost at home or at another compost pile
• it is safe to compost rhubarb leaves, but never eat them

If you take care to harvest rhubarb properly, you will be rewarded with good plant growth and another harvest in a few weeks time!

Rhubarb Harvest Share

We were excited when we got the call this week to pick some unwanted rhubarb just south of Yorkton! A big thank you goes out to Elva for sharing her excess rhubarb with us - and to her grandchildren for helping us pick - we harvested 37.5 pounds in all!!

The Salvation Army was very pleased to receive the donation, and we were thrilled to make the drop off. We hope that with ongoing fruit tree registrations, there will soon be more to follow!

Grow 'n' Share in the News!

A big thank you to Calvin Daniels for helping spread the word about fruit sharing in Yorkton This Week. To read the article, click here. We are currently accepting fruit tree registrations - to register your fruit tree for picking, please call 782-0952!

Tree Scouting Walk

Over the next few weeks, volunteers of Grow 'n' Share may be knocking on your door or leaving this flyer in your mail box:

We'll be looking to register fruit bearing trees or shrubs that owners are not fully utilizing, but would like to have picked. If you receive this flyer and have questions (and we hope you do!), please do not hesitate to call us: 782-0952 (Shanon) or email: shanon (at) nexxus (dot) cc.

Tree Canada Grant

The Community Garden Alliance was awarded funding from Tree Canada to purchase fruit trees and berry bushes to be planted on the property of the Yorkton Alliance Church. Eventually, as these trees mature and bear fruit, they will fall under the responsibility of the Grow 'n' Share program to harvest and distribute!

Volunteers worked hard Saturday, May 12th planting crab, apple, plum, pear, cherry, saskatoons and haskaps! We look forward to the bounty! Thank you Tree Canada and to everyone who helped with this project!

Monthly Meetup

If you're interested in learning more about the Grow 'N' Share program or the Community Garden project, please join us at our monthly meetups. We meet the second Thursday of every month - and the next one is this upcoming Thursday, May 10th. Here are the details:

Time: 5:00 pm
Where: Yorkton Alliance Church, 186 Allanbrooke Drive

Learn about our upcoming plans and how you can get involved! Hope to see you there!

Come Out to Our Informational Night

AFSA, in connection with the Community Garden Alliance and Grow 'N' Share, is pleased to invite the public to our informational night open house. Stop by to learn more about the above initiatives and how you can get involved. Doors open at 7:00 pm at the Alliance Church on Allanbrook Drive. Hope to see you there!

Thank You!

Thank you to all who came out to support the second annual Prairie Sun Seed Festival February 25th. We had the chance to meet lots of new people and to hear feedback on the idea of harvest sharing. Grow 'N' Share was also given the opportunity to unveil its program to the community by presenting as one of the guest speakers.  

Devin Wilger, a reporter from the Yorkton News Review, was kind enough to stop by the Grow 'N' Share booth at the Prairie Sun Seed Festival for an interview. You can read his article about the Grow 'N' Share initiative here.

Warren Crossman & Shanon Hilton discussing Grow 'N' Share program details at the Prairie Sun Seed Festival.

We are now accepting tree registrations, and we welcome you to submit a registration for your tree if you have one. Depending on the response to this program and the number of volunteers available for help, trees will likely be picked on a first come, first serve basis in terms of when the application was received.

If you have specific questions or would like more information about tree registration, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Welcome!

Welcome to Grow 'N' Share - a harvest sharing organization dedicated to picking and harvesting unwanted local fruit and sharing it within the community of Yorkton. If you have a fruit producing tree that you need help picking, we'd love to hear from you. If you're interested in sharing the harvest by helping us pick fruit, be sure to visit our volunteer page.

We hope you'll stop by this site regularly for updates on picking dates, scheduled preservation and canning parties, upcoming local food events and other relevant news!

Thanks again for stopping by!