Waiting for stone fruit

Only one orange tree today, and only 40 lbs of fruit for me to take to Martha’s Kitchen.

They were good, sweet oranges, and the yard, new to us, had nice apple and pear trees. Lots of smelly dog poop, though.

While we were at that house, a young man stopped to talk to us. He looked as though he worked for PG&E, which turned out to be true, but he’s an arborist who trims trees under contract. He had just moved out to California and had been looking specifically for a backyard gleaning organization. And here he found it! He told us that he talks to lots of homeowners (while taking large V’s out of the crowns of their trees, as PG&E is wont to do) and hears many times the wish that there was a place to put wasted backyard fruit to good use. Clearly Village Harvest needs more mindshare.

After oranges was more loquats. Another big tree

and lots of sorting to do, since harvesting loquats requires cutting off the fruit clusters with clippers, and a bunch of leaves always comes along.

I resolutely did not take any loquats with me today, although we talked about soaking them in vodka to make cordial.

Then we went to our most famous tree, an enormous grapefruit tree in Cambrian Park, where in past years we have picked a literal ton of grapefruit.

I have to admit that I had remembered it as being even taller. I should have put a smaller barosaurus next to it in the photo for scale. We didn’t stay for very long, yet we still managed to get almost 500 lbs of fruit.

But stone fruit season is fast approaching. I’m going to help lead an apricot harvest (probably at the Guadalupe Historic Orchard) on 27 June, which is a Saturday. If you’ve never harvested with us and are free that day, I encourage you to sign up at Village Harvest and come along.