Abundance Project
Categories: Community Projects, featured
Written By: Leanne Cordingley
As we’re heading into the middle of apple season here’s a quick note for anyone living in Manchester or Sheffield who doesn’t already know about the abundance projects. This is a brilliant idea and anyone with a tree with spare, wasted fruit should get involved. From their website:
“Abundance is a project to harvest the seasonal glut of local fruit like apples, pear and plums. Each year hundreds of fruit trees go unpicked either because people don’t notice them, may not be physically able to harvest them or there are just too many fruits at one time. Abundance is a team of volunteers who have been helping harvest city fruit and redistributing the surplus to the community on a non-profit basis - to community cafes, nurseries, Surestarts and individuals. Abundance has been distributing free fresh fruit around the streets of central Sheffield and Meadowhall Shopping Centre from the custom designed mobile fruit unit. We have also juiced tonnes of fruit and made jams, pickles and preserves. Abundance contines through the seasonal cycle with planting and pruning workshops”
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October 24th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Dear Abundance people,
saw a clip on your Sheffield activities on the Channel 4 River Cottage programme last night and was SO impressed. Such a sharp, smart dollop of lateral thinking, so, all power to your collective elbows henceforth!
Down here in Somerset there are any number of marooned apple trees scattered about the landscape, remnants often of our once abundant, but now phantom cider orchards. I’ve often thought of mapping them - as you’ve done with yours - maybe photographing them too, so p’raps now I’ll get on and do it. My husband is recovering from cancer treatment as I write, and, both of us being artists, it occurs to me it would make a very worthwhile getting-better project.
Yours in admiration, well done, Jo Worth
October 24th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Dear Wonderful People
I oo saw this on River Cottage last night and thought it was a wonderful idea and a novel way of getting the kids to eat some fruit!!
I think all areas should have something like this, and as the gentleman said last night most councils plant the cherry trees so that thy look nice and not produce fruit, not that there is much green space left is some urban areas for a tree to grow. If every council or community did this (or the setting up of a small holding as they have is Bristol) then more children would know what fruit looked like and tasted like rather than turning their nose up at it before they have even tried it!!!
Fantastic, much respect to you all.
Taz xxxxx
October 24th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Thanks for that Jo. I’m not directly involved in Abundance, I’ve passed your message on to Stephen though. This is a link to their site if you want more information:
http://www.growsheffield.com/pages/groShefAbund.html
It would be brilliant if you could get a similar thing going on down there. So much wasted fruit all over the country!
October 27th, 2008 at 9:53 am
We have 4 apple trees plus a pear tree and a plum tree in our garden and I never get to pick the fruit on time, and even when I do, one big bag is enough for us - if anyone wanted to come pick the rest (almost too late for this year) but for next - pls let me know - we are near Swindon