Fruit Share

Here is the Fruit Share seed project page! Explore the idea below!

This is a project idea, not currently active.

What is the project?

The idea for the Fruit Share project came out of the Fruit Harvest Project, which wound down in 2014. The Fruit Harvest scheme became less effective, when supply began to exceed demand for fruit and redistribution became too large an undertaking. However, there is definitely room for a small scale fruit collection project, rather than a city-wide one. Transitioners behind the plan think a Community Hub is the best way to prevent excess fruit from going to waste and this is how the Fruit Share seed project was born!

More Information

Transitioners behind the idea envision a two-headed scheme, but feel free to change and nurture the idea however you see fit, if you want to take it on for yourself.

The first head is an array of local community hubs for fruit. When a fruit tree owner has a fruit glut, they can advertise to members of the hub, who can then come and pick the fruit for themselves. We hope that the fruit being nearby (in walking distance) will encourage people to go out and harvest. Kids will also find it great fun, (from past experience)! For this to happen an individual or team in each small community would have to organise a central place (a mailing list, facebook group or even notice board), on which the gluts could be advertised. They would also have to promote this to ensure enough people signed up, so that there was plenty of fruit to choose from and plenty of pickers to pick it!

The second part of the project is a city-wide database of fruit harvest events. There is already a fruit map detailing the places in Cambridge for people to forage, but this online hub would be for events. We've collected a few examples below;

CropShare's Paul and Doreen have a field full of apple trees, which they invite people to harvest when they're ready
Apple Press events in Cambridge

These events are not limited to apples (but there are a lot of apples!). The city-wide fruit hub could also be a place to share recipes for cakes, crumbles, preserves and anything else fruit-based. Fermenting tips can also find a place here. The sky is the limit!