Picking Sep 18th 2010

On Saturday 8 of us visited 4 houses in Didsbury & Withington to harvest a mixture of cooking and eating apple trees plus a couple of pears. They included the biggest pear tree in the world, well we don’t know what the record is but this one was definitely a contender. The rain mostly held off until we were safely tucked away enjoying a post-picking coffee & cake.

The fruit was taken to our veg plot, joined by veg kindly dropped off by local allotment sites, plus our own veg from the plot. We left large mixed boxes of fruit & veg for collection by HARP mental health project and The Boaz Trust (who look after destitute refugees), plus we took a bike-trailer full of apples to Cornerstone day centre and a boot-full to the Salvation Army hostel in town. A good weekend overall! Thanks to everyone who participated.

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First picked apples of 2010!

Abundance Manchester picked lots of big and beautiful cooking apples in Chorlton last Saturday!  It turned out to be a sunny afternoon – perfect for picking.

After which, apples were delivered to Morning Star hostel for the homeless, and Cornerstone Day Centre which also provides home-cooked food to those in need.

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The first fruit harvest of 2010 – join in!

Our first fruit picking of the season will be this weekend, it’s plums plums plums! Meet on Saturday (7th Aug) at noon in West Didsbury near Cavendish road.  For the exact address email abeviz@hotmail.co.uk, (leave a phone number if it’s last minute)…  Or you can sign up to our mailing list to receive regular updates of where and when the pickings are by emailing; freefood-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. Hope to see you there on saturday!!

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An abundance of beans, beetroot and bananas!

Abundance Manchester picked a bounty of beans and beetroot on Sunday 1st August – two trailers and six panniers of donated veg from Glebelands Market Garden (Sale)!

A trailer of colourful chard, beetroot, beans, onions and courgettes were also received from Highfield Allotment (Levenshulme), and courgettes and bananas received from Glebelands and Unicorn (Chorlton).

Using our bike tr ailers, we delivered food to Cornerstone (Hulme) and the Salvation Army (city centre) which both provide meals to the homeless. Food was also directly given to destitute asylum seekers who volunteer at the Abundance Manchester plot.

It was a great way to begin August! With an array of amazing veg like this, we’re really looking forward to the fruit harvest season that will begin soon. Please get in touch if you have tree fruit you can donate, or would like to help us pick this fruit.

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Apples, pears, damsons

This Saturday we picked a great mixture of fruit, by the end of the afternoon we had trailers full of apples, pears and damsons.  Lots of new volunteers came along to help this week and several people had their first ever experience of fruit picking! Good use was made of our homemade fruit picking devices, poles with plastic bottle taped on the end. The apples were huge, the pears plentiful and the damsons sweet- a very satisfying picking session.

The fruit, along with veg from our Abundance allotment, has been donated to HARP mental health project, Safestop hostel for people with mental health needs, The Boaz Trust project for destitute asylum seekers and Cornerstone, providing meals to homeless people.  Tomorrow Abundance volunteers will also be having a cooking session with some of the apples and damsons and we will distribute the produce to The Boaz Trust.

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New way to pick fruit!

In the spirit of using what’s around us, one Abundance volunteer took to a trampoline to reach those last few apples just temptingly out of reach. This Saturday we picked apples, pears and plums from five different houses and filled 6 trailers, 2 paniers and several rucksacks full of the fruit and also veg donated from allotments and picked from our Abundance plot.  We had so much fruit and veg that we were delivering it into the night!

The fruit and veg was distributed to Cornerstone, which provides food to homeless people, Stopover hostel for homeless women, The Destitution Project supporting destitute asylum seeks, Leaf Street Harvest Festival, Critical Mass bike ride, HARP project for people with mental health needs, the Jabez Group promoting community cohesion and Safestop hostel for people with mental health needs. Thanks to all involved!

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Beautiful Beans

Beans, courgettes, apples, tomatoes, marrows, pears and even grapes- in the last couple of weeks all this and more has been donated to Abundance!  The veg donations have been particularly generous, with lots of unusually coloured veg donated from two allotment shows- check out the pink and purple beans! The fruit and veg has been distributed to The Boaz Trust project for destitute asylum seekers, Safestop hostel for young homeless women and Cornerstone, which provides meals for homeless people. Thanks for all donations!

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Abundance at Climate Camps

Workshops about Abundance Manchester and autonomous food distribution were held at both the Scottish and London Climate Camps, which raise awareness and take action on climate change and related issue.

During the workshops we looked at the problems of the current food distribution system and alternative sustainable ways of distributing food, such as through projects like Abundance.  In the London workshop we provided a practical example of the abundance of food out there by bringing along and giving out apples and pears we had picked from trees near the camp- a five minute walk from the camp we discovered two pear and four apple trees! There was an enthusiastic response about Abundance in the workshops and new groups look set to be springing up!

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New week, new harvest…

Plenty of donations & harvest from the Abundance plot and Saturday picking again this week.. This week most of our harvest was from individuals who picked their own produce.

We donated to the Salvation Army, Boaz Trust, and veg fresh from the plot went to the Safestop Hostel next door. We also gave to Reclaim the Scene who will be having a free picnic open to all at 4pm on Saturday 29th after the Pride Parade.  The picnic will be on UMIST campus off Sackville Street, see link below for more details;

http://www.reclaimthescene.com/events/

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Bountiful Harvest

A bountiful harvest this week at Abundance with boxes of apples, plums and veg a plenty!  We picked the apples on Saturday  and donations of veg came pouring in on Sunday. The fruit and veg went to The Destitution Project, run by the Boaz Trust, and Safestop, the hostel next door for people with mental health needs, as well as HARP, an organisation which improves the skills and confidence of people with mental health needs through training them to work in their community cafe. We also received a donation from Seymour Grove allotment which went straight to the Salvation Army Homeless Hostel.
Thank you to all those who donated and helped out with the picking and distributing, and we are looking forward to next weekend! Please get in touch if you want to get involved,  now is the perfect time of year!

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