Goodgymmers Celine and Yoseph joined Abundance volunteers Charles, Eva, Evie, Jonathan, Maeve and Pete to pick cooking apples from a beautiful apple tree which produced huuuge apples!

it was the perfect opportunity to fer in touch with out inner monkey and climb a tree on a beautiful autumn day.

Together we recovered 80.2kg 1sts, 27.5kg 2nds, and 10kg 3rds.🍎

There was an Abundance of volunteers this Wednesday lunchtime to harvest apples with Friends of Whirlowbrook Park, and thank goodness, because what a crop!

We met Nicola and other "friends of" at the entrance to the park and were led to the recently unearthed orchard, where there were 5 or so apple trees that had been hidden and not harvested for an estimated 30 years, plus lots of newly planted baby fruit trees.

Celine kicked things off with a wassail, blessing the trees with a verse, some apple cider vinegar and toast(!)

We then set to the usual work of clearing windfalls, getting in with telescopic pickers and then the fun of shaking the trees and catching fruit with a big tarpaulin. Yoseph was our intrepid tree-climber today, taking on the branch shaking from the top.

The bumper crop was quality control sorted into firsts, seconds and thirds. Most of the thirds were left for nature and, after we took as many as we wanted, the firsts and seconds will be distributed to good causes.

It is the fruity season! after picking 200 kilos of Worcester Pearmain apples with the lovely folks at Abundance on Sunday, we joined forces with Abundance again and moved on to a pear tree which was cropping one month earlier than usual!

We first picked the windfalls before grabbing the pickers to collect the fruit higher up the tree, a "fruitstrating" task as the pears were eluding our efforts.

But resistance is "fruitile" and we managed to save a total of 12kg, with a crate of the best being donated to Broomhall community centre who host a community meal every Wednesday.

A "pearfect" way to use the produce!

Rachel, Annie and I joined 11 members of the Abundance project to help harvest 4 apple trees from a public orchard near the Millennium gallery so that they can be distributed to good causes and saved from waste.

We picked apples and separated the best (“first”) which are given to local community group from the virtually good (“second”) which are virtually perfect and third which are not donated but saved by some volunteers for cooking. Volunteers also get to take seconds home!

It was a superb turnout of volunteers on a gorgeous day. Many hands make light work and together we picked 151kg of first, 43kg of seconds and 13kg of 3rd - over 200kg in under 2 hours is an incredible harvest!

Celine and I joined members of the Abundance project to help harvest 4 apple trees from a public orchard near the Millennium gallery so that they can be distributed to good causes and saved from waste.

Great turnout of volunteers despite the earlier downpour. There were lots of ripe, tasty and unblemished fruit still in the trees, so we could afford to be a bit picky about leaving the more damaged ones and we still had a bountiful harvest!

The abundance of mistletoe in every tree confounded me as I've never seen it so prolific and up close. I've since been told that it will have been put there deliberately so it can be harvested for Christmas events and is known to thrive particularly well in Apple trees. Couldn't resist the photo op 😘

One goodgymer volunteered with our good friends in Abundance to pick apples that would otherwise go to waste.

We picked apples and separated the best (“first”) which are given to local community group from the virtually good (“second”) which are used for processing (chutneys etc) from the “third” which are given to local pigs. We saved 20kg of first and 20kg of seconds!