City Fruit | Projects: Phinney Harvest

The Phinney Sustainable Fruit Harvest is unique because it is exploring ways to make neighborhood harvesting sustainable. In addition to harvesting and donating fruit, the project is developing a model through which neighborhood harvests can meet their own operating costs from year to year.

The project has four elements:

Mapping Phinney-Greenwood fruit trees.

Supporting owners with workshops on tree care, classes on preserving fruit and mechanisms for fruit sharing.

Harvesting and donating extra fruit.

Exploring markets for fruit and fruit product sales.

The Phinney Sustainable Fruit Harvest project is funded by the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. The Phinney Neighborhood Association is the fiscal sponsor.

Since beginning in July 2009, the Project has recruited 35 volunteers to harvest 4800 lbs of pears, plums, Asian pears, apples, and grapes from 50 homes in Phinney-Greenwood. The fruit was donated to food banks, senior housing and daycare centers.

Two canning classes taught community members how to prolong the bounty of the summer. In one class participants canned pears from the neighborhood, and in the second they learned to make jam from Italian plums harvested nearby. 25 people attended the two classes.

Coming in January: Free fruit tree pruning classes will be offered to Phinney residents who are willing to help prune neighborhood fruit trees to make them healthier.

To get involved:

Map your fruit tree with our new Fruit Tree Mapping Tool.

To donate fruit from your tree, purchase fruit, sign up for a class or learn more about the project, contact City Fruit.

Projects

Overview
Phinney Sustainable Fruit Harvest
Urban Fruit Tree Mapping
Workshops & Classes
Fruit Trees & City Parks

Special Thanks

A big thank you to the Phinney Neighborhood Association and Greenwood True Value Hardware for their generous support.