Do you have fruit trees or berry bushes on your property that produce more than you can pick or eat? Would you like to donate part of the harvest to the community?

Community Harvest Gleaners are here to help you get your fruit off your trees.

Signing up your tree and/or berry bushes for Community Harvest has many benefits:

• It increases food availability for the community and reduces waste

• It supports economic resilience in the valley by creating jobs for gleaners

How does it work?

Sign up your fruit tree and/or berry bushes using the form on this page or email bcvsas.harvest@gmail.com. The Community Harvest Coordinator will alert our gleaners who will contact you to set up a time for a site visit and/or a pick when your fruit is ripe.

The Bella Coola Foodshed Alliance takes a portion of the fruit and distributes it to community programs such as the Nushliixwta Good Food Box, the Food Bank and local schools. We may also sell some of the fruit at the Farmers’ Market. In 2023, we used excess fruit after community program donations to make an exclusive brand of cider using local fruit. Check out our Great Bear Cider page for more information. All proceeds from fruit and cider sales are used to support Community Harvest.

Most fruit tree are eligible, as well as some types of berries: sweet cherries, apples (any type), plums, pears, blackberries, raspberries, currants, blueberries etc.

Note:

• We pick ripe fruit at no charge. We can pick unripe pears and plums because they will ripen after being picked.

• We currently receive the majority of our funding for food security programming and, as such, are unable to pick unripe fruit for free and must charge $30/hr for this service for the time being.

• We highly recommend using electric fencing to protect your fruit trees from hungry bears and to ensure the fruit ripens fully.

• We have a very limited supply of electric fencing that we can loan for free on a first come, first served basis so your fruit can fully ripen. Let us know if you are interested.

• We cannot safely pick fruit above 15 feet.

• We do not pick certain fruits, such as tiny plums with a large pit or very tall sour cherry trees.

• Tree owners are responsible for disposing of unusable/waste fruit. Our gleaners will not remove waste fruit unless a livestock farmer has made a request.

• Here are some great resources on e-fencing and fruit tree care.

Thank you for supporting food security and local food systems!!

If the form doesn’t show up, use this link to fill in the form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdICIygczkork3RqplCeNTHtf4SBgjZXvWolBbnQhvuhUIHJw/viewform?