My First Harvest Season with PFTP
2021 Harvest Season
We had a very rewarding and abundant harvest season this year!
Between bike harvests, orchard work parties, and backyard harvests, there was a wide variety and a large amount of fruit picked, distributed, and enjoyed by many Oregonians. When I started with the organization at the end of July we were just getting into harvesting Bartlett pears and early plums. At the first harvest I attended, I could tell right away that there was such a good committed group of volunteers, and they were people from all different walks of life. It’s obvious that people love the organization, and they love to save fruit that would otherwise be wasted.
We had the opportunity twice this season to have harvests out in the Gorge area at an idyllic blueberry farm. After those harvests, the blueberries were driven right to Mudbone Grown farm just down the road, where they were included in their weekly CSA. Later in the summer, we moved into harvesting apples, European pears, and Italian plums, which I think were my favorite. During every harvest, PFTP projects are talked about, and recipes are shared. I love to see friendships form among other volunteers and also between homeowners and volunteers. During one harvest this season, one of our skillful volunteers and pruning workshop participants gave on the spot pruning lessons to an eager-to-learn homeowner.
This fall we’ve done a number of harvests in the rain picking figs, Asian pears, and then finally persimmons. We’ve held harvests all over the Portland Metro area this season. From Vancouver to Hillsboro, and Sauvie Island to Corbett, we’ve worked with homeowners, community groups, first-time volunteers, and seasoned volunteers. At one of the last harvests this season, a mother was there with her son, who was around 3, and they also brought his grandmother, who was visiting from the Midwest. It was great to see all three generations of the family working together, in the rain, to harvest as many persimmons as we could get from a huge tree in NE Portland. We started a partnership this year with an Asian Food Pantry that distributed the persimmons we picked. Just knowing that that fruit we picked went to groups of people that culturally appreciate it means so much more to us.
The organizations that we partnered with to distribute the fruit include Mudbone Grown, Native Wellness Institute, Black Mental Health, Familias en Accion, the Hollywood Senior Center, and Davis Elementary. If it weren’t for these amazing groups, our work wouldn’t matter. We are a small part of the food justice work that is going on in Portland, and I am extremely proud and humbled to be a part of it.
- Tara