Operation Fruit Rescue Edmonton (OFRE) Blog
Helping connect Edmonton fruit growers with fruit pickersOFRE Wrap-up Party and Feast!
If you volunteered with us this year, or shared your fruit with us, please join us for an OFRE wrap-up party!
WHAT: Potluck and Party
WHEN: Tuesday, November 10, 6:30 – 8:30
WHERE: Strathcona Library, 8331 104 St NW (in the Program Room upstairs)
WHY: To celebrate our harvest together, socialize, and discuss plans for next year
Bring some food to share, especially any particularly boastful creations from the bounty of fruit we picked 
There will be a swap if you want to trade some of the preserves you made for something different.
There is also some extra stuff that people have processed that they are willing to share but would like to get a masonry jar in return so that they can make more next year. So bring your empties!
Also, please bring your own tableware so that we do not have to use paper plates or plastic cutlery.
This event is open to all OFRE volunteers as well as the owners who shared their fruit with us. Pass it on.
See you there!
News: “Pressure-canning revival takes pressure off environment”, Edmonton Journal, Sep 21, 2009
Click here to read about Kathy Pratt and the 100K Kitchen Party in Drayton Valley. She has been making pressure-canned goods for years and is now teaching others as well as selling some of them at local farmers markets under the 100K Kitchen Party logo which she hopes will become a cooperative in the future. Here is a link to more information about the provincial funding award they won on Sep 21, as well as a link to their new website.
News: “Canning gets its sexy back”, Edmonton Journal, Sep 19, 2009
excerpt: “Whether it’s a creative outlet or a cost-cutting measure, putting up preserves has gone from old-fashioned to fashionable.”
Click here to read the full article.
North-east picking on Sunday, Sept 27
Hello everybody -
Hank is unavailable for picking for the next couple weeks, so with his
help I’ve arranged an OFRE picking in the north-east this weekend.
Please come and help us out! Here are the details:
We’ll be meeting at 13747 104 St at 11:30am to pick apples – there are
six apple trees in total, at least two with good apples still on them.
The owner may or may not remember to leave out his ladder for us. He
doesn’t want any of the apples, so they’re all for us and the food
bank.
There are 2 other homes in the area, one with nice eating apples (I’m
not sure of the details for the other) – depending on how things go,
we will probably move on to at least one other location. We welcome
latecomers – but please call me on my cell phone (780-984-8693) in
case we’ve gone to another house by the time you arrive. 
Please get in touch with Megan by e-mail at: (megan.is.silly@gmail.com) or by phone at the number mentioned above, if you think you might come, especially if you can bring a ladder!
Thanks!
Megan
Sunday Sept 27 pick in North-East
Hello everybody -
Hank is unavailable for picking for the next couple weeks, so with his
help I’ve arranged an OFRE picking in the north-east this weekend.
Please come and help us out! Here are the details:
We’ll be meeting at 13747 104 St at 11:30am to pick apples – there are
six apple trees in total, at least two with good apples still on them.
The owner may or may not remember to leave out his ladder for us. He
doesn’t want any of the apples, so they’re all for us and the food
bank.
There are 2 other homes in the area, one with nice eating apples (I’m
not sure of the details for the other) – depending on how things go,
we will probably move on to at least one other location. We welcome
latecomers – but please call me on my cell phone (780-984-8693) in
case we’ve gone to another house by the time you arrive.
Please get in touch if you think you might come, especially if you can
bring a ladder!
Thanks!
Megan
West End Picking Sept 26
“Apologize for the short notice but if anyone can make it, I’d like to
have a picking this Saturday, Sept. 26 from10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
There are large cooking apples, large eating apples, PEARS (!), plums,
crab apples, and possibly some cherries to pick. We are in dire need
of TALL ladders, so if you can arrange to bring one, that would be
fantastic!
Besides ladders, other items to think about bringing: plastic shopping
bags, paper shopping bags, cardboard boxes, buckets AND if anyone has
one of those spring loaded weigh scale (used to weigh trophy fish, for
example) that would be great too.
Please RSVP as soon as you are able by emailing or calling me for the
meetup location.
Thanks.
Lynn
780-433-2217
waterskater@gmail.com
Central picking Friday Sept 25
We will be doing a picking this Friday Sept 25 in the Central area south of the river.
Should be apples, crabs and pears.
We will meet at 9722 87 Ave at 5:30.
Please let me know if you can bring a step ladder.
Bring bags and boxes for the fruit.
Stay tuned for other pickings coming up in the west end and central/east on the north side of the river.
Jess
Preserving Party
Thanks to everyone who came out to help make sauce, juice, dried fruit, jam, pie filling, cider, etc… on Sunday at Pleasantview Community League. And thanks to Linnie for being our Shepherdess.
We had a great time and produced some lovely jars full of goodness. I will try to get some pictures posted soon.
There will be a few more pickings coming up around the city and then we will do one last processing the weekend of October 3rd, and then a wrap up party later in October. More details to come.
Volunteers needed
Lots of happy pickers this past Sunday, but not enough….
We are particularly short of volunteers in the east, north and west.
Please spread the word to your friends. We just didn’t have the manpower to pick all we has hoped on Sunday.
That said, I delivered 7 boxes of apples to the Food Bank this morning. Yeah Team!
I have been inundated with emails and phone calls since all the media coverage. If it takes a while for us to get back to you either as a fruit offerer or a volunteer please be patient. We likely won’t be able to pick everybody’s fruit this year, but we’ll keep you on the list for next year.
Thanks,
Jess
