First of the fall fruits

Apples on the porch at 1015 Taylor. I think they're Golden Delicious. They are great dried and make good applesauce.

There's about 10-12 pounds there. Please bring your own bag and take an appropriate amount for your family's needs.

Bounty out there

Blackberries in town. If you've picked before, you know where to look. If not, well, then you need to ask someone in the fruit exchange!

But seriously, I've been picking a lot and seeing some new fruits coming in around town. Does anyone have a fig tree? Are they near ripe? Apples coming along?

In September, let's have another party where we exchange jam and fruit -- I'll figure out a date and location and maybe make this one a kid-friendly one. If you haven't made jam yet, then it's time to try, while the berries are hanging heavy for the getting.

Even if you don't have fruit, you can participate. If you know a neighbor with fruit, if you glean from somewhere, if you just want to offer your services in ways that might help someone else -- sign up and say so! If this exchange is going to work, people have to be willing to open their trees up to pickers like me or you and then folks have to be willing to do a front-porch pick up. So far it's been slow, but I think the plan is sound. As always, I'm open to suggestions.

Berkeley plums and Alameda lemons

On my porch for pickup -- BYOB* as usual. 1015 Taylor. If you have something extra to leave, then add it to the pile on the table.

*Bag, of course.

Christ Church Plums

On my front porch today -- bring your own bag.
And just a warning -- there aren't many, but if folks with fruit would like to bring their extra too, well, then there would be enough.


Any extra goes to the Food Pantry.

In the news

A big thank you to Lauren Do for her piece on the SFgate blog area.

So, I had no fruit appear on my porch and no calls or emails about any fruit this past weekend, so I'm upping the ante. I will come and pick fruit if you contact me. Then we can share it!

As always, let us know if you have extra.

If MY plums are ripe. . .

Then there are more out there.

What do you think, folks? Is it time to institute the active part of the exchange again? Does anyone have loquats? I know I'm seeing them around town.

So, let's see -- please bring any fruit you have extra to my porch, 1015 Taylor, and I'll post an update Monday night. If there is fruit, Tuesday all day is the pickup.

Let's get the system running before a plum glut overcomes us all.

Citrus Slowdown

Hey, everyone. The flow of citrus seems to have slowed down in the past few weeks -- trees are certainly looking less exuberant, and no one has said they have a lot they need to offload, at least not to me.

Jasmine (jasmine AT jasminebazaar DOT com)may have some Meyer lemons still -- please email directly to her for pick-up.

Remember, if you have fruit and want someone to come and pick, put a comment out on the blog and odds are good that someone out there wants 'em. And you can leave bags of fruit at my house, 1015 Taylor, if you want to offload your already-picked fruit.

Soon it will be summer fruit season. Let's have one more get-together before the citrus is really all done. Late May, maybe?

Happy Earth Week

There are some really exciting things happening during Earth Week here in Alameda. Last Sunday, churches had green expos where members shared opportunities for green actions, and schools have been celebrating all week.

Wood Middle School is having a sale of garden plants -- just in time to make your backyard garden a lush and productive place!


Here's the Official Word: Wood Middle School is having it's first annual Heirloom Plant Sale and
Flea Market! Saturday, April 25th from 10 am to 4 pm.
All of our plants are organically grown, and available
to transplant into your garden, or into a basket at our potting
table. We also have seeds available for sale. Come celebrate Earth
Week by recycling your old goods, and finding new goodies at the Flea
market, enjoying a snack or beverage, and picking up some really great
plant selections for your garden or patio. There are still a few
stalls available at the Flea market, if you decide last minute you
want to sell, just contact Gwendy Conner at gconner@landwestinc.com
and let her know if you'd like a stall or have food or goods to
donate. We are taking donations between 4-7pm Friday for the PTA
booth, as well as non-perishable food and baked good donations.
Perishable food may also be dropped off Saturday morning. To view
the plant and seed selection, please go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasminebazaar/AvailablePlantsForSale2009?...
If you can't make it to the sale, but would like some plants, please
contact Jasmine Tokuda at Jasmine_pta@jasminebazaar.com,;you can order
directly from her if you can't make it to the sale. Post event plant
sales end on May 15th. We hope to see you there!


Saturday, from 10-3, at Washington Park, is the City's official Earth Day event. Lauren Do has a wonderful, hour-by-hour listing of events for the day -- truly something for everyone. I'm speaking at a symposium on Growing Food Locally at 11:30. Come and do "the Wave" when I mention the fruit exchange!

Nothing on my porch

Hmmmmm.

There's not a bit of fruit there. I know it's an unusually hot day, but there isn't anything to come for, so don't bother stopping by tomorrow.

We'll work this out, eventually.

So, how does this work?

Good question. I'm not 100% certain of how this works, and was hoping I'd just figure it out on the fly. On the other hand, I don't feel like I'm doing all that well!

I'd like to propose a drop-off day. That day would be followed by a pick-up day (of course). I'd post or email a list of what's available, and then folks could come and get. It would be BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag).

If you want someone to come and pick at your house, then please email or post a comment saying so on the blog. I can't be liable for that, but there are plenty of people who offered picking services who don't have fruit of their own.

As far as equitable sharing of the bounty, let's leave it now as if you bring or do, you get. Take as much as you need - any excess will be taken to the Alameda Food Bank Tuesday pick up place. They've let me know they can absorb any produce we can't.

So, it's official:

Fruit Drop Off -- Sundays (and early Mondays) at 1015 Taylor Ave., Alameda. If I'm not home, please just set it on the porch. This will also prompt me to sweep the porch weekly!
Fruit Pick Up -- Mondays, same location.

If someone on a different part of the island wants to set up an alternate day, feel free. Just let us know about it. And we'll still have quarterly get-togethers too, of course!

We are so cutting edge

Really, everyone is doing this. All over.

Now we just need to do it more.

It's all in the sidebar

Based on some discussion, my helpful web guru (thanks, Sven) set up a feature where recent comments show up on the side of the blog. If you want to offer fruit, and you're comfortable doing it on a blog, leave a comment!

I also just added a list of available fruit -- if you want some, let me know. If you have some, let me know. If you have something to add to the list, please, again, let me know.

If you'd like me to email the whole group in your name, so it's slightly more private.

I know there's more fruit to share out there!

Whole Lotta Lemons Going On

We had tables heaped with citrus -- more lemons of more varieties than was perhaps expected -- and seeds, and tree dahlias, and sorrel, and lots of cooks in the kitchen. Marmalade which may or may not set (next time we'll investigate the use of commercial pectin, perhaps), lots of good talk about fruit and abundance and making preserves, and it was a lovely time.

I'm thinking that we'll go for quarterly get-togethers, loosely tied to the solstices and equinoxes, and focus on ways to share fruit in less formal ways in between. We've talked about using a house as a drop-off point, or putting out a "hey, go to this address and pick up some fruit in bags sitting outside" announcement.

Thank you to everyone who participated. And for those who couldn't, here's what it looked like:


Sorrel, fresh for soup, from Jim.

Sorrel seeds, for soup for a crowd!


Seeds for someone else to try.


No one here but us lemons. . .


Seeds, tree dahlias, sorrel, sorrel seeds.


Tasty navel oranges.


Pomelos to taste and share.


Meyer lemons and a bag of fresh rosemary.


Hey, look -- more Meyer lemons!


Bags of fruit to share.


Having the right equipment should help.


Many hands -- I think this might have been Nancy and Christine's hands, or maybe Lisa's -- do make light work.

Citrus everywhere

Peeking out from houses and yards all over town, jewel-toned fruit hang like juicy baubles. In one six-block walk, I spied at least twenty laden trees and spoke to a handful of people. One lovely woman offered as many Meyer lemons as could be had, and said that she might like a few oranges in exchange. She can't do the picking, but she'd like to take part. When pressed, she allowed as how a jar of marmalade wouldn't go too far amiss.

Citrus exchange -- bring your fruit and some bags to take fruit home in -- March 7th, Christ Church parish hall, 1-4 pm. Marmalade/candied peel workshop, same place, same time. There is a modest fee for the use of the hall.


If you want to cook, please let me know by email. There is limited space in the kitchen, and I need to have some idea how much sugar and how many jars are likely to be needed. There will be a "pay for what you use" policy for those. If you have a favorite sharp knife, bring it.

Some press

Today's Alameda Sun ran a nice piece about the Exchange.

I hope lots of people think "Hey, that's just what we need!" when they look outside and see their orange tree just covered.

I'm thinking that instead of a citrus and seed exchange only, making it a marmalade/candied peel workshop too would be a good, timely idea. There's an available kitchen, so if that's something you'd like to do, would you let me know via email? If I have 10 folks or so, then it seems like a good idea and I'll secure the kitchen.

Upcoming Event!

Share citrus and garden seeds with other folks on the 7th of March. Location to come, time probably about 1pm-3pm.

Watch this space for news on where to get at least extra broccoli raab seeds. If I never ever plant it again, it will be just about right!

And thanks to Laren Do for a shout out at her blog, and a wink for her punny post title.

Generating buzz, I hope

I'm sending the press release out to local papers today. Let's hope it starts something big on our small island.

Everywhere I go, trees are dripping with fruit. There have to be mouths out there to share the bounty with.