PQB Fruit Tree Project is a Parksville / Qualicum non-profit organization committed to identifying and making use of our local food sources, including fruit trees and gardens, and distributing them to our local community. The Art Farm at the MAC, a 4000 square foot public garden, is our biggest current and ongoing project. Visit our Community Pantry at 138 Moillet St, and also our Facebook page for regular updates
Garden Update June 3, 2025
Just to keep you up to date on the Community Garden as of June 3, 2025.
We’re picking food and giving away food every day, mostly lettuce, kale, chard, green onions and herbs. The peas are in flower. Lots of bees in the raspberries. Tomatoes and squash are still in the greenhouse, thanks to a cool and damp spring. Our permaculture food forest is establishing itself nicely. Other fruit trees are also getting used to their new homes after we planted them early this spring.
The garden piano has been moved outside for the season, and we’re gearing up for a Strawberry Social and Piano Party on June 10th, from 11 am – 1 pm.
Enjoy this gallery of photos, which should take the place of 1000s of words. Better yet, come for a visit, we’re at 133 McMillan St. in Parksville, BC.
Thank you Parksville Rotary
We received a great show of support and a welcome cash infusion from Parksville Rotary this weekend. This $5000 grant will help us grow and distribute more fresh, healthy food directly from our downtown Parksville location. We’re already crushing last year’s totals and we’ve barely begun the growing season.
Did you know that Parksville’s Rotary Club mobilizes 30 volunteers per week, and processes about 25,000 recyclable bottles and cans. That’s amazing!
Chek News reports on the MAC Community Garden
Spring Update – April 9, 2025
We’ve been super-busy planting seeds, building soil and running workshops all spring, it can be tough to remember to update the website too.
2025 promises to be a big year at the MAC Community Garden though, especially now that we’ve got our infrastructure solidly in place and can simply grow food and community, instead of running a construction site as well. Here are some photos taken at the garden today, to show where we’re at, and what you can expect when you come to pay a visit in person.
Spring Fundraising Raffle
ticket sales are closed, thank you for your support
Announcing our Spring Fundraising Raffle! The Grand Prize draw will take place May 3rd at 1:00 pm at the Mac Community Garden, with a prize of a freezer full of beef (1/4 beef from Berryman Farms) or the cash equivalent of $2300.
Tickets are $50 each and we’re only printing 400 of them, so odds are pretty excellent. Buy here through PayPal
You can also etransfer $50 to pqbfruit@gmail.com for your ticket.
Please call 250-240-3564 if you have any problems navigating any of these payment options.
We’re raising money to help increase our impact on local food security, by doubling the amount of seedlings on offer to our neighbours from 2000 last year to 4000 this year. We want to double the amount of gleaned fruit from 2500 lbs to 5000 lbs. And we want to double the amount of grown produce from 1000 units to 2000 units. Help support our efforts for local food security and third spaces today.
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Get news on upcoming workshops and events, and other pertinent food security and local gardening news and issues.
More Workshop Announcements
We’re adding more workshops to our spring schedule all the time, including the exciting “Food Forest Planning” session on Feb 28th with Farmer Brown, and a Food Literacy class at the Bradley Centre, w/ Monica Bradbury. Our mission is to create food literacy and food security education opportunities in the region, so we can all be better versed in growing, preserving and producing our own local foods. Keep an eye on our spaces.
Winter Fruit Tree Pruning Workshops – Feb 7 and 8th w/ Connie Kuramoto
Come join us at Arrowsmith Lodge Heritage Orchard for a hands-on workshop on fruit tree pruning! Learn the best techniques for keeping your fruit trees healthy and thriving. Master Gardener, Connie Kuramoto, will guide you through the process step by step. Whether you’re a beginner or have some experience, this workshop is perfect for anyone looking to improve their pruning skills. Join us at the impressive Arrowsmith Lodget Heritage Orchard, and don’t miss out on this opportunity to enhance your gardening knowledge and meet other fruit tree enthusiasts. See you there!
Visit our Eventbrite page to reserve your spot
Biochar Workshop Jan 2, 2025 11:00 – 2:00 w/ Al Chomica
Join us for the first in our Farm Lab food security workshop series.
Although ancient civilizations in the Amazon Basin used Biochar on a regular basis for thousands of years to make Terra Preta, it was lost to modern agriculture until recently when deposits of this man-made soil were re-discovered and shared on the internet. The pace of research efforts on the production, characterisation and industrial application of biochar and related amendments has significantly increased since its inception over the last decade.
Come and learn about the mystery of Biochar, what it can do for you and how to make and use it to promote healthy, dark soils…
PQB Fruit Tree Project AGM 2024
Wedneday Nov 27th, 7 pm, indoors at the MAC.
We’re looking forward to our AGM this year, and you’re invited. We’ll have progress reports, financial reports and board elections, but most exciting will be the strategic planning for 2025 and beyond. We developed a ton of goodwill, momentum, and capacity to grow, gather and distribute fresh food to our neighbours, so it will be exciting to talk about where to go from here with all this momentum. Opportunities to get involved and get creative with our local food systems will be available.
