PQB Fruit Tree Project

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.

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We wanted to take a moment and give a good round-up of our incredible 2024 summer season, and take the time to thank everyone who helped make this year so amazing. 

We ended the season with a total of about 2500 lbs of fruit gleaned, and another 500 pounds or 1000 units of garden produce grown and distributed through the garden itself. That’s about 5 times our 10 year average for gleaning, owing mostly to our new ability to move the produce through the Community Garden. In the past, we could only pick as much fruit as we could distribute, and a lot of our home garden produce got wasted without reliable distribution. We especially liked how other local gardeners started bringing their excess produce to be shared. 

Our Light It Up Fundraising Raffle was also a big success. We didn’t sell out of tickets, but we did manage to raise enough money to add some grow lighting and set forth on a winter gardening adventure in our brand new greenhouse. Congratulations and thanks to Robin Curry, our grand prize winner, who won the $2500 jackpot, and who gifted half that amount back to the garden. That’s so generous, thank you Robin. 

We’d like to thank the Parksville Qualicum Foundation for awarding us a grant for $14,000 as part of the Oceanside Prosperity Fund. We’ll be able to use that for operations to be able to build a sustainable business model to keep our organization vital and growing and able to continue on. 

Another highlight was the awarding of the $2000 Springford Foundation grant, with which we’ve built the Springford Family Harvest Table, that’s presently installed in the greenhouse and awaiting more workshops. 

We were super-stoked for the installation of the pubic piano, painted by local artist Kat Cuell. It was completed in mid-August and saw quite a few impromptu players before we had to put it back inside for the winter. Looking forward to more concerts and players next summer.

We’re booking our upcoming season of workshops and events. In addition to our food and gardening workshops, we hope to see a yoga class or two, a meditation class, some plain air arts meet ups, some music,  and even just community meetings and meals. Please email pqbfruit@gmail.com to book your event or class. 

Our AGM is coming up on November 27th at 7pm inside at the MAC, anyone is welcome, and we’re going to take the time to make some plans for next year’s gardening season, well-established and appreciated in our space. Look out!

Announcing the next workshop in our Farm Lab garden series. Al Chomica will be doing a deep dive into advanced soil-smithing, Thursday Oct 17th from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm at the MAC Community Garden and indoors at The MAC – McMillan Arts Centre

You’ll learn some of the tricks for building a fertile, biologically-complete soil using secret natural growing techniques and amendments. We will discuss charcoal, along with biochar, plus its little-known derivatives of torrification and bioceramics and how they work in the soil. Hand’s-on Bokashi Composting will be showcased along with a discussion on the good, the bad and the ugly of microbe identification. This is not a workshop for beginners…

Follow the Eventbrite link to buy tickets. Event goes rain or shine.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/advanced-soil-smithing-with-al-chomica-bokashi-biochar-microbes-tickets-1027114385777?aff=oddtdtcreator

Light it up – Fundraising Raffle to support our Community Garden and light up our greenhouse for the winter growing season.

Tickets are $100 each, with only 100 tickets sold. The odds are 1 in 100 of winning our grand prize of $2500. Second prize is $100. This draw is licenced by the BC Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, Gaming Event License #153856. Live draw at our Sept 21 garden event. 

Anyne in BC can buy their ticket with paypal to pqbfruit@gmail.com, or direct e-transfer to pqbfruit@gmail.com. Tickets are $100.00 each

We’re raising money to help install greenhouse lighting, and grow more food this fall and winter for our neighbours. 

The PQB Fruit Tree Project’s mission is to build community wellness by growing, gleaning, and distributing healthy, locally grown food to everyone. Our goals and results are to reduce food miles, lower carbon footprint, teach and provide healthy food and lifestyle choices, reduce waste, support local farmers, employ and enable People With Disabilities,

Thank you for supporting our local food security efforts.

Here’s a subtle reminder of how far we’ve come in 16 months

Come join us at the Grand Opening Open House event Wednesday July 31 from 5:00 – 8:00. We’re celebrating the completion of our greenhouse, and the end of the heavy construction phase of our Good Food project.

Tours and demos. Raffles. Live music. And homegrown food prepared and provided as part of the Oceanside at the Table initiative, by EcoChef Academy and the Bradley Centre. Mark it on your calendar, and watch for more details.

And there it is! Our new BC Greenhouse install, 320 square feet and over 11 feet high at the peak. So many possibilities!

Come check it out this week, and help support our work towards local food security, and building community spaces.

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Let’s face it, it’s way easier to update Facebook pages than wordpress websites, so that’s why you should follow us there if you want to be up to date with the group, the Community Garden, and our gleaning operation.

But… Here we are on June 25th, growing steady at the garden, soon to complete our much-awaited greenhouse installation, and about to start on another season of gleaning. We’ve got volunteers coming in on a regular basis but there’s always room for more, especially when it comes to fruit picking. Scroll down for our volunteer sign up sheet. Use the same form if you have trees that you would like picked.

We’re keeping the garden gates open generally from 10 am to 6 pm every day. You’re welcome to come in and browse around. There are benches and tables to relax at or enjoy your lunch.

Call Dan at 250-240-3564 if you’d like to book the space for summer classes, workshops, concerts, etc.

We’re holding a Native Bees and Pollinator-Friendly Garden Workshop, Saturday April 6th at 10 am.

Explore native bees and pollinators and their integral role in food production. Learn how to create a pollinator-friendly garden

Our group member and volunteer, Howard Abel, is offered this workshop to increase awareness of native pollinators and their integral role in food production. Creating a pollinator-friendly garden, including appropriate flowers and nesting sites, will also be discussed. Get your tickets at Eventbrite.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/846609831797?aff=oddtdtcreator

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We’re gearing up for spring, and pleased to announce our first workshop of the 2024 season, Fruit Tree Pruning with Master Gardener, Connie Kuramoto.

This hands-on workshop will take place at a mature urban orchard off Moilliet St in Parksville. We’re going to learn the when, why and how to prune your fruit trees to maximize health and production of this valuable local food source. Bring a sweater. Brought to you by PQB Fruit Tree Project, watch our website for upcoming workshops.

Click this link for Eventbrite tickets

Help us out! We’re building some signage and print materials so we need to decide. What are we going to call this project? Click to take the poll.