[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_custom_heading text="Happy Harvest Co-op" font_container="tag:h2|font_size:40|text_align:left" google_fonts="font_family:Abril%20Fatface%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal"][vc_column_text]

April 2016 | Julie Hargreaves

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator color="black" align="align_center" style="dotted" border_width="2"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text]

Throughout history, in villages around the world, people have come together at harvest time to pick and process fruit, co-operatively.

The Meander Valley Harvest Co-op connects people who have backyard trees with abundant fruit with people who want to help pick them.

They work together to reduce wasted food, sharing the good fruit, turning the second grades into something useful, and having fun or learning new skills in the process.

This new social enterprise, is under the auspice of Deloraine House,.

The first harvest event took place in Westbury on the 16th March where some 70kg of fruit was harvested from just 3 trees! With the assistance of 7 volunteers and equipment from the MV Harvest Co-op – it took just 2 hours to pick and sort all of the fruit that was reachable and ripe.

In the coming weeks the group will be organising other harvests as well as workshops on ‘Preserves’ to turn excess and second grade fruit into something useful.

The general principle of the social enterprise is to share the labour and share the bounty.

If you want to know more about the project, or want to get involved, contact Julie Hargreaves (email fsseproject@hotmail.com, 0409 936907) or visit Deloraine House.

You can register your interest as a volunteer picker or, if you have abundant fruit trees, to pick/share their produce.