Not Far From The Tree

Calling all fruit lovers and volunteers! If you want to spend some time under the fruit trees in Toronto's urban orchard this summer, this post is for you. There are many ways to get involved with our Fruit Picking Program; the most straightforward are as a Fruit Picker, Pick Leader or Tree Registrant! 🍎 FRUIT PICKING is a great way to become acquainted with the city’s urban orchard, spend time outside in lush backyards, meet new people, and enjoy fresh, locally grown fruit in your own neighbourhood. It’s pretty dreamy! 🍒 If you enjoy facilitating groups of people, or offering leadership in community, the PICK LEADER role might be up your alley. Pick Leaders receive training to choose the time and date of the pick event, bring necessary picking equipment, teach volunteerrs how to pick fruit, and deliver donations to community agencies. 🌳 If you (or someone you know!) has a fruit tree with an over abundance of fruit - becoming a TREE REGISTRANT and sharing your bounty means that we can pick even more fruit, and share it with even more Torontonians who might not have equitable access to fresh produce. To support the expenses of running as many pick events as we can every year, we invite our community to contribute annually to our project, helping us continue to share the fruits of our collective labour. The recommended shares are $40 for Tree Registrants and $10 for Fruit Pickers. We waive shares for anyone, no questions asked, and especially encourage Indigenous folks and Youth to utilize this option. 🌱 LEARN MORE & SIGN UP AT NOTFARFROMTHETREE.ORG! #NFFTT #NotFarFromTheTree #HealthyHarvest #FruitTreeCare #OrchardPeople #UrbanOrchard #TorontoUrbanGrowers #TorontoUrbanAgriculture #FruitGleaning #AssociationOfGleaningOrganizations #TorontoVolunteering #VolunteerToronto

There’s nothing like a fresh Ontario peach or a handful of Toronto mulberries, but their natural seasons are shorter than you might think! 🍑 From the first Sweet Cherries in June to the last Quince in October, here is exactly when to look for local fruit in the city. Pro-tip: Some of the best serviceberries and mulberries in the city are actually growing in our public parks! 🌳 Bookmark this post so you can plan your canning, baking, and foraging all season long! 🥧 Which fruits are you most excited to see return this summer? 👇 - #TorontoFood #EatLocalTO #OntarioProduce #TorontoForaging #GrowTO #SeedySaturday #TorontoGardens #EvergreenBrickWorks #ScaddingCourt #GrowYourOwn #UrbanAgriculture #SeedSwap #NotFarFromTheTree #TDotEvents #NFFTT #HealthyHarvest #FruitTreeCare #OrchardPeople #UrbanOrchard #TorontoUrbanGrowers #TorontoUrbanAgriculture #TorontoFruit #FruitGleaning #AssociationOfGleaningOrganizations #TorontoVolunteering #VolunteerToronto

Do you love what NFFTT does? There are so many ways to support the urban orchard this winter and most of them are super easy! 🍎 Show us some social love! Like, comment, share, and save our posts to help more fruit lovers discover Toronto’s sweetest community. 🍎 Join our email list! Sign up for our fresh news to receive monthly harvest tips, behind-the-scenes stories, and updates that will brighten even the chilliest days. We promise to keep your inbox cozy, not crowded! 🍎 Make a gift…big or small! One-time or monthly donations keep our picks going strong, support urban fruit trees, and help share thousands of pounds of fruit with neighbours. Every dollar makes a difference. 🙏 🍎 And hey…telling a friend about us, volunteering next season, or simply cheering us on all count too. Your support is felt and it helps us grow! 🌳

Not Far From The Tree is hiring! 🍎 Join our team as a Program Coordinator for the 2026 Fruit Picking Program Season! 🍐 We are seeking someone who is thrilled at the prospect of spending their summer in the urban orchard. If you have a passion for community programming, urban agriculture and building relationships with people from all walks of life, we want to hear from you. 🍒 You'll work alongside the Program Manager to nurture and grow the Fruit Picking Program during the busy harvest months by providing operational support, guiding daily decision making and season planning to ensure smooth and successful program delivery. Application Deadline: Wednesday, April 29, 2026 Start Date: May 11, 2026 🍇 Details and application process at notfarfromthetree.org - #NFFTT #NotFarFromTheTree #HealthyHarvest #FruitTreeCare #OrchardPeople #UrbanOrchard #TorontoUrbanGrowers #TorontoUrbanAgriculture #FruitGleaning #AssociationOfGleaningOrganizations #TorontoVolunteering #VolunteerToronto

A wheelie big thank you to @_janethinkle for hooking us up with this @aosom_ca bike trailer, re-tired from its past life as a pandemic lockdown cheese delivery chariot. This summer, it begins its journey of helping us deliver fresh locally picked fruit to groups in Toronto tackling food insecurity! Do you have an unused bike trailer that would like to gear up for fruit delivery? We’d love to get its wheels spinning. Get in touch!

Here in Toronto (zone 5 or 6 depending on your microclimate), spring runs from mid March to late May. We begin to see plants coming out of dormancy, changing temperatures, and increasing daylight. Here’s a quick recap of our Spring Healthy Harvest Habits blog post: ✂️ Habit #1: Pruning Pruning is one of the best things you can do for your fruit tree to optimize the quality and accessibility of its fruit each season. It encourages healthy airflow, and allows you to manage the size of your tree and the direction of its growth. 🔎 Habit #2: Monitor for & Identify ‘Pests‘ It’s time to inspect your tree for fire blight, scab, powdery mildew, scale and mites in the early Spring. By late March, when orchard plants begin to wake up and come out of dormancy, disease can begin to spread. 🚰 Habit #3: Mulching & Watering Mulch helps the soil retain moisture, keeping the fruit tree hydrated, and it also prevents weeds from growing around the tree (thus competing for resources such as nutrients and water). 🍴 Habit #4: Feeding & Fertilizing A waking tree is a hungry tree! It is recommended to apply nourishment around four times after the tree breaks out of dormancy at the different stages of growth, including bud break, flowering, after petal fall, and another time after petal fall. 🌱 Habit #5: Planting Okay, maybe this one is not a habit…but perhaps it could be! Consider planting a new fruit tree for yourself and for future generations. Check out the details on our blog, including further reading, video demonstrations, and local Toronto recommendations for Spring! - #NFFTT #NotFarFromTheTree #HealthyHarvest #FruitTreeCare #OrchardPeople #UrbanOrchard #TorontoUrbanGrowers #TorontoUrbanAgriculture #TorontoFruit #FruitGleaning #AssociationOfGleaningOrganizations #TorontoVolunteering #VolunteerToronto

EDIT: The giveaway is now CLOSED! Thank you everyone for entering. Our winners are been DM'ed! 🫐 🍄 GIVEAWAY 🍄 We’re celebrating the magic of foraging and the release of The Quiet Hunt: A Poem for Young Foragers! 🧺✨ Written by Jean E. Pendziwol (@jpendzi ) and beautifully illustrated by Risa Hugo (@risa_hugo ), this new picture book is a love letter to treasures found in the wild. To celebrate, we’ve teamed up with @groundwoodbooks to give away THREE copies! 📖 How to enter: 1️⃣ Follow @nfftt & @groundwoodbooks 🌳 2️⃣ Like this post 💚 3️⃣ Comment your favourite food to find in the wild! 🫐 The details: 📅 Giveaway ends Monday, March 9th @ 11:59 PM EST. 📍 Open to Canadian residents (18+). 📩 3 winners will be chosen at random and contacted via DM ONLY from @nfftt . ✨ GOOD LUCK! ✨ This giveaway is not sponsored, administered, or associated with Instagram. - #giveaway #foraging #kidlit #booktok #naturebooks #canadianbooks #thequiethunt #TorontoFood #EatLocalTO #OntarioProduce #TorontoForaging #GrowTO #GrowYourOwn #UrbanAgriculture #NotFarFromTheTree

We’re so excited to be part of 2 Seedy Saturdays this March! 🌷 Whether you’re a seasoned gardener planning your 2026 garden, or just starting your first herb box, come say hi, swap some seeds, and talk fruit with us! Where to find us: 📍 March 7: Evergreen Brick Works (9am–2pm) 📍 March 28: Scadding Court Community Centre (10am–2pm) - #SeedySaturday #TorontoGardens #EvergreenBrickWorks #ScaddingCourt #GrowYourOwn #UrbanAgriculture #SeedSwap #NotFarFromTheTree #TDotEvents #NFFTT #HealthyHarvest #FruitTreeCare #OrchardPeople #UrbanOrchard #TorontoUrbanGrowers #TorontoUrbanAgriculture #TorontoFruit #FruitGleaning #AssociationOfGleaningOrganizations #TorontoVolunteering #VolunteerToronto

👋 Calling all collectors! For everyone who just can’t bring yourself to get rid of those plastic clamshells, or takeout cutlery, or those yard waste bags you never use, thinking they might have a purpose…well, they do! Your ‘trash’ could be our ‘treasure’! Every season, we rely on community donations of these items to allow us to lead more picking events and share more fruit. We’d love your help sourcing the items on our running wish list (link in bio!) to cut costs for our Fruit Picking Program. Have something you want to share, but it’s not on this list? Get in touch! We might want it - or know a group who could use it. Stay tuned for Toronto-wide donation drop off days in May and June! 📌 Check the tags on this post to see other local groups we know of who are also seeking item donations! - #NFFTT #NotFarFromTheTree #HealthyHarvest #FruitTreeCare #OrchardPeople #UrbanOrchard #TorontoUrbanGrowers #TorontoUrbanAgriculture #TorontoFruit #FruitGleaning #AssociationOfGleaningOrganizations #TorontoVolunteering #VolunteerToronto

Every year, hundreds of hands reach up into the branches of urban fruit trees, gathering fruit that would fall to waste, later sharing that fruit with community. So many people make this magic happen: tree registrants, fruit pickers, pick leaders, Steering Committee members, and more. 🌟 Meet Niya, who cares deeply the joy and connection found in fruit harvests! 👋 Niya is driven by the belief that local food should be a bridge to community, not a struggle to access. She is drawn to NFFTT’s ability to turn a simple harvest into a powerful tool for physical, social, and environmental wellbeing. ✨ To Niya, the beauty of our model lies in its ripple effects: it doesn’t just put fruit on tables; it deepens social ties, facilitates a vital connection to nature, and strengthens the city’s sharing economy in a way that feels both sustainable and urgent! 🌳 Keep reading Niya's story on our blog, and why she loves sharing fruit as a means of building a more resilient community. Find the link in bio 🔗 #NFFTT #NotFarFromTheTree #HealthyHarvest #FruitTreeCare #OrchardPeople #UrbanOrchard #TorontoUrbanGrowers #TorontoUrbanAgriculture #TorontoFruit #FruitGleaning #AssociationOfGleaningOrganizations #TorontoVolunteering #VolunteerToronto

As snow blankets Toronto this weekend, here are 10 reminders that in a few months, we will once again feel sweet warmth from under fruit trees...we promise!

From all of us at Not Far From The Tree: happy new year, and welcome back to our Spotlight series! Every year, hundreds of hands reach up into the branches of urban fruit trees, gathering fruit that would fall to waste, later sharing that fruit with community. So many people make this magic happen: tree registrants, fruit pickers, pick leaders, Steering Committee members, and more. 🌟 Meet Ali! 👋 Ali is a member of the Steering Committee whose passion for community connection and technical innovation led him to Not Far From The Tree. Driven by a desire to deepen his community roots, Ali was seeking opportunities to share his expertise in governance and technology with local grassroots projects. After a chance meeting with the Steering Committee Chair at a social mixer, he was immediately captivated by the mission of “Toronto’s fruit sharing program.” 🍐 Now serving as a member of the Steering Committee, he leverages his technical background to help streamline our digital strategy and long-term oversight (shout out to his support with the new Portal)! 🌱 Keep reading Ali's story on our blog and why he loves the idea of using resources already available to develop both community engagement and a delicious harvest! Find the link in bio 🔗 #NFFTT #NotFarFromTheTree #HealthyHarvest #FruitTreeCare #OrchardPeople #UrbanOrchard #TorontoUrbanGrowers #TorontoUrbanAgriculture #TorontoFruit #FruitGleaning #AssociationOfGleaningOrganizations #TorontoVolunteering #VolunteerToronto