The Joy of Picking Fruit With Fruit Save

Wednesday - Saturday 11-7 Sunday 11-3

The Joy of Picking Fruit With Fruit Save

It was a summer afternoon and I was at Shawnigan Lake with some friends, just enjoying the sun and the water. The beach was full of people, we truly had a hard time finding parking. On my way back to our car, I walked beside a bush packed with blackberries. I stopped, surprised. The bush was very close to the beach and the volleyball field, full of young people and family. There must be hundreds of people that had walked in front of those blackberries, why had this bush been so ignored?

When I first started to be in charge of the Fruit Save program in June, I wasn’t totally conscient of how much uncultivated food grows in the Cowichan Valley. Where I’m from in Quebec, I can barely make tomatoes grow. I remember how proud my father and I were when we succeeded in growing three hot peppers after two years of hard labor. To see all the riches that the exceptional condition of the Cowichan Valley can give was really exciting! But to see a backyard covered with abandoned and unpicked cherries felt like a deception.

I’m proud to have been a coordinator for the FruitSave program. I’m grateful for the hard work of all the volunteers that helped to save and redistribute the food that would have been forgotten. “I have been a fruit picker with Fruitsave for many years. I had been picking my neighbors’ fruit trees as well as local berries with my little kids. I was amazed by the incredible volume of fruit that just a few trees produced. There are so many backyard trees in our valley that homeowners are not able to pick; Fruitsave helps to keep this abundance from going to waste. Fruitsave is a viable solution to food scarcity issues in the Cowichan Valley.

Picking for Fruitsave checks so many boxes for me. Fruitsave offers flexibility for me as a volunteer; I can choose which picks to attend. I am able to bring my kids to picks teaching them about where their food comes from and the importance of volunteering. I help to provide local produce for folks in the community, my own family, and friends. Additionally, as a picker, I get to meet new people and learn more about the Cowichan Valley. I am grateful to be a part of this initiative!”

Jonas Rey-Sierro is an intern from Quebec that is working at Cowichan Green Community for all summer.