It is the fruity season! after picking 200 kilos of Worcester Pearmain apples with the lovely folks at Abundance on Sunday, we joined forces with Abundance again and moved on to a pear tree which was cropping one month earlier than usual!

We first picked the windfalls before grabbing the pickers to collect the fruit higher up the tree, a "fruitstrating" task as the pears were eluding our efforts.

But resistance is "fruitile" and we managed to save a total of 12kg, with a crate of the best being donated to Broomhall community centre who host a community meal every Wednesday.

A "pearfect" way to use the produce!

Rachel, Annie and I joined 11 members of the Abundance project to help harvest 4 apple trees from a public orchard near the Millennium gallery so that they can be distributed to good causes and saved from waste.

We picked apples and separated the best (“first”) which are given to local community group from the virtually good (“second”) which are virtually perfect and third which are not donated but saved by some volunteers for cooking. Volunteers also get to take seconds home!

It was a superb turnout of volunteers on a gorgeous day. Many hands make light work and together we picked 151kg of first, 43kg of seconds and 13kg of 3rd - over 200kg in under 2 hours is an incredible harvest!

Celine and I joined members of the Abundance project to help harvest 4 apple trees from a public orchard near the Millennium gallery so that they can be distributed to good causes and saved from waste.

Great turnout of volunteers despite the earlier downpour. There were lots of ripe, tasty and unblemished fruit still in the trees, so we could afford to be a bit picky about leaving the more damaged ones and we still had a bountiful harvest!

The abundance of mistletoe in every tree confounded me as I've never seen it so prolific and up close. I've since been told that it will have been put there deliberately so it can be harvested for Christmas events and is known to thrive particularly well in Apple trees. Couldn't resist the photo op 😘

One goodgymer volunteered with our good friends in Abundance to pick apples that would otherwise go to waste.

We picked apples and separated the best (“first”) which are given to local community group from the virtually good (“second”) which are used for processing (chutneys etc) from the “third” which are given to local pigs. We saved 20kg of first and 20kg of seconds!

Rachel and Yvette both got on their bikes to join the Abundance project on an unseasonal sunny afternoon in Sheffield. 🌞

We were admitted to the largest, most beautifully manicured private garden I've ever seen to help harvest an apple tree. Unfortunately virtually all had fallen since it was initially visited last week, so they were mostly a little bruised or damaged on the ground. The insects were loving it, some beautiful butterflies in particular! 🦋

We sorted the still edible from the past it. The inedible were taken to the compost heap and the usable will be distributed to food waste charities to be cooked up into pies and crumbles. Before we left, we weighed our haul with the snazzy new scale and chatted about hopefully setting up a Monday night group run. In total we got about 32kg of seconds to go to good causes! 🍏⚖️🍎

After welcoming new GG runners Hayley and Kate - please give them a cheer :) on this very moist evening in Sheffield 22 hard core GG runners pipped it 1.4 miles from the Showroom to meet Lucy from Abundance to pick apples from one resident's apple trees. Fighting food waste, many cooking and eating apples were collected, picked and sorted into firsts and seconds to be shared by Abundance with the local community. Wet, Wet Wet rewrite: "I feel it in my fingers... I feel it in my toes... Rain is all around us, and so the coldness grows" The GG good apple team pressed on back at a speedy pace to get dry and warm back at the Showroom. Thanks everyone :)