Les Fruits defendus, the Roulant’s urban fruit harvesting collective, is back for its 6th season!
About the collective
If you didn’t already know, we are an all volunteer-led collective and have been part of Santropol Roulant since 2011. The collective is guided by a group of core members who meet weekly to make decisions and create space for young, engaged volunteers to take leadership in their communities.
We’ve been hard at work since the end of last season preparing for this summer. Last year was a record year with a total harvest of over 5600 lbs, from 17 neighbourhoods of Montreal and involving over 100 volunteers. We can’t wait for the new harvest season to start and we hope to see many new people this year.
New this year
To help plan the new season, we sent out a survey to all our collective members: volunteer harvesters, tree owners and pick leaders, to ask them for their thoughts at the end of last season. Although we had a record year, many trees were overlooked due to a lack of available pick leaders. Through this survey we were able to find ways to make the pick leader role simpler and address the biggest issues brought up by our members. With your input, we came up with ways that will allow for greater involvement of volunteers, increase the number of picks and stay true to our mission. Further details of the ideas can be found here.
In addition to the harvest coordination, we also had a look at our equipment hubs and decided that we can definitely use more. With a generous donation of a bicycle trailer by Mr Conrad Bouchard, this past winter, we are currently looking for community partners who can store harvest equipment and play a key part in facilitating fruit harvests in: Rosemont, La Petite Patrie, Parc-Extension, Plateau-est or Villeray. With your help, we would like to increase our reach into these key communities while at the same time encouraging more community involvement. If you would like more information about becoming a partner, please contact us at info@lesfruitsdefendus.org.
Stay in touch
We are still in the planning stages of these new and exciting opportunities to join the collective and we hope to announce our new plans very soon. And as always, we invite anyone to join us, whether you’ve only heard of us today, or are a long-time harvester, this collective is for everyone, no experience is required!
Stay tuned for more announcements from Les Fruits defendus about how you can get involved for the 2016 fruit season.
Follow us on Facebook and subscribe to our mailing list to be the first to know of the upcoming opportunities.
If you have and questions or comments, please send them to info@lesfruitsdefendus.org
Comments 2
Hello, I tried to register my apple tree but no confirmation email from Les Fruits Défendus came to finish the registration process.
Thank you.
Hi Trang,
I recommend contacting them at info@lesfruitsdefendus.org. I also sent them an email to see what’s up, but contacting them directly will be your best bet!
Thank you