GPG group to run Harvest Penarth scheme again this autumn (From Penarth Times)

GPG group to run Harvest Penarth scheme again this autumn

8:40am Wednesday 19th September 2012 in News

FOLLOWING a successful launch last year, local environmental group Gwyrddio Penarth Greening (GPG) is running the Harvest Penarth scheme again in 2012.

Harvest Penarth is a GPG project that collects and shares unharvested fruit found all over the town. Every year the streets and gardens of Penarth are full of unpicked fruit and the scheme aims to collect and share this bounty.

Volunteers harvest the fruit from trees where the owner perhaps doesn't have the time or ability to collect, or simply has more fruit than they can personally use. The tree owner gets first pick of the fruit and the remainder is shared among volunteers and distributed to community groups, care homes etc.

Harvest Penarth is based on the Abundance model that first launched in Sheffield in 2007, which has since spread across the UK with Abundance schemes in Leeds, Manchester and other towns and cities.

Similar fruit-share projects have become popular across Europe and North America GPG were very pleased with the response last autumn with keen volunteers harvesting fruit from over 20 trees in the town.

GPG chair and scheme organiser, Anthony Slaughter said: "The response from tree owners and volunteers was great - there was a real sense of a community working together in a practical and useful way."

The group members hope to harvest even more trees this season and are keen to hear from tree owners or people who know of trees that would be suitable, plus volunteer fruit pickers. They also want to make contact with any community groups or organisations that could make good use of all this surplus fruit.

GPG will again be holding an Apple Day event in late October.

For more information on Harvest Penarth, visit www.gpgpenarth.org.uk or email as.penarth@gmail.com or call 07810 334762.