Dear Crab Apple Owners,

We want to thank you all for registering your fruit with us over the years, we are glad that you have the desire to share your fruit and wish to see it put to good use.

As most of you are already aware, this summer we have had some challenges filling all of our pick requests. This has been especially true for Crab Apples.  There are a few reasons for this, which we’d like to share with you in the hopes of coming up with some solutions to the ‘crab apple dilemma’ for next year.

• Currently, 129 out of our 307 Fruit Owners have crab apple trees. That means over 40% of picks that we are offering to our volunteers and partner organizations are crab apples.
• During peak ripening times, our volunteers were inundated with requests for picks. They are volunteers and attend when and where they can, but picking fruit can’t always be their number one priority. Sometimes they just can’t keep up.
• Crab apples are a little more work to process and use. This means that fewer organizations are interested in receiving them (they may not have the man power, skills or knowledge to process them), and the same goes for volunteers.
• Crab apples turn from ripe to over-ripe very quickly (especially early varieties such as the Rescue crab), and it can be hard to tell just from looking what state they are in. The crabs on your tree may look red and delicious for eating, but be rotten on the inside.
•  Because of the above, if picks aren’t scheduled early enough, volunteers may arrive to find a tree filled with mushy, rotten crab apples (and often many wasps) and end up throwing the fruits of their picking labour into the compost. Unfortunately, many of our volunteers have had this experience and it has turned them off of crab apple picks altogether.
• Some ornamental varieties of crabs may be technically be edible, but are too small to be processed and enjoyed by most people.

We need a little help from you to find a solution to this dilemma for next year. Please keep a close eye on your trees, and contact us to request a harvest at least one week before your apples are actually ready for picking. In the time leading up to the pick, check on your apples by picking a few, cutting them open, and making sure they aren’t rotting on the inside. If you find your apples are past their prime, please contact us to cancel your pick request. It is not fair to our volunteers to ask them to pick rotten apples that no one can enjoy. If you aren’t sure if your apples are large enough to be enjoyed, please give us a call or send us a picture before signing up.

In return, we commit to recruiting more volunteers  to handle the amount of requests we get at peak times, and to finding new ways to inspire our volunteers and partner organizations to pick and use more crab apples. We have begun this process by running workshops with our partner organizations but are always looking for more ways to do it. To that end, if you have any great ideas to get volunteers excited about crab apples, we welcome you to share them with us!

Thank you again for thinking of Fruit Share, and for your intention to share your surplus fruit. We look forward to working with you again next year.

Sincerely,

Anna and the Fruit Share Team