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Trail residents buying into fruit picking benefits

Group in Greater Trail wants to help rid properties of excess fruit
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With apples ripening in the Greater Trail area

Trail residents are getting on board with the benefits of getting their excess fruits picked before it causes bear problems or it simply goes to waste.

Sita Lawson, who is organizing fruit picking in Trail, said more people are contacting her this year than last year to get fruit off their property and put to some use.

“It’s awesome, there are definitely more calls this year. We’ve had a dozen or so places picked and more coming.”

Better awareness from residents through media reports as well as the on-going concerns over bears have helped propel the program.

Lawson’s role is to connect people who want to rid their property of excess fruit with people who are eager to pick it and make use of it.

“We’re interested to hear from people who want to pick apples and pears right now,” said Lawson.

She explained it’s up to the people who pick the fruit as to what they do with it. She said some use it for baking, others share it with their neighbours and friends, and others share it with the food bank.

“But my interest in this is twofold. We want local people eating local food so there’s no waste. And we want to keep bears away.

“And now is the time to do it.”

Lawson suggests property owners give her as much notice as possible before the fruit ripens to allow her to coordinate volunteers to come and pick the fruit.

Lawson can be contacted via email at sitalawson@hotmail.com or by phone at 250-368-5151.

In Rossland people can contact Rossland Harvest Rescue on Facebook and if you don’t have Facebook, contact Desiree Profili, WildsafeBC coordinator for Rossland and Trail at rossland@wildsafebc.com or at 250-231-7996 and she can pass your information along to the organizers.