LEILA FADEL, HOST:
When farm and orchard owners grow more fruits and vegetables than they can use, gleaners sometimes step in. They pick extra produce and get it to people in need. One group from Portland, Oregon, is taking that same idea to backyards, parking strips and public parks, Oregon Public Broadcasting's Crystal Ligori reports.
CRYSTAL LIGORI, BYLINE: It's a sunny summer morning in Vancouver, Washington, and the plum tree in Kaitlynd Grey's front yard is exploding with ripe yellow fruit. The branches are so weighed down that instead of the two stories they typically reach, they're bent, nearly touching the ground.
KAITLYND GREY: I don't want to waste them, but I don't have the time and energy to take care of them right now.
LIGORI: Enter the Portland Fruit Tree Project. Since 2006, this nonprofit has been harvesting fruit from overgrown community gardens, sidelines of school sports fields and long-forgotten parking strips - and from yards just like Grey's.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLUM BEING HARVESTED)
LIGORI: A handful of volunteers surround the tree and start picking. They're wearing aprons with large pouches that they fill up with plums and drop into big plastic tubs.
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LIGORI: Hannelore Buckenmeyer is a summer AmeriCorps associate who's helping oversee this harvest.
HANNELORE BUCKENMEYER: It feels like it's helping the tree. Like, the tree is almost relieved when you take hundreds of pounds off of it. It's helping the homeowner. And then it's so much bounty that we're able to give to partners.
LIGORI: Last year, the Portland Fruit Tree Project donated more than 28,000 pounds of fruit to community partners like senior centers, food pantries and culturally specific organizations.
BUCKENMEYER: One of the things we try to do is match their needs to what we're picking. For example, like, the Asian American community organization earlier this year had shared that they love the ginkgo nuts and that we could harvest those. And that's something that was new for us.
LIGORI: Volunteers also preserve fruit that may be bug-damaged or overripe, giving it a second life as jams and jellies, dehydrated fruit and even batches of vinegars and syrups. With just five full-time staff and a handful of seasonal employees, volunteers are the main source of labor for harvests and preservation workshops.
HEATHER KEISLER FORNES: We engage somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 volunteers a year.
LIGORI: That's Portland Fruit Tree Project executive director Heather Keisler Fornes, who said some volunteers come weekly, while others every couple years.
KEISLER FORNES: We welcome all levels of engagement. So wherever we can fit into people's lives, we want to do that.
LIGORI: Volunteers check an online calendar and sign up for short shifts. The barriers for homeowners to request a harvest are also low. They fill out a form online, say what's growing on their property and when it will be ready to pick - though they aren't always right.
KEISLER FORNES: Yesterday, we had a harvest where the figs just weren't ripe. They were little rocks. But we will go back. You know, we taught the homeowner how to tell a fig is ripe, and hopefully we get a little more on the nose this next time.
LIGORI: For volunteers, there are benefits, too. One couple at the Vancouver harvest wanted to learn how to care for their own fruit trees. And volunteers get to keep some of what they pick. Barbara Holms (ph) recently was excited to harvest blackcurrants, which she says are hard to find.
BARBARA HOLMS: Every recipe for British scones calls for blackcurrants. So the idea of seeing an actual currant bush live and then being able to get some? I'm like, I could make real scones with currants.
LIGORI: The Portland Fruit Tree Project says their busiest time is August and September, but some harvests can happen into winter.
For NPR News, I'm Crystal Ligori in Vancouver, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FRUITS OF MY LABOR")
LUCINDA WILLIAMS: (Singing) Tangerines and persimmons and sugarcane. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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