No tree is too big or too small for the volunteers at Community Food Harvesting Dunedin.
The group has been honing in on fruit trees all over the city for the past five years - harvesting unwanted crops, distributing the fresh fruit or turning it into preserves or fruit juice.
Group co-ordinator Annika Korsten said the aim was to reduce waste, make the most of local food, and to share skills.
The group has about 40 properties to visit each year with about 50 volunteers prepared to do the harvesting for people who otherwise cannot manage or who do not need all the fruit.
Flatmates Quentin Francis and Gisele Laven had their two problematic plum trees stripped down by a team of volunteers last weekend, saving them a few headaches.
''We couldn't cope with it. We just had a thick blanket of plums. Couldn't even walk to the clothesline without squishing stuff everywhere,'' Ms Laven said.
The prolific plum trees yielded four banana boxes full of fruit. Ms Francis and Ms Laven were able to make about 10 jars of plum sauce and the rest was used in public preserving workshops.
Ms Korsten said they were planning regular workshops over the next three months to preserve the fruit - teaching people old skills in the meantime.
Recent workshops held as part of the Dunedin Volunteering Holiday Programme had proved very successful.
Ms Korsten said they used fruit donated by FoodShare because seasonal fruit was not ready at the time but it had provided valuable skills for people to use with their own fruit now it was in season.
''It worked really well and they enjoyed it. Lots and lots of them haven't done that stuff before, so it was nice to pass on the knowledge. It is an important skill.''
She said they had about 50 volunteers who helped with the preserving workshops or with harvesting and they tried to match volunteers with fruit tree owners in their own neighbourhood.
''What we try to do is try to match the volunteers with [people in] their suburb ... to create that community feeling and connecting neighbourhoods with each other.''
Jams, baking, preserves and fresh fruit are divided among the volunteers, the owners of the trees and a generous helping given out to food banks community organisations.
The Community Food harvest Group started in 2011 when Sustainable Dunedin City launched a project to pick and preserve fruit that would otherwise go to waste. The project was then passed on to Presbyterian Support Otago.
Ms Korsten said they were keen for more volunteers, more tree donors and more donations of ingredients like sugar, vinegar, flour, oats, spices and oil.
For more information, email: dunedinharvest@gmail.com or find them on Facebook.
- by Dan Hutchinson
