Falling Fruit Project 2018 – History
Launch of 2018 Season
26 July 2018
The fruit season is kicking off! We have our first fruit donation from Tenters Community Garden in Dublin 8 @tenterscommunitygarden – gooseberries, redcurrants and josta berries. They very kindly shared their surplus berries with Falling Fruit so that our wonderful volunteers can make jams!
15 August 2018
Falling Fruit is gearing up for the 2018 season of fruit harvesting for charities. This is our fourth year in operation and huge thanks is due to the wonderful volunteers and donors who have kept it going and to the charities who distribute the fruit to people in need. With your help we can make 2018 a bountiful year!
We already have offers of apples in the Dublin area. We need volunteers who are free on week days especially, as most charities are only open during office hours. There are many ways to support the Falling Fruit Project – we need new sources of fruit and vegetables (please ask your local organisations, church, community centre, workplace, resident’s association, clubs, etc.), we need drivers to transport the fruit, food preserving, bags or boxes for the food. Very importantly, we need more charities for the fruit.
31 August 2018
Falling Fruit visited Baltinglass in Wicklow today, thanks to the kind donation of cooking and eating apples from Rev. Máirt Hanley and Úna. Wonderful team of volunteers, some local, Aideen and Sarah, Catalina from Romania, Bernd from Germany, Catherine, Patricia and Bernie from Dublin!! Fruit was delivered to local charities.
Apples picked in Rathfarnham today and pears in Walkinstown. Many thanks to Brophy family in Rathfarnham and to Susan in Walkinstown. The volunteers, Patricia, Kate, Marie and Pawel did great work in the lovely sunshine and helped with delivery.
5 September 2018
Thanks to Gabrielle and family for the apple donation from Walkinstown yesterday. Apples went to a Women’s Refuge, to families and there were some for an animal charity too. Many thanks to Louise who took care of much of the distribution.
7 September 2018
A great apple day today! Generous donations from Pat in Dun Laoghaire and Ann in Monkstown. The wonderful volunteers worked very hard – without them nothing could happen! Huge thanks to Therese, Ilona, Patricia, Emer, Triona and Deirdre. Some apples went to Crosscare in Dun Laoghaire, more will be delivered to Crosscare in Tallaght next week. Some fruit for animals too – thanks to Agnes.
8 September 2018
Zero Waste Festival at Airfield Food Festival. Wonderful volunteers helping! Huge thanks to all!
10 September 2018
A delicious donation of apples from the British Embassy in Dublin was distributed to four charities today. Many thanks to the Embassy and to the staff who picked the apples for charity. Two wonderful volunteers, Deirdre and Jeff, very kindly delivered everything.
13 September 2018
Apples from Margaret in Dundrum and the Orsmond Clinic in Loughlinstown were picked by the wonderful women – Emma, Ilona, Patricia and Emer and directed to Crosscare in Dun Laoghaire and Simon Community in Bray. Huge thanks to one and all!
17 September 2018
A fruitful weekend thanks to the generous donations: tasty eating apples from Sarah and Padraig in Ballsbridge and a large crop of cooking apples from Alice and family in Glenageary. As always the volunteers did great work and gave so generously of their time and energy – many thanks to Kate, Pawel, Fergal, Helen, Ursula and her husband. The charities, Penny Dinners, St. Mary’s Day Care Centre and St. Andrews Resource Centre were happy to receive the fresh fruit.
20 September 2018
Apple picking in the rain! Two generous donations today, despite the storm, Churchtown and Ballinteer. Sad to see so many apples on the ground but we gathered lots of them for animal charities. Huge thanks to volunteers Patricia, Pawel, Ilona and Aga who braved the rain. Thanks to Nuala and Yuhuali for the donations. Fruit going to Foodcloud.
21 September 2018
Friday’s fruit pick was in Celbridge. Many thanks to Helen and her family for the donation of top quality cooking apples and huge thanks to volunteers Liz @elbon2 , who also delivered the fruit to Foodcloud, and to Pawel for the great work. Forgot to take photos!!
22 September 2018
A very fruitful day at the RHSI Walled Garden at Russborough House in Blessington today! Many thanks to Garden Manager May for inviting Falling Fruit to pick the fruit for charities again this year. With the help of the RHSI volunteers and the hard working Falling Fruit volunteers – Patricia, Tiina, Laura and Richard – we gathered 31 crates of delicious apples. Alanagh from @foodcloudireland also picked and then transported all the fruit back to the Foodcloud hub in Tallaght. Huge thanks to all involved.
27 September 2018
A beautiful day picking windfall apples for cooking and for animal charities – thanks to UCD Rosemount Orchard ! Many thanks to volunteers Martina, Rita and Pawel for great work! Special thanks to Martina for a delivery.
28 September 2018
Delighted to deliver about five crates of UCD windfall apples to Terri at ChildVision today for the horses. Many thanks to Roger who helped with transportation.
5 October 2018
Wonderful apple day at UCD Rosemount Environmental Research Station on Thursday! Many thanks to William and Bredagh for facilitating the donation of apples for charity. Delicious apple juice helped our hard working volunteers – the real A team: Patricia, Emma, Martina, Tiina, Rita, Emer, Laura, Fiona, Martien, Richard, Graham, Pawel, and Foodcloud’s Vera. Thanks to FoodCloud for collecting the picked apples and making sure they are put to good use.
17 October 2018
Falling Fruit Ireland is an urban harvesting project aimed at gathering the seasonal glut of local fruit (apples, pears, plums, nuts, etc.) around the country. The collected fruit is then brought to charities such as “FoodCloud” that caters for those in need in both urban and rural areas. Over the past three weeks, a team of volunteers from “Falling Fruit” descended on Rosemount to harvest the last of the fruit from our Lamb Clarke Historic Irish Apple Collection with Ms Bernie Brannick at the helm.
In addition to FoodCloud, some of our Rosemount apples were donated to “ChildVision”, the National Education Centre for blind children. Here, the charity offers a programme of Equine Assisted Occupational Therapy (EAOT) providing horsemanship experiences to persons with physical, sensory, mental health, psychological and intellectual disabilities in order to enhance the quality and productivity of their lives.
In addition, Back into Daylight Animal Sanctuary received help. This charity is a non profit vegan organisation dedicated to rescuing wild or abused animals, or any animal in need of care such as caged hens or injured pets needing a new home. They also try to re-home animals into new and loving environments where possible.
It was lovely to see Bernie and her team of volunteers here again as we are always glad to facilitate worthy causes in our community. And while most of this year’s apples have been put to commendable use, the remaining fruit at UCD Rosemount is destined to become a food source for our overwintering birds and animals…we always aim to help wildlife and humans alike!
Please check UCD presentation here!
22 October 2018
Many heartening stories happen in Falling Fruit! Last week we received an offer we couldn’t refuse! James offered to take surplus fruit for home use and in exchange make a donation of €100 to charity. This is a perfect option as often the charities cannot take a large quantity of apples. Our kind donors agreed. John from Tonlegee Road donated tasty eating apples. Tiina and Bernie picked them. We also collected John’s windfalls for the horses at ChildVision and John very kindly delivered them. Maire directed us to a crop of cooking apples in Rush. Jacinta, a volunteer from Rush, very kindly visited the site to check what was available – this was a great help for which we are very grateful. Huge thanks to Helen who helped with picking and transporting the fruit. James collected the apples on Saturday and his generous donation for charity was delivered to Inner City Helping Homeless today, Monday Oct. 22. A great chain of charitable caring people!
1 November 2018
Fabulous generous donation of cooking and eating apples from Caoimhe from Co. Louth – picked and delivered to Dublin. Huge thanks to Kirsten who took a GoCar to help with the delivery! Apples were delivered to KARE in Raheny and to Daughters of Charity in D7. Other apples went to Food Not Bombs – feeding the homeless, this evening and some were used by Bernie to make apple cinnamon muffins for the event. Our bread rescue project also directed food for the evening.
23 December 2018
Huge thanks to all our wonderful volunteers, our donors, the charities, our partners – especially FoodCloud – our supporters who liked and shared on FB and Twitter and everyone who helped to make this another special year for Falling Fruit.
