Falling Fruit 2022
June 7
First donation of 2022. Kind donation of fruit from Marino AFC. Some apples and oranges left over after an event on Sunday were kindly passed on by Liam Mulcahey ensuring that no food would go to waste. Macro Community Resource Centre will put them to good use. Many thanks to all concerned.
August 1
Lughnasa Greetings – August 1. Lughnasa was the ancient Celtic festival heralding in the coming of the harvest. With harvesting in mind, I invite all fruit tree owners to consider donating surplus fruit for charity. Falling Fruit will come and pick the fruit and deliver it to charities. Let us find the many neglected orchards and back gardens with an abundance of fruit.
August 13
Crab apples anyone? There are a few bags of crab apples on offer in Palmerstown D20 for anyone who can put them to good use. Falling Fruit has not seen them so cannot give any information on quality.
August 18
Our first apple pick of the season took place today! Huge thanks to donors Caroline and Iarla in Blackrock – one tree which gave abundantly! Most of the organic apples went to KARE Social Services in Raheny, others to Dublin City Farm in St. Annes Park. Indebted to Roger and John who at short notice took on the job. Special thanks to Roger Yates who took care of the delivery to Raheny.
August 22
Marybeth in Dalkey, a kind donor from last year, donated her first harvest of Bramley cooking apples – 5 bags. These went to Shankill Daycare Centre which does Meals on Wheels. Huge thanks to Sandra Griffin who took care of the delivery.
August 25
Cyril in Blackrock donated some tasty ripe eating apples today – much appreciated by Crosscare Café in Dun Laoghaire. Huge thanks to Patricia Larkin who picked and delivered.
August 29
A glorious day today picking fruit at the stunning Aventine Wellness Gardens at Lis Na Carrig in Foxrock. Huge thanks to Shane Adderly who invited Falling Fruit in so that no good fruit would go to waste. We were greatly helped by Lucy and Annette who work there and the experience of the day was very pleasant and gave roughly 170Kg of apples. Roger Yates was the main helper – driving, picking and delivering to FoodCloud. Back Into Daylight Animal Sanctuary provided bags for the temporary storing of fruit. Great appreciation and endless thanks to all involved.
Our second fruit pick today was in Greystones, Sally Dunne kindly invited Falling Fruit back again this year to harvest a rich crop of apples. Wonderful help from Geraldine Hegarty and Donna Fallon and especially to Roger Yates who was the super hero of the day! Huge thanks to all!
September 1
150 kg approx. of fruit saved today thanks to Donors Ann Byrne in East Wall and the O’Donovan Family in Ranelagh. Huge thanks to Theresa Burton and Roger Yates for the East Wall pick
and to the great team at Ranelagh – Theresa Burton, Anne Dunne, Jacinta O’Connor, Graham Fitzpatrick, Geraldine Hegarty.
Pears delivered to Dublin Simon thanks to Jacinta O’Connor. Huge thanks to Theresa Burton for all the driving and delivering all the apples to FoodCloud.
September 2
Tullamore apples today – 16 crates kindly donated by the Lawlor family. Huge thanks to Marta Cieniuch and Dermot Clarke who travelled a long distance to help pick apples for four hours. Most special thanks to Roger Yates who not only helped pick the apples but travelled from Clontarf Dublin and delivered the crates of apples to FoodCloud. An amazing team!
September 5
A day in Dalkey in the beautiful garden of Marybeth Shiell, overlooking the sea and Dalkey island! A huge donation of seven and a half crates of apples! Huge thanks to @TheresaBurton who drove from D3 to pick and deliver to FoodCloud. She also took some apples for animals.
September 8
Another day another rich harvest – thanks to Mary and Declan Cremin in D6. Weather was kind
enough to allow us to pick for almost two hours. Huge thanks to Roger Yates and Philip Smith for great work picking and to Philip for delivering to FoodCloud.
September 9
Fruitful Friday – our kind generous donor Richard Brophy in Rathfarnham, donating every year since 2016, provided eight and a half crates (110Kg approx) of fabulous fruit! Roger Yates, Anne Dunne and Jennifer Louise picked and Roger Yates kindly delivered to FoodCloud.
September 14
More apples today from our kind donor, Ann Byrne. Roger Yates and Jennifer Louise gave time and energy to pick the fruit – many thanks to all!
September 15
What an amazing apple day and what wonderful volunteers!!
Sandymount – thanks to the Doran family and Luke who looked after us. Great team: Roger, Joan, Ellen and Deirdre!
Sandycove – thanks to Maureen Clarke who offered 3 trees for picking. Team Sandra, Angelina and Roger did the work!
Third pick of the day: Glenageary – thanks to Olga who offered 2 trees. The amazing team of Sandra, Roger, Angelina, Emily picked happily!
Sandyford – thanks to Alan Tubbert for 4 trees. Team Patricia and Geraldine did a great job.
Delivery of all picks, 22 crates of apples, to FoodCloud done by Roger Yates. Deeply grateful to the wonderful friends who helped with 4 fruit picks today! 4 locations, 4 teams.
September 16
Fruitful Friday in Phibsboro and Rathgar! Many thanks to donors Fidelma and Barbara for generous donations. A sunny day with cheerful people picking for charity – thanks to Theresa, Joan, Margaret in Phibsboro and Theresa, Patricia and Graham in Rathgar. Special thanks to Theresa and Graham for transport.
September 20
Beautiful weather for our Clontarf pick today! Huge thanks to Tom and Phyl for a most generous donation. Helpers Theresa, Roger and Emily did the job of picking and roger delivered locally to KARE Social Services and to Montessori Circle Clontarf and to ChildVision in Drumcondra.
September 25
Many thanks to @sthompsonIT of the Irish Times for a lovely piece about Falling Fruit on Saturday – https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/2022/09/24/nature-diary-falling-fruit/
September 26
Monday magic – many donations to charities and good causes. Patricia Larkin picked and delivered the apples from Grainne in Blackrock to Crosscare Community Café. Another Patricia picked and delivered boxes of apples to Shankill Day Care Centre. An abundant tree in Ballinteer provided 5 crates of apples, thanks to our kind donor Nuala O’Connor. The wonderful team of Anne, Geraldine and Roger worked for two hours to pick the delicious apples. @RogerYates very kindly transported the fruit to Dublin Simon and a school in Inchicore – huge thanks and great appreciation to all!
September 29
Another good day for charities – apples donated in Donnybrook went to St. Vincent de Paul, Cheeverstown House, St. Mary’s Day Care Centre, Mendicity, Shankill Day Care Centre and a Meals on Wheels Centre. An absolutely wonderful team– Anne, Geraldine, Grainne, Jacinta, Marta, Sandra, Roger! Transportation done by Anne, Jacinta, Sandra and Roger. Ever so grateful to each and every one!
October 1
Saturday pick in Phibsborough – thanks to Anne and Barry for a great crop of apples. Huge thanks to Jacinta, Joan and Roger for great work picking. The apples go for private use and commercial use in exchange for a donation to charity. Huge thanks to all!
October 2
Falling Fruit has reached capacity for this year! We cannot accept any further offers of fruit, unfortunately, as we have many offers outstanding!
We have an offer of apples near Newport in Mayo which we cannot process so our donor is happy to share the fruit with anyone in the area who could use it for personal use or to cook for charities. PM me if you are interested.
October 3
Apple offer! Rathmines, Dublin 6: Cooking apples – McIntosh.
Further offer of apples that we cannot process as we make our way through the long list of pending offers. Email bernie@fallingfruit.ie and I will put you in contact with the donor. Pic from Internet.
October 4
Apples in Mount Merrion today thanks to Evanna Kennedy who donated her delicious eating apples. The wonderful team of Patricia, Jacinta, Anne and Mary took on the task of picking and Anne very kindly delivered 4 crates to the Capuchin Day Centre. Huge thanks to all!
October 5
Eating apples and cooking apples available in Co. Down. These are offered for personal use. The area is between Killinchy and Killyleagh – if you know anyone near there let them know. Please email bernie@fallingfruit.ie for details.
October 6
Double pick in Glenageary today – thanks to Brenda and Alice, only 3 minutes from each other. Beautiful large cooking apples picked by the Amazing team – Geraldine, Mary, Patricia and Roger. RogerYates once again took care of delivery to St. Mary’s Day Centre and St. Vincent de Paul in Donnybrook. Huge thanks to all!
October 8
Bumper pick at Russborough House Walled Garden today! 20 crates of fresh apples donated by the RHSI from the garden – picked by an amazing team of Jacinta, Geraldine, Stephen, Paddy, Paul, Bernie and helped by the garden volunteers. Huge thanks to all involved and special thanks to Jacinta for transport from and to Dublin.
October 10
Sunny October morning in Raheny, D5, and lots of apples – thanks to our kind donor, Sinéad. Team Geraldine, Theresa, Eugene, Roger, enjoyed the Monday magic in the gorgeous. Many deliveries – KARE Social Services, Cappuchin Day Dentre, Macro Community Resource Centre, Dublin City Farm and FoodCloud! Huge thanks to Theresa, Eugene and Roger for transport.
October 13
Another day, another 20 crates of apples going to local charities! I can’t thank the wonderful helpers enough – Anne, Geraldine, Mary, Sandra, Eugene and Roger. Apples delivered by Sandra Griffin to Shankill Day Care Centre and by Roger Yates to SVP and St. Andrews Family Resource Centre. Great team, great time together and great weather!
October 20
A glorious apple day at Townley Hall in Drogheda – hugely grateful to the School Of Philosophy & Economic Science for donating again this year! The Fabulous Falling Fruit volunteers Patricia, Ilona, Marta, Dermot and Ed where helped by the friendly FoodCloud team – Brian, Nadine, Ebbie and Mona. Also helped by Christy Farren who with Michael Delaney planted the trees in 2009. Deep appreciation to all who travelled some distance today for this event – from Dublin County and city, Cavan and Kells. All apples go to FoodCloud.
October 26
A sunny morning in Blackrock for apple picking – thanks to Grainne who donated and to the three wise women who did the work – Anne, Geraldine and Patricia. Huge thanks to all
October 27
Another great day for Falling Fruit! UCD Rosemount Environmental Research Station donated a huge crop of apples for charity, picked by students. We collected some today for Dublin Simon, delivered by Marta, and KARE Social Services, delivered by Catherine and Ashlinn. Huge thanks to the wonderful helpers. The rest will go to Foodcloud.
October 27
Fruitful pick in Donnybrook with the wonderful team of Ashlinn, Catherine, Eugene, Geraldine, Sandra, Wilga and Nova. Many thanks to all who helped deliver to SVP (a carbon zero operation); to Sandra, to Catherine and Ashlinn, to Eugene, who took care of deliveries to other charities.
November 1
Tuesday Apple Pick – thanks to Miriam Ní Fhathaigh in D5. Good weather, bountiful crop – 40 kg approx, wonderful volunteers – Ashlinn and Eugene. Huge thanks to Eugene who delivered to Morning Star Hostel and to Ashlinn who delivered to the Samaritans volunteers, Dublin City Farm and to ChildVision in Drumcondra. Huge thanks to all!
November 24
Another wonderful Falling Fruit season this year and I want to express my deep and sincere thanks to all our amazing friends, volunteers, donors, charities and all our supporters and followers on social media. Thanks to you many tons of apples were prevented from going to waste and charities were supported with fresh fruit. I am, as always, overcome with gratitude and appreciation for everyone who helped, supported and promoted. I apple-laud your kindness and generosity! My only regret is that we were not able to accept all the offers of fruit. Many thanks also to our kind volunteer, Cheryl Hazenberg, for taking care of our website.
Bernie
December 19
Juice made from apples from Dublin, Louth and Offaly, picked by our wonderful volunteers, makes an interesting gift for family and friends or for corporate hampers. The juicing was organised by FoodCloud and the juice is available now for purchase directly from FoodCloud in Tallaght. Your purchases will support charities.
Special Tribute
Sadly, this year (April 25, 2022) we lost one of our best volunteers. I, Bernie Brannick, with all volunteers who knew him, wish to pay tribute to him – Paweł Krecinski – originally from Poland, supporting Falling Fruit since 2018. He was a great worker, one of our best volunteers, a superman with the picking pole! He was very generous with his time and energy every year since 2018. He was reliable, efficient and a caring person. He will be greatly missed. RIP Paweł!
“Pawel made quite an impression as he was so helpful and kind, his friendly face and smiling eyes, a dedicated, hardworking and very experienced volunteer”. W.S. Volunteer.