Saving Food Together
Hidden Harvest relies on trained volunteer Neighbourhood Leaders to organize harvest events for registered trees and invite Volunteer Harvesters out to each event to help pick & share the bounty.
What is a Tree Owner?
Tree owners are very important to Hidden Harvest’s operations as they enable access to most of the fruit and nut trees that are picked during the harvest season. Tree owners register an edible fruit tree, vine, or nut tree, for harvesting through our tree registration page. Once registered, our trained Neighbourhood Leaders review the tree’s information and determine whether they can harvest the tree this season. If so, they’ll contact the tree owner to arrange a time.
Please note that we are not able to harvest every tree that is registered. Our Neighbourhood Leaders volunteer their time to coordinate harvests and choose when and where they harvest based on their availability . They will often prioritize larger harvests, tastier fruit, or locations within their neighbourhood. As such, we are not able to guarantee that all registered trees will be harvested. We hope that tree owners are patient with us as we expand our team of Neighbourhood Leaders across the city.
If you are interested in registering a tree for harvesting, or if you know about a city property tree that could be harvested, please click here to register a tree!
How to register your tree to be harvested
To have your tree harvested by Hidden Harvest you must complete the following steps:
Step 1
Register your tree online.
Step 2
Your tree information is now viewable to our team of volunteer Neighbourhood Leaders, who will consider if they can harvest your tree this season.
Step 3
If a Leader can harvest your tree, they will contact you about scheduling a date and time that works to complete a harvest event.
Step 4
When your fruit is about 2 weeks away from being ripe, fill out our Almost Ready to Harvest form - while this isn’t always necessary, this is helpful to give us a nudge if a Leader has not yet contacted you. See our Fruit Ripening Guide to learn how to tell when your fruit tree is ripe.
It is important to note that once you’ve registered your tree, you will be on our list for future years. There is no need to re-register your tree for future harvest seasons. If you would like to unregister your tree or make any changes, please contact hiddenharvest@envirocentre.ca and include the address of your registered tree.
More questions? Head over to our FAQ or Contact Us