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, Neighbourhood Leaders are able to review the tree’s information and consider if they are able to harvest the tree this season. If a Leader is able to harvest the tree, they will reach out to the tree owner to arrange a time. Our Leaders are trained volunteers who make their own choices regarding when and where they harvest. They will often prioritize larger harvests, tastier fruit, or locations that are in their neighbourhood. As such, we are not always able to harvest every tree on our list. 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
A Leader will be in contact with 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.
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. We are actively working on a way to unregister your tree or edit your information – in the meantime, please contact info@hiddenharvest.ca, and include the address of the tree you registered for which you would like a change made.
More questions? Head over to our FAQ or Contact Us