Food Waste During Harvest

Whether it’s too many apples in your apple tree, too many carrots in your garden, or those you-can't-believe-how-big zucchinis, when there's more than you can eat or harvest, garden food can overwhelm and become waste

If you have do have time to harvest, food preservation is a great solution. Freezing, canning, fermenting or dehydrating are all ways to preserve your fall harvest for many months to come.

Not everyone has time to preserve excess food. You can try sharing with friends or family, they might even have the time to harvest if you don’t. Another option is to connect with neighbours or community organizations. Some food banks  will accept donations of produce from gardens or farms. Other communities have groups who harvest excess fruit.

Social media can also be a way to connect with people, check if your area has a local “needs and yields” group or a “buy nothing” group. A post in either of those groups might find the right people. If your area doesn’t have one of these groups maybe you could start one! Reach out to the admin of a group from another city for advice.

These groups are also great if you’re on the other end, someone who is able to accept, and maybe even harvest, excess produce. You can also reach out to friends and families with farms or gardens and offer to help with harvest.

Whatever way you contribute to reducing food waste this season we’d love to hear how you did it, any resources you found to help you or community groups you connected with. Let us know!