Urban fruit trees being harvested in the Manawatū

Community Fruit Harvest co-ordinator Debra Wynn.

If your fruit trees are ripe for the picking, Community Fruit Harvest co-ordinator Debra Wynn would like to hear from you.

"We're picking unwanted fruit for charities," says Wynn.

A leaflet drop into letterboxes has drawn a huge response, especially grapefruit.

"We get to know the people who call us to come and pick their fruit.

"Grapefruit is booming at the moment," she said.

Picking fruit and sharing with the community is a pleasing way to live, says Wynn.

"Don't let your fruit go to waste.

"We will come and pick it for you and distribute it to the community."

Wynn says the fruit is distributed to Just Zilch, the Salvation Army, Methodist Social Services and Eat Up New Zealand.

The people who are calling to have their fruit picked are from across the city.

Wynn said there were a lot of people in the city who wanted to do something for the community and donating their fruit to the Community Fruit Harvest was a way for them to connect.

City gardens have all the citrus; lemons, grapefruit, oranges, limes, tangelos, and lemonade trees.

She says there were children in the community who did not know what a grapefruit was.

"I'm not a grapefruit eater but I will eat marmalade."

Wynn's solutions to introducing children to fruit they have not tried is to tell them about the cycle of food.

"You pick the fruit and make something.

"Jams, chow chow, there's always something you can make."

She says most of the fruit they pick is classed as organic.

The trees had not been sprayed and the owners welcomed the fruit to be picked because some could no longer climb a ladder.

Wynn says some of the fruits are not known, like the loquot, and people did not know how to use it.

"We managed to save them before the lawnmower ran over the fruit which had dropped on the ground."

Wynn has a way of turning a simple fruit into a mouthwatering dessert.

Fig was another unknown fruit.

"You eat it with icecream or custard, or make a fig sponge."

She herself has just discovered pumpkin pie, and has turned her home-grown pumpkins into the sweet dessert.

Wynn is on the lookout for a couple of sturdy ladders and tools to help to make it easier to reach the fruit on the higher branches.

Please contact the Community Fruit Harvest if you have fruit to be picked, or spare tools.

Debra Wynn, co-ordinator, 027 330 3312, pickfruit@slingshot.co.nz