Get involved with Skookum Gleaners

To everyone in and around Powell River,

child-fruit-picking
Take your pick! Pick your battles!

Skookum is getting the Skookum Gleaners project up and running again for the summer of 2014. The purpose of this project is to pick, preserve, and share as much fruit (and nuts) as we can manage, in order to reduce food waste & bear incidents, to help monitor the threat of spotted-wing drosophila, to spread skills and knowledge about fruit-tree care & food preservation, and to get together and have fun.

We’re happy to announce that the Anglican Church of St. David & St. Paul in Townsite, home of the Sycamore Commons permaculture project, has given us permission to install The Big Dehydrator in their kitchen and do some processing there. We plan to do a lot of dehydrating, as well as some workshops in canning, cider-pressing, making vinegar, and whatever else our members are interested in. This project is all about bringing people together, sharing the bounty, transferring skills, and many other good things.

Here’s how you can get involved:

  1. If you’re not a member of Skookum but would like to participate, please join (here’s how). It’s easy and affordable: only $20 to become a member, and that $20 actually buys you a share in our cooperative. We have no annual membership dues, and if you ever choose to withdraw from membership, we will refund your $20. What a deal!
  2. If you would like to be on the list of pickers and have opportunities to go out picking fruit, please fill out the form here.
  3. If you have fruit or nut trees (or berry bushes; but no blackberries, please!) that need picking, please fill out the form here.
  4. If you have skills you’d like to offer, please let us know. Maybe you’re a whiz at making fancy fruit leathers; maybe you know all there is to know about making plum wine… or apple butter… or pear brandy… we want to hear from you and so do your fellow members! Get in touch with us.
  5. In order to keep costs as low as possible, we’re on the lookout for some equipment to help us pick and process fruit. So if you have any (three-legged) orchard ladders in good condition, picking bags, garbage cans with lids, cutting boards, chopping/paring knives, aprons, etc., or anything else you are willing to loan or donate, please contact us.

You’ll be hearing more from us as the season progresses. But if you want to get involved, now is the time!