Community Orchards: More Than Just Green

When Amy Countryman of Bloomington, Indiana, was a small-scale organic farmer, she relied on free food from a local food pantry to feed her family.

"As a farmer I was very poor. I couldn't afford to eat at the restaurants to whom I sold my produce," she said.

While pursuing a bachelor's degree in environmental science at Indiana University, Countryman proposed a community orchard in Bloomington as her senior thesis. She was inspired by an urban forestry class and a summer spent working in an apple orchard in nearby Daviess County, Indiana.

"There was so much fruit on the ground that just fell off the trees," she recalled.

The city of Bloomington embraced the proposal and provided a 270 foot by 130 foot piece of land and a small amount of seed money for the orchard. Volunteers planted fruit trees and countless vegetables. And the Bloomington Community Orchard applied for and received grants for $20,000 and several dozen trees.

The orchard's function is two-fold: to produce free food for the community and to educate the public about organic orchards and food sustainability.

"I love the idea of free fruit for anybody who wants it," Countryman said.

A Local Resource

Community orchards like the one in Bloomington have been springing up in cities and towns throughout the U.S. in recent years as people recognize their benefits.

Organically growing fruits and vegetables promotes biodiversity and helps remove harmful pesticides from the environment. A mature, healthy apple tree produces more fruit than a single family can consume, and local food consumption helps promote nutritious eating while cutting down on the use of gas that is needed to transport food.

"Across the country, there are community orchards starting to pop up," says Burnell C. Fischer, a clinical professor at IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs and former director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' Division of Forestry.

One example, the Community Orchard of West Seattle, was conceived in 2010, but already is producing results. In its first year of production this year, the orchard is giving about two-thirds of its harvest to the West Seattle Food Bank, which relies on donations to serve 750 to 800 families a week.

South Seattle Community College gave the West Seattle orchard its land, a long, narrow plot situated on the side of a ravine where nothing could be built. About 30 people transformed that space into an orchard in a single day using the permaculture method, Helen Shampain, a member of the steering committee said. It entails layering cardboard and organic matter with small amounts of compost and soil.

"It's imitating what nature would do over a long period of time," Shampain said.

Shampain said the nutritional component of maintaining an orchard close to home is a major draw for volunteers who want to remain self-sufficient in a tough economic climate.

"Times are hard for some of our members," Shampain said.

Another community orchard, The Philadelphia Orchard Project, was founded in 2007 to provide resources for orchards in the city. It has supported the planting of 27 orchards so far. Its SHARE Orchard in Allegheny will supplement regional emergency food sources and teach people how to grow food. The project's Greenfield Orchard in Center City allows Greenfield Elementary School students to use an edible forest garden to study food and ecology. The harvest provides healthy snacks for them.

Things to Consider

A May 2011 article in "The Ecologist" magazine by Matilda Lee states that the most important thing to have when starting a community orchard is a committed group of people. "Everything else can be researched, learned, found or funded along with a piece of well-drained land," reads the article.

Also important are money and experts.

Look into regional and national grants. Thomas J. Kalb, extension horticulturist at the North Dakota State University Extension lists national grants ranging from $500 to $250,000 in his March 2011 orchard manual that was written for the extension. Some of the organizations and companies that offer funding for green initiatives are the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, Pepsi, Brita and Tom's of Maine. Federal Affordable Care Act grants for projects are available, too.

Cultivate relationships with experts who can help draft bylaws for the orchard organization, select trees and plants at reputable nurseries, answer questions about general orchard maintenance and discuss liability issues regarding volunteers and visitors.

The Seeds of an Orchard

Because fruit trees can be easy to plant, some people wonder why they don't line city streets. Lee Huss, Bloomington's urban forester, said fruit trees are often low-spreading, making them an inconvenient choice for areas traveled by the public. They also require pruning and can be messy.

Orchards give trees the space they need to flourish. An orchard site can be owned, leased or contracted in an agreement by a community group or authority. Using public land is ideal because zoning is not an issue, Fischer said.

But an orchard can't be planted just anywhere. The site needs to have full sun and a water source. Though they need less watering as they age, orchards need frequent watering in their early years. Further, competent, committed volunteers should be in place before work gets under way. An experienced orchard manager or urban farming expert should be available for consultation, and a grant writer makes a wise addition to the team.

The process isn't cheap. A sample budget published in March 2011 by the North Dakota State University Extension estimates orchard start-up costs at $13,435 for a fenced, 300 foot by by 150 foot space with 52 trees and hundreds of shrubs and bushes. That figure doesn't include costs for ongoing water and fertilization.

Fischer recommends having money reserves or grants worth about $10,000 to $15,000. It's always possible for donor funding to fall through, or for emergency situations to arise.

Huss recommends maintaining an orchard for four or five years before expanding.

"Stay there... Do it well, learn some of the bumps in the road," he said.

More Than Food

The long-term effects of the public education element of community orchards is hard to measure. Outreach initiatives can be far-reaching, encouraging tree planting programs in neighborhoods.

The Community Orchard of West Seattle was funded by a Large Projects Grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods that required free education for the public on how to grow food. Since late 2010, individuals and groups have taken courses at the orchard and returned home with newly acquired knowledge. As a result, says Shampain, gardens are popping up in West Seattle neighborhoods.

The Bloomington Community Orchard's education initiatives include workshops for schoolchildren and courses on organic orchard management offered through the city. And families can make a weekend activity out of "tree tracking," in which they track the progress of a specific tree.

The sense of community fostered by such activities is an invaluable benefit for volunteers. They can make friends and form alliances for other community projects. They even instill a sense of physical safety within the neighborhoods as they get to know each other, Shampain said.

"It's a very small way to make the world a better place to live," she said.