Local Fruit, Free for the Sharing

Unless you have a mature orchard in your backyard you probably don’t have access to a diversity of local fruit. The grocery store may sell a small selection of local fruit, however most fruit is trucked in from afar. Distant fruit is picked early and expected to ripen enroute. This results in fruit with focus on texture rather than taste. How do you get local fruit when you don’t have fruit trees? The answer is Fruit Share.

Fruit Share is an organization started by Getty Stewart in Winnipeg that connects volunteer fruit pickers with tree [or rhubarb] owners to harvest luscious, local fruit. This year South Eastman Transition Initiative is bringing Fruit Share to Steinbach.

When you walk the neighbourhoods of Steinbach you may notice many fruit trees and bushes. Apple trees, cherry trees, and rhubarb plants are just a few of the possibilities. During September you may notice some fruit beginning to get over-ripe, it may even be littering the sidewalk on which you walk. Local fruit going to waste!

With many people struggling to fill their bellies, food should not be squandered. There are different reasons that fruit owners may not be able to harvest their own fruit. Fruit owners may not be physically able to reach the fruit on the high branches or they may not have time due to a busy schedule. Un-harvested fruit drops to the ground and rots; this attracts insects, undesirable animals and makes a mess.

Now Steinbach fruit owners who do not have the ability or desire to pick their own fruit can register with Fruit Share. Fruit Share will organize Steinbach volunteers to harvest that fruit. On the day of the harvest 1/3 of the fruit will go to the fruit owner, 1/3 will go to the volunteer pickers and 1/3 is donated to a local organization such as the South East Helping Hands Food Bank. Instead of wonderful fruit going to waste, Fruit Share connects those in the community who have excess to those that have a need.

Not only does Fruit Share rescue fruit and deliver it to those who want it, Fruit Share also builds community. New friendships and connections can be made over the sweet success of a full apple basket or a freshly baked crisp made from the harvest of a neighbour’s plentiful tree or bush.

Next time you bite into a tasteless apple trucked in from a distant land take the time to sign up with Fruit Share. Make your fruit trees available to those with the ability to harvest them or sign up to volunteer and go home from a harvest with an armload of delicious fruit costing you only an afternoon of picking with friends.

Fruit Share is now picking rhubarb. Do you have excess or are you looking to make some rhubarb crisps? Visit and register at www.fruitshare.ca or call Fruit Share Steinbach at 326-3919. 

Rebecca Hiebert

Too Many Disposable Diapers

“We pick up thousands of [disposable] diapers on a daily basis,” states Eldon Wallman from the Steinbach landfill. This calculates to around half a million diapers being delivered to rot in our own small landfill every year. Imagine the numbers worldwide!

Many parents choose disposable diapers because of simplicity. Disposables can be bought in bulk, they hold a lot of waste, and they make for quick diaper changes.

All this convenience comes at a huge expense. Most parents are innocently ignorant of what happens after the disposable diaper leaves their hands. That diaper travels to a landfill where it will sit for many thousands of years. Much of the diaper is made from plastics that will not breakdown. These chemicals, along with the human waste products contained in the diaper, leach from the landfill into the water system. We are voluntarily polluting our earth with raw human waste and untreated chemicals. Is there an alternative? Yes there is.

Cloth diapers are an environmentally friendly alternative to disposable diapers.  The cloth diaper system allows parents to wash and reuse diapers repeatedly throughout their baby’s diapering lifetime. The waste is removed from the diaper and deposited in the toilet where it can be properly treated along with the rest of the family’s waste. Additionally, cloth diapers can be used with multiple children before being retired. Many parents actually keep the diapers for rags after all their children are potty trained.  Only when these cloth diapers have been thoroughly exhausted do they end up in the landfill, once there, they break down quickly because they are made from natural materials such as cotton, wool, or bamboo.

Some parents are hesitant about switching to cloth diapers because they have seen the complicated folding and pinning required from the older styles. However, current cloth diapers are more user-friendly involving snaps or Velcro with no pinning required. Current cloth diapers are made from fun and funky fabrics with all sorts of luxurious textures.

Not only are cloth diapers environmentally friendly, they are economically friendly as well. The average family spends about $2500 to disposable diaper one child until potty training. Conversely, a child can be totally cloth diapered for as little as $200, less if the diapers are handmade from recycled materials or purchased used. Furthermore, subsequent children in the family will then be diapered for free using their older sibling’s diapers.

The bottom line is that disposable diapers pose a dangerous risk to our environment by filling up our landfills and leaching hazardous chemicals into our ecosystems.  Conversely, cloth diapers are reused for many years and human waste from cloth diapers is properly treated through the sewage system, majorly reducing the impact on the water systems of the community. Coupled with the fact that cloth diapers can save you over $2000 per child, we should all make the switch to cloth.

By Rebecca Hiebert

Giving to the Earth this Year

The time of gift giving is upon us. Most people spend many hours planning and shopping for loved ones. Sadly, most items in our stores are manufactured from cheap plastics or thin metals that break quickly. Current available merchandise has degenerated to the point where what we buy is often low priced and low quality, and an item that the recipient does not really want or need. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, the gift quickly ends up in the garbage.

Once these items are in the landfill their fate is to sit for thousands of years. Our landfills are already bursting at the seams from daily waste produced by every household; there really is no room for additional holiday garbage.

Gift giving is an important part of our Christmas season. By changing the way we give gifts we can increase their longevity. Instead of each individual relative buying each child a less expensive toy, relatives could pool their money to buy one higher quality, more expensive toy that will last through the rough and tumble play of childhood. Toys that are made from strong durable materials can be enjoyed by one child and then passed on to younger children, delaying their trip to the landfill.

Giving a child one highly valued, good quality gift also helps reduce that child’s insatiable appetite for presents that often develops at Christmas time.  Teaching a child to treasure one truly special toy will send the message that gifts are not expendable, that toys are to be treasured and not tossed in the trash when something better comes along.

Adult presents are sometimes a challenge because adults often buy what they need during the year. What is left for a relative to give during the holidays? Instead of buying something cheap and unnecessary, give tickets to a local play or musical or a sentimental gift such as a photo-book or photo-calendar. These types of special gifts will not be easily tossed.

Perhaps the pinnacle of gift giving is finding a well-suited, used gift at a thrift store. Gifting used items benefits the Earth in a two-fold way: firstly, this delay’s that items trip to the landfill for many years and, secondly the money spent at the thrift shop goes in-part towards funding programs to help others live sustainably in the Third World.

Finally, when you do decide what to buy for your family consider the wrapping. How absurd that commercial wrapping paper once purchased is immediately tossed! Consider using recycled items to wrap your presents: the comics from the newspaper or handmade reusable cloth bags. Avoid expensive Christmas cards that are read only once and then added to the holiday layer at the landfill.

  

How ironical that the holiday season, which is a special time to celebrate generosity, contributes to a stressing of the Earth we live on. This year give the Planet a present: think carefully how your gift giving will affect the environment. 

By Rebecca Hiebert