In the Portland area, one nonprofit harvests edible fruit from thousands of metro trees, shrubs and bushes and distributes it to people in need.

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

There's a lot of places where landowners grow more fruits and vegetables than they can use. Groups called gleaners sometimes come to farms and orchards to help pick this extra produce and get it to people who need it. In Portland, Oregon, one group is taking that same idea to backyards, parking strips and public parks in their region. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Crystal Ligori reports.

CRYSTAL LIGORI, BYLINE: It's a sunny summer morning in Vancouver, Washington, and the plum tree in Kaitlynd Grey's front yard is exploding with ripe yellow fruit. The branches are so weighed down that instead of the two stories they typically reach, they're bent, nearly touching the ground.

KAITLYND GREY: I don't want to waste them, but I don't have the time and energy to take care of them right now.

LIGORI: Enter the Portland Fruit Tree Project. Since 2006, this nonprofit has been harvesting fruit from overgrown community gardens, sidelines of school sports fields and long-forgotten parking strips, and from yards just like Grey's.

A handful of volunteers surround the tree and start picking. They're wearing aprons with large pouches that they fill up with plums and drop into big plastic tubs.

(SOUNDBITE OF FRUIT THUMPING)

LIGORI: Hannelore Buckenmeyer is a summer AmeriCorps associate who's helping oversee this harvest.

HANNELORE BUCKENMEYER: It feels like it's helping the tree. Like, the tree is almost relieved when you take hundreds of pounds off of it. It's helping the homeowner, and then it's so much bounty that we're able to give to partners.

LIGORI: Last year, the Portland Fruit Tree Project donated more than 28,000 pounds of fruit to community partners like senior centers, food pantries and culturally specific organizations.

BUCKENMEYER: One of the things we try to do is match their needs to what we're picking. For example, like, the Asian American community organization earlier this year had shared that they love the gingko nuts and that we could harvest those, and that's something that was new for us.

LIGORI: Volunteers also preserve fruit that may be bug-damaged or overripe, giving it a second life as jams and jellies, dehydrated fruit and even batches of vinegars and syrups. With just five full-time staff and a handful of seasonal employees, volunteers are the main source of labor for harvests and preservation workshops.

HEATHER KEISLER FORNES: We engage somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 volunteers a year.

LIGORI: That's Portland Fruit Tree Project Executive Director Heather Keisler Fornes, who said some volunteers come weekly, while others - every couple of years.

KEISLER FORNES: We welcome all levels of engagement. So wherever we can fit into people's lives, we want to do that.

LIGORI: Volunteers check an online calendar and sign up for short shifts. The barriers for homeowners to request to harvest are also low. They fill out a form online, say what's growing on their property and when it will be ready to pick. Though they aren't always ripe.

KEISLER FORNES: Yesterday, we had a harvest where the figs just weren't ripe. They were little rocks. But we will go back. You know, we taught the homeowner how to tell a fig is ripe, and hopefully we get a little more on the nose this next time.

LIGORI: For volunteers, there are benefits, too. One couple at the Vancouver harvest wanted to learn how to care for their own fruit trees. And volunteers get to keep some of what they pick. Barbara Holms recently was excited to harvest black currants, which she says are hard to find.

BARBARA HOLMS: Every recipe for British scones calls for black currants. So the idea of seeing an actual currant bush live and being able to get some, I'm like, I could make real scones with currants.

LIGORI: The Portland Fruit Tree Project says their busiest time is August and September, but some harvests can happen into winter. For NPR News, I'm Crystal Ligori in Vancouver, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.