Suburban Harvest is Born!

In early December, my son Ben and I were having a chat about how lucky we are to live in Southern California now it is winter. Most of the country lies in snow and ice and folks are kept hostage inside with frigid weather. Meanwhile, our air cleans up, the heat dies down, the roses bloom and the citrus trees start going crazy. And don't even get me started on the avocados.

Growing up in Utah surrounded by gardens and farms, I understood that food doesn't come from grocery stores. But somehow, when I moved to LA and first saw a huge, loaded avocado tree (in the parking lot of a Blockbuster Video), I felt like I was looking at a candy tree, or a money tree--"Avocados grow on trees?" I had a similar slackjawed experience with my first glimpse of an orange tree, then a lemon tree, and the surprises continued.

Here in Pasadena it seems there is some wonderful tasty tree on every lot. And now is the time of year when oranges, lemons, limes, kumquats, tangerines are getting fat and juicy, weighing down branches. But soon will be that time of year when our daily route will take us by those same trees, now with lumpy, overripe fruit, half on the tree, half on the ground. I had witnessed with confusion the same ending to the Blockbuster's avocado crop over ten years ago.

As my son and I talked about this annual bounty-turned-tragedy, Ben brought up, with the simple clarity of an eight-year-old, that food is wasted when there are people, right here in Pasadena, who are hungry or not fed well. And maybe, we could pick that fruit off the unused trees before it goes to waste, and give it to the people that need it so they will be more healthy.

I asked if he wanted to start a volunteer program to do this, and with all his standard enthusiasm for a new project (which, for better or worse, he got from his mother), he named it "Suburban Harvest" and the planning began!