Pear tree harvest slated for August

Urban Abundance, a Slow Food Southwest Washington program, is gearing up for its largest fundraiser and harvest. Called Pick-a-Pear-a-thon, it’ll happen either the second or third week in August. It depends on when about 400 Bartlett pear trees in Felida become ready for picking.

Two orchards in Felida — Foley Community Orchard and Omega Farm — produce several tons of fruit, which supporters are invited to harvest during Pick-a-Pear-a-thon for donation to the Clark County Food Bank. People can also make a per-pound financial pledge to support the harvest.

“Once the pears are ready, we have about two weeks of harvesting twice a day to ensure as many get donated as possible before they start to rot in the middle,” Lynsey Horne, an AmeriCorps VISTA coordinating Urban Abundance this year, said in a news release. “Unfortunately, it’s difficult to say exact harvest dates until we’re about two weeks out. It’s very climate dependent.”

Urban Abundance will send out an email to its newsletter subscribers and post information on social media about the harvest. Last year’s harvest yielded 9,000 pounds of pears. Volunteers get to take some fruit home with them. For more information about Pick-a-Pear-a-thon, visit www.pickapear.org.

“Vancouver is really fortunate to be an area where fruit trees thrive. There should be no reason why any of our neighbors are going hungry while surrounded by all this abundance. As a very small nonprofit, we can only do so much on our own,” Horne said. “Widespread community support is paramount to preserving these local orchards, using them to feed people and preventing food waste.”

Businesses interested in being corporate sponsors can email lynsey@slowfoodswwa.org.