Apricots 2020 - Mid Season Update

The 2020 apricot orchard harvest season is moving at a busy pace, beginning Saturday June 13 and continuing. In the two weekends and weekdays we've harvested orchards in Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos Hills, and Northeast San Jose. Most locations have relatively small amounts this year, with one exception, but everyone's still smiling in the photos and having a great time outdoors in these heritage locations. You can see a gallery below.

We have good news for more volunteers - one of the orchards is likely to have fruit lasting until next weekend, so we'll be announcing another harvest soon for Saturday June 27. Look for the newsletter on Monday, with priority for volunteers who were unable to get into the previous 8 announced harvests.

Update 6/22 5:20 pm: the additional harvest is now on the Events calendar. If interested please sign up by 5 pm Tuesday 6/23.

We also experienced disappointment when leaders and volunteers arrived at our popular Palo Alto Alta Mesa location and discovered all the fruit had dropped since the previous week. Without a trace! We're assuming deer and ground squirrels enjoyed a feast since there wasn't any fruit on the ground or on the trees.

The harvest total so far this apricot season is 5,274 lbs., distributed to 8 different food agencies and food banks in two counties. That's enough that as many has 10,000 people have received special fruit through our efforts together. Many participants have been making jam or freezing fruit for smoothies, too; all the fruit seconds we cannot pass on to food agencies is going home with volunteers to use and enjoy.