Posted: March 31, 2021

Imagine ... a huge navel orange orchard in North San Jose filled with 1,500 trees, a 14 acre island of the Valley's agricultural past surrounded by the tech companies and apartments of modern Silicon Valley. The farm family has owned the land for 104 years, and this orchard produced an astounding 440,000 pounds (220 tons) of oranges in 2017. Yes, it's Giant!

The family first found Village Harvest in 2018 and liked sharing their fruit with the community so much that they're donating their entire crop again in 2021 to help others. This year we're planning 5 harvests on Saturdays or Sundays beginning in March and continuing through the end of April. Harvest sizes will be smaller for coronavirus times but still 40 volunteers, and we'll have a fun, educational time picking oranges for people in need.

The harvests on March 27, April 3, and April 11 have been announced and all volunteer openings filled, but they'll be at least 2 more harvests. Look for an announcement in the newsletter for additional harvests and sign up soon after since the events will fill quickly. If you're not already registered as a volunteer, fill in the Volunteer Registration in advance.

Here are a few photos from the first March 27, 2021 harvest - enjoy!

40 volunteers picked and filled 20 bins with 16,000 pounds of oranges for Second Harvest of Silicon Valley.

 

The trees are pruned so that much of the fruit can be picked by hand from the ground
Some of the 40 volunteers at the first harvest
After volunteers hand pick the fruit, they carry it to volunteers on fruit bin trailer
This specialized trailer carries 5 fruit bins with up to 4,000 lbs. of oranges and fits between the trees
At the end of a good morning's work, 20 bins with 16,000 pounds of oranges are ready for the food bank to pick up