From tree to table: Volunteers help pick crabapples on campus

Algonquin College students and staff turned the residence courtyard into a harvest site on Sept. 9, gathering crabapples from trees during this year’s crabapple event.

Hosted by Facilities Management and the School of Business and Hospitality, the event ran from noon to 2 p.m., giving students a chance to participate in a sustainability project and collect volunteer hours.

These small apples were falling everywhere as attempts were made to pick them with apple pickers, a metal pole with a basket attached at the end. Once the basket makes contact with a tree, it causes the crabapples to fall into the basket.

This year’s event marked the third annual crabapple harvest. The event was created to help clean up and reduce waste from fallen crabapples, while reducing the presence of wasps and other insects.

Arlen Findley, a horticulturist with Facilities Management, helped organize the event and explained where the harvested apples would go.

“With clean crabapples, we’ve donated them to various organizations,” said Findley. “The apples from today will be donated to the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum.”

Some of the crabapples that are not taken home or have no use in the college will be donated to a few organizations.

“We’ve been trying to reach out to any organizations that have a use for it rather than just letting it all go to waste. We’ve also let any volunteers take some home to make jams or whatever” said Findley.

The crabapples that are left at the college will be used for culinary purposes in the college.

Interior design student Celeste Romero, 21, was one of the student volunteers at the event.

“I come from an island where you don’t have many fruits,” said Romero, who’s from Aruba. “When I read that we could be part of this crabapple picking event, I was interested to see the fruits on campus.”

Romero and a friend raced to see who could get the most crabapples. Soon after, they started thinking about which recipes they would make with the crabapples once they got home.

“I think I’ll cook a pie for sure, but now that they sell alcohol almost everywhere, I might make cocktails or even my own alcohol, but I need to learn first,” said Romero.

Volunteers left the event with a reward of bags of fruit and a sense of accomplishment.