Pilot project introduces fresh fruit to Fredericton park

CBC

a day ago

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Fresh produce is an expensive commodity in this day and age, but a pilot project in Fredericton hopes to expand access to fresh fruit and other ingredients.
The city's parks and trees department, along with kids from the multicultural centre, spent a day in June planting 30 skinny fruit trees in Wilmot Park, each inside a mulch circle with sunflower stalks on either side to protect the trees.
While the trees might seem bare right now, Victoria Cray, an urban forest technician for the City of Fredericton, said she estimates the trees will start bearing fruit in five to seven years.
"Fruit trees do take a little bit to get bigger, but after that, they'll be producing fruit for the rest of their life," she said.
Cray said the trees came from Quebec, but the city hopes to start its own fruit trees by seed in the future.
The trees include plums, pears, apples, cherries and mulberries.
Along with the trees, the food forest includes some plants that were sourced from the Fredericton region such as borage, which has edible leaves that can be used in salads or dressings; chamomile, which can be used in teas or for medicinal uses; as well as poppy, oregano, thyme, chives and others.
Cray said the project was relatively cost effective, with the most expensive thing being the trees, since the perennials — more than 100 of them — were all grown locally.
"I think this is why it will work in the future, because especially with growing our own trees … we'll be cutting costs a lot," she said.
Cray hopes that if given the go-ahead, she can expand the planting to the north side of Fredericton along some of the trails next year.
The City of Saint John took on a similar project last year called the "blossom buffet," planting 43 fruit trees in Queen Square West using a $10,000 grant from Tree Canada.
In Moncton, the city said it planted six cherry trees at the front steps of the Moncton Coliseum over the last couple of years as well as 32 arguta kiwi vines at the Ian Fowler Oval.
At the Fredericton fruit forest, Cray hopes for more signage to be added in the future that will explain what's growing and that people should take what they need and leave some for others.
The trees are small at the moment, said Cray, but as they grow, they can be pruned as big or small as you want them. She said the department hopes to keep them relatively small so people of all ages can pick from them.
Cray said there's another benefit to having small trees.
"A smaller tree … has more time to establish and have a better system for the future," she said.