Baltimore Orchard Projectwww.BaltimoreOrchard.org

@BaltOrchard410-695-3445 or

443-562-8483

BALT

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PROJECT

Got Fruit? If you know of fruit trees we can harvest, call or text our Harvest Hotline: 443-562-8483

Annual Report 2013“Creating a patch of Eden in every neighborhood”Baltimore Orchard Project

BALT

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PROJECT

Annual Report 2013“Creating a patch of Eden in every neighborhood”Baltimore Orchard Project

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What We DoThe Baltimore Orchard Project is dedicated to bringing fresh fruit, groves of fruit trees and patches of food forests to every neighborhood in Baltimore, creating a greener, healthier, more resilient community as we go.

We help grow, glean and give away urban fruit, neighbor to neighbor, to those who want and those who need.

How we began The Baltimore Orchard Project was founded in 2011 as the brainchild of Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin. It seemed an inevitable response to the intersecting goals of bolstering food security in the city’s food deserts, increasing the city’s tree canopy, reclaiming vacant lots, adding green spaces to soften the city’s hardscape, better managing the city’s stormwater, and otherwise contributing to Baltimore’s sense of place. Rabbi Cardin recruited friends, colleagues and partners from the city’s Sustainability Office, urban forestry department, nascent land trust, local community gardens, civic and non-profit organizations, the Baltimore Ecosystem Study and other inspiring and inspired individuals in related areas of work. They lay the groundwork that helps build the partnerships and re-introduce the culture of fruit trees in Baltimore. They are the ones who made it all happen.

2013 in a NutshellIn 2013, the BOP doubled our impact by planting 153 trees at 16 locations, harvesting and distributing 3400 pounds of fruit, attracting over a hundred new volunteers, and offering two innovative educational programs attended by over 70 individuals. We were also given the management and harvesting rights to Genesee Pear Orchard.

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Annual Report 2013“Creating a patch of Eden in every neighborhood”Baltimore Orchard Project

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PlantingAll of our plantings begin the same way: we get a call or an email expressing an interest in growing fruit trees. Our Planting Coordinator (Ben Howard in the fall of 2013) meets with each potential planting partner and provides them with an expert Site Consultant to guide them through the process of planning, organizing, implementing and maintaining their orchard. In 2013, our Site Consultants Eric Kelly, Paul Dorsey and Dr. Karen Maguylo helped 16 new Planting Partners plant 153 trees, bringing Baltimore Orchard Project’s total to 240 trees planted at 30 sites in just two years.

Planting partners are organizations and individuals who own or manage land and who tend to and steward the trees that are planted there.

2013 Planting Partners

Congregations

Amazing Grace Evangelical Church

Church of the Redeemer

Grace United Methodist Baltimore

Lakeland Presbyterian Church

Schools

Baltimore Southwest Charter School

(with University of Maryland Go Green

initiative)

Green School of Baltimore

Green Street Academy

KIPP

Calvin Rodwell Elementary School

Neighborhoods

Franklin Square

Oliver Neighborhood (6th Branch);

West Side Community Farm

Private Lots (2)

2012 Planting Partners

Congregations

Episcopal Church of the Messiah

Essex United Methodist Church

Faith Lutheran Church

Govans United Presbyterian Church

Hunting Ridge Presbyterian Church

Mt. Washington United

Methodist Church

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

St. Matthews Catholic Church

Schools

Academy for College and Career

Exploration (ACCE)

Archbishop Borders Elementary School

Hamilton Elementary/Middle School

New Era Academy

Youth in Transition School

Neighborhoods

Irvington Peace Park

Trees Planted

in 2013

Apple 48Pear 41

Cherry 12 Peach 7

Fig 4Persimmon 4

Plum 2Chestnut 2

Rescues* 33

)UXLW�WUHHV�ZLWKRXW�LGHQWLðFDWLRQ�were rescued from a nursery

and placed in the loving care of community planting partners

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Annual Report 2013“Creating a patch of Eden in every neighborhood”Baltimore Orchard Project

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Harvest In 2013, Baltimore Orchard Project hosted 21 Harvest Days at 14 different locations in which 35 Volunteers donated over 162 hours. These efforts yielded 3400 lbs (approximately 6800 servings of fruit) which were collected, sorted, transported and donated to 11 service organizations and 2 mobile food markets. Baltimore Orchard Project is especially grateful to Mars Supermarket for donating 500 paper bags to help in transporting the bounty.

Fruit Harvest to date – 5,200 pounds 2013 – 3,400 pounds 2012 - 1,800 pounds

Harvesting Sites Carroll’s One Hundred

Heritage Orchard

Cromwell Valley Park

Genesee Valley Orchard

Jonah House

Two private county orchards

Private Residents

Beneficiaries in 2013

Donated for philanthropic distributionBaltimore Free Farm

Baltimore Rescue Mission

The Franciscan Center

House of Ruth

GEDCO Cares

Manna House

Maryland Food Bank

My Sister’s Place

Our Daily Bread

Reisterstown United Methodist

Church Food Pantry

Sarah’s Hope at Hannah More

Market-based distribution in two of Baltimore’s food desertsWhitelock Farm

Real Food Farms

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Annual Report 2013“Creating a patch of Eden in every neighborhood”Baltimore Orchard Project

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The BOP CommunityThe Baltimore Orchard Project continues to grow by leaps and bounds. In addition to our 130 Meet-Up members, we have 241 Facebook Friends, 348 Twitter Followers and 974 Signups on our website.

We maintain a growing Tree Registry with over 250 fruit trees or harvest sites of variable productivity and availability that have been identified in Baltimore City and County.

In Fall 2013, our Harvest Hotline was established to create an easy way for the public to report fruit picking opportunities, and allow for a quick response by the Harvest Team.

[Got Fruit? If you know of fruit trees we can harvest, call or text our Harvest Hotline: 443-562-8483]

We have also strengthened our network through strategic program partnerships. These included:

Group from the Village Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, KS learned about urban agroforestry, how to prune and care for an orchard (at Genesee Orchard), how to plant an orchard (at Lakeland Presbyterian Church) as well as how to engage neighbors in supporting a neighborhood orchard.

apple trees on the median strip

Orchard pruning it and cleaning it up

trees with us a week before they planted six trees to begin their orchard. We spoke at Church on the morning of the planting and then planted at the site with more than 50 congregants.

course for us at St Vincent de Paul’s based on locally available fresh fruit

We have also shared our mission and experience through presentations to the Baltimore community. In 2013, the BOP was invited to present to the following groups about the nature and impact of our work:

(coordinated by the Baltimore Ecosystem Study - September 2013)

(April 2013)

The Baltimore Orchard Project also builds capacity, community and connections with our volunteers throughout the year through a variety of fun and educational opportunities, including workshops and meetups. In addition, we participate in and support initiatives of fellow nonpro!ts:

Vineyards

Carroll’s Hundred with Pivot Point

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Education

The Baltimore Orchard Project has created two important new education opportunities to serve the Baltimore community.

FRUIT AND NUT TREE ACADEMY We inaugurated our advanced training program in fruit and nut tree propagation, planting, maintenance and harvesting. With a registration capped at 30 students, this program was over-subscribed a month before it began. Training includes tree basics; site selection, design, and tree maintenance; pruning; pest and disease ID and management, and more. Select graduates will serve as BOP site consultants. Academy graduates will use their newly-gained knowledge in all sorts of ways: from better managing fruit and nut trees in their own backyards to serving as BOP volunteer site consultants to assisting their organizations in their own fruit tree planting and growing programs. This program has the support of Tree Baltimore and Baltimore TreeKeepers.

GENESEE ORCHARD In 2013, the BOP was given the opportunity to manage and harvest a 100-tree pear orchard that had been abandoned for over 10 years. Over this past year, we have begun to study, clean, maintain, and care for it in the hopes that it will one day produce an abundance of fruit for us to harvest and give away. Meanwhile, the orchard serves as a lab and training site for groups of volunteers and a lovely venue for meet ups and celebrations. The orchard is being cared for in part by a manager funded by the 32 contributors to our summer 2013 GiveCorps “Save an Orchard” campaign. We thank Curt Sherrer and Millstone Cellars for generously sharing this orchard with us.

Stewardship BOP’s connection to our trees doesn’t end with their planting. We continue to work with our planting partners for 2-3 years to make sure the trees get the care they deserve and our partners gain the knowledge they need. In December, we worked with 30 students at Holabird Academy on the trees they planted a few years ago (even before the BOP began!). To date, we have 186 trees in our nascent Stewardship Project.

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Annual Report 2013“Creating a patch of Eden in every neighborhood”Baltimore Orchard Project

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Initiatives On Tap For 2014We will be delving deeply into developing a Network of Food Forests designed to respond to the overlapping issues of food security, stormwater, vacant land, and local resilience, thereby enabling us to better withstand future environmental, weather, distribution, social or economic disruptions. We will be offering workshops on the nature and construction of food forests; recipe books based on foods that can be grown in local food forests; cooking and nutrition demonstrations; and the planting of a network of sites to create Baltimore’s Feast of Food Forests.

Partners in this expanded initiative include:

GBMC orchard planting

Garrison Forest School orchard planting

Old Goucher Community orchard planting

Loyola College orchard planting

Oliver Neighborhood and Sixth Branch planting

Johns Hopkins University Homewood Mansion

(Historical Demonstration)

Banner Neighborhoods – community planting and education

Belair-Edison - community planting and education

Kadampa Meditation Center – food forest planting

Clifton Park/Civics Works

Cylburn Arboretum

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Additional Community Partnerships Baltimore Orchard Project works in concert with many Baltimore leaders to foster an environment of caring and sharing and promote a culture of civic fruit in urban environments.

Planting

Baltimore City Department of Sustainability

Catherine Rogers Arthur, Director and Curator, Homewood Mansion

Erik Dihle, TreeBaltimore

Eric Kelly, Charm City Farms

University of Maryland, Baltimore Go Green

Market Distribution

Linden Ave Market

Real Food Farm

Whitelock Farm

Nutrition and Food Preparation

Maryland University of Integrated Health (MUIH) food forest cookbook and cooking demonstrations

PolicyMark Cameron

Baltimore Office of SustainabilityCity’s Open Spaces Green Pattern Book

Hugh Pocock MICA Summer 2013

Urban Agriculture Course

University of MarylandFrancis King Carey School of Law

Environmental Law Society (review of the status of planting fruit trees on public lands)

Baltimore Ecosystem StudyMorgan Grove, Team Leader USDA (Forest Service)

Baltimore Field Station

Dr. Chris Swan – UMBC

Towson UniversityEnvironmental Geography course (assessing attitude of Baltimore County

to fruit tree planting at public schools)

Civic Works (Real Food Farm)

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Annual Report 2013“Creating a patch of Eden in every neighborhood”Baltimore Orchard Project

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Governance, Administration And Financial Support

Gary Ashbeck, Baltimore City SproutsNed Atwater, Atwaters

Miriam Avins, Baltimore Green SpaceAmy Bonitz, American Communities Trust

David Carroll, former Director of Baltimore County’s Office of Sustainability

Pam Charshee, Carroll’s Hundred, Carroll Park FoundationAbby Cocke, Baltimore Office of Sustainability

Diana Cohen, former Director, Baltimore County’s Growing Home campaign

Erik Dihle, Baltimore City ArboristMarla Emery, Research Geographer, USDA Forest

Service, Northern Research StationAnna Evans-Goldstein – CGRN

Anne Fleshman, VolunteerBrent Flickinger, Baltimore City Planning Department

Kristen Humphrey, VolunteerKatrina Krause, Baltimore Ecosystem Study

Shelley List, VolunteerDuncan Moore, Old York Forest Garden

Russ Moss, Baltimore City Forestry Board and Baltimore City Farms

Charles Murphy, TreeBaltimoreMargie Roswell, Volunteer

Jill Wrigley, Open Society Institute, Baltimore Community Fellow – Good to Grow

Nina Beth Cardin, Founder and Director Baltimore Orchard Project

Staff Benjamin Howard, Harvest and Planting Coordinator

Emily Barbo, Summer Harvest CoordinatorEric Kelly, Orchard manager and Academy faculty

Dr. Karen Maguylo, Academy faculty

Site Consultants(BOP volunteer site consultants serve as technical advisors assisting our planting partners and fruit tree owners over a

period of 1-3 years in quality design, planning and care of their fruit and nut trees.)

Paul Dorsey, Master GardenerEric Kelly, Master Gardener,

(Compost and Permaculture Certified)Dr. Karen Maguylo, PhD in fruit tree propagation

Key Financial PartnersAnonymous

BGECSX

Mitzvah FundBetty Lee and Dudley P. Diggs Memorial Fund

The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore – Change for ChangeGiveCorps Friends– Save the Orchard Campaign

Lois and Philip Macht Philanthropic FundKathy and Sandy Shapiro

Koinonia FoundationUnited Way of Central Maryland

Matt Wyskiel

Donors in KindMars Supermarket (harvest bags)

Cathedral of the Incarnation (meeting space)Curt Sherrer (Genesse Orchard)

TreeBaltimore (fruit trees)

THANK YOU to the following individuals for donating their time, talents and support:

Barbara Bachur - EditingShari Bacsardi – Rosenberg, Martin, Greenberg, LLP

Carrie Burns - Social Media and MarketingCheryl Casciani - Baltimore Community Foundation

Dawna Cobb - AdvisorJudith Dolehanty - Administrative Support

Paul Dorsey - Field LeadershipTami Elizabeth - Graphic DesignSteve Getlein - Special ProjectsQuandra Gray - Graphic Design

Chris Herrmann - AdvisorBeth Lacey - cooking demonstration

Shelley List - CommunicationsJacqueline Murray - Website Content

Joseph Rabinowicz -Rosenberg Martin Greenberg, LLPMargie Roswell - Website Developer

Kathy Shulman (Advisor)Mary Zajac - Editing

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Annual Report 2013“Creating a patch of Eden in every neighborhood”Baltimore Orchard Project

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Baltimore Orchard Project is fiscally sponsored by Civic Works – a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Donations made out to BOP can be sent to:

Civic Works 2701 St. Lo Drive Baltimore, MD 21213

Or online at www.baltimoreorchard.org

Got Fruit? If you know of fruit trees we can harvest, call or text our Harvest Hotline: 443-562-8483

Report designed by: Quandra Gray | www.skyebo.com