Get Thanks This Thanksgiving With Fruit Donations

For years I’ve wanted to organize a program to harvest fruit from yards of people who didn’t want their fruit—oranges, grapefruit, apricots, etc. And now I’m thrilled to say this dream has come to fruition: By Natasha Boissier.

Who is Natasha Boissier? An enterprising citizen of Berkeley, California who got sick of seeing fruit rot on trees. She took the initiative to start North Berkeley Harvest, a fruit gathering and donation program.

She’s inspired me to transfer my life list goal to to start a program for donating unwanted tree fruit to shelters from the Backburner to my active goal list, where I had it in 2006. Oh I’m so ashamed…originally I wanted to do this in 1997. But that’s what happens if something isn’t really a priority.

Start Your Own Fruit Harvesting Program

Natasha kindly answered a few questions to help YOU organize such an effort:

How did you spread the word to people with fruit trees?

I put flyers in the mailboxes of people who I could see had fruit trees in their yards. I also put announcements in community newspapers and online forums.

And to get volunteers?

I recruited friends initially and as word got around people approached me to volunteer. I am nervous about taking on volunteers whom I don’t know because of liability issues, but I have taken a few. I also enjoy picking alone once in a while. It’s a great way to get exercise and alone time.

How does it work logistically?

• I organize the harvest time and place, let the volunteers know through an email stating when & what area the harvest is scheduled for.
• When volunteers confirm they are interested in coming along, I email them the address. This way, I know who is coming ahead of time.
• I ask the fruit tree owners if they have bags/boxes we can use.
• I also bring boxes I get from a local grocery store that throws them out.
• I bring back all the fruit to my garage and deliver it to local organizations within three days.

Setting Up a Website
Google Pages is a free way to set up a quick website, as you can see from this example. Or you can set up a blog at no cost on Wordpress.com, Blogger, or even use Facebook to communicate with people in your neighborhood.

Postscript from Susie

Natasha may not have been thinking globally when she acted locally, but her work has started an “idea virus.” She says, “I’ve heard from people in Maui, South Africa, Pasadena, Kentucky, & Marin county who have started harvesting groups because of the NY Times article they read. So exciting.”

Here’s a harvest in action from earlier this year when I enjoyed picking apricots through a Village Harvest program in the south bay area:

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I Never Wanted to Watch the World Series

There are many things I’ve always wanted to do—none involving baseball goals.

But when my friends invited me to a walking distance bar to watch the World Series, how could I refuse? The bar turned out to be THE bar of choice for Philly fans. So it was fun to see my friends on the local news. Now they can check their goal to be on TV off of their life lists!

On my SuperViva list I’ll add this experience as a “private memory note” - since it wasn’t a goal - and have it there along with all the other cool and fun things I’ve done this year.

Today will mark another great event to add to my list: Attend a legal gay marriage!

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Daily Gratitude Habit Is Easier Than You Think

I’m grateful for the amazing bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables this year!

A study by Dr. Michael McCollough, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Dr. Robert Emmons, of the University of California at Davis, in which several hundred people kept a daily log of things they were grateful for, concluded that “daily gratitude exercises resulted in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy.”

At first, listing what you’re grateful for daily could appear to be yet another task you won’t get to. Tim Ferriss points out that “gratitude training” is the way to go, to make counting your blessings as routine as doing sit ups (or perhaps more routine for some!)

So here is a real-world example of how, if you break it down to the tiny things, you really can find things to be grateful for:

• I’m grateful for the nice evening light that caused me to open the curtains.
• I’m grateful my food is taking so long to cook, we settled on the couch to watch the DNC on tv.
• I’m grateful for my sense of humor that made me point out a man standing across the street, jokingly saying he was looking into the house.
• I’m grateful my friend had the presence of mind to shout out “I think he’s giving me a ticket!”
• I’m grateful that the parking person kindly let us off the hook. (It was a bizarre unobvious red zone in front of a stairway.)

In the September 2008 O Magazine, Oprah gives some good examples from her own gratitude journal:
“I am grateful for my breath and the recognition that I am here alive. Breathing. I am grateful for life. And for this time alone.”

OK a little deeper than my examples. But see how easy it is to find things to be grateful for?

Getting in the Gratitude Habit

What better use of Twitter, or status messages on your social networks, than to blast what you’re feeling grateful for? I know I know…there are better uses but it’s a good one!

A bunch of people have goals on SuperViva to feel more grateful or to start a gratitude journal.

The idea of seeing thousands of things I’m grateful for compiled does seem amazing. For now, I will at least continue counting my blessings to fall asleep. Sheep are so last millennium.

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La Tomatina Tomato Fight - World’s Biggest Food Fight

Joining into the seedy, slithery, tomatoey fun at La Tomatina in Spain was on my life list after I discovered the event last year.

At some point during the year I’d moved this goal to my “backburner.”

But only again after seeing this YouTube video did I come to terms with the fact that going to La Tomatina is really one of my TOP experience goals. I mean, as a tomato loving, Spanish speaking Europhile, how could it not be?

And THAT is why a “backburner” is good, rather than completely deleting goals from your list. It’s a place to stash away the “someday, maybes” as David Allen calls them. I’m glad to have realized that La Tomatina is a “someday soon, definitely!”

In fact at one time, Lisa Peake of Davidco also noted the backburner as being a neato aspect of SuperViva.

Do you want to go in 2009?

Perhaps we can get together a SuperViva tomato extravaganza!

Better yet if you’re clever enough to find a great last minute fare, well….

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