From our friends at Village Harvest:

What a holiday bonus! We thought we were winding the persimmon season down...  then this past weekend we were offered 2 Fuyu persimmon orchards in Morgan Hill totaling about 350 trees. These orchards are BEAUTIFUL, FLAT, FULL of fruit and quite low.  Picking is going to be fun and easy, and there's lots of it - we want to pick 10,000 lbs. of fruit.  Come on out and help us make the season merrier for thousands of families in need.

RSVP by email to events@villageharvest.org to join in indicating the event date, your name, number and age of volunteers.  Details and meeting locations will be emailed to confirmed volunteers.  Bring hand pruners and gloves if you have them.

Carpooling encouraged.  Parking is limited and Morgan Hill is 25 miles south of San Jose. Send us your starting location to be connected up with others.

General Instructions for harvesting volunteers:

• Dress in layers for a cool morning, warming during the day with sun protection, and insect repellant in mind.
• Wear comfortable, covered shoes.  Sleeves help to protect arms from branches.
• Please carpool as parking is limited.  Please let us know if you have a truck or SUV to help carry equipment and fruit inside of the orchard.
• High school age and over are welcome but please see our Volunteer FAQ's for more information.

Village Harvest Preserves - available now

The preserve elves have been hard at work making award-winning jam for the holidays - a great gift or for yourself.  Long time Village Harvest supporters know how yummy these are and they sell out quickly; hand made from tree-ripened fruit from the Santa Clara Valley.

To order, send an email request - soon! - to sales@villageharvest.org or call toll free (888) 378-4841 option 4.  Pick up free from West San Jose, possibly at a harvest event, or otherwise shipping is $10 for up to 7 items.  Payment by cash or check on delivery, or by credit card through the web site.  Sorry, no orders or pickup after Dec. 22.

For more information and descriptions, visit the web site Preserves page.  Proceeds help fund our harvesting expenses.

Please support Village Harvest this giving season

With our continuing growth in the SF Bay and now beyond, many of you may know we're also experiencing growing pains from our success.  Village Harvest has grown large enough we need to add some talented part-time people to sustain and scale our efforts, and the behind-the-scenes infrastructure to meet the growing demand.

Our goal is to raise an additional $25,000 as soon as possible, and we'd appreciate your help financially and otherwise.  Village Harvest is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, your donations are tax deductible, and are also eligible for matching grants from many employers.  Click to Donate online, visit www.villageharvest.org (click the "Donate" link on the home page, left side), or mail a check to Village Harvest, P.O. Box 9231, San Jose, CA  95157.

Questions about finances or donations?  Contact the Treasurer craig@villageharvest.org .

Save the Date!  Upcoming Palo Alto H4H and classes

The citrus season is coming!  We're already starting to harvest the very first of the navel oranges, tangerines, Meyer lemons, grapefruit ...   We're busily planning for our biggest citrus season to date in 2010.  Our first Harvesting for the Hungry date is set for:

Sat Jan 30

8:30am – 12:30pm

Palo Alto - Harvesting for the Hungry - Citrus!

In addition, in cooperation with our orchard owners and a local arborist, Village Harvest is hosting fruit tree workshops.  The fabulous part about our workshops is that they will be held in orchards and we'll be working on real fruit trees (versus learning in classrooms) and in turn we'll be helping these orchards to be healthier to give more in the season to come. 

Sat Jan 23	9 am - 1:30pm	Cupertino - Orchard Restoration Workshop lead by Matthew Sutton
Sat Mar 6	9 am - 1:30pm	Palo Alto - Stone Fruit Winter Pruning Workshop lead by Matthew Sutton

These workshops will be $35 per person.  Please respond to events@villageharvest.org to hold your spot.  We're likely to have more so feel free to contact us with your interest and dates that work for you.