A container in hand, a good dozen or so have answered the call of the association Tous au orger this Wednesday in Vitré (Ille-et-Vilaine). Their tasty afternoon mission: picking raspberries in the gardens of the Saint-Nicolas monastery, located a stone’s throw from the town’s castle. The association has been organizing fruit harvests in the public domain or in private gardens and orchards in the Pays de Vitré for almost two years now.
Inspired by other associations such as Fruimalin in Dijon or the Marteaux du Jardin in Saint-Malo, Tous au verger was born from the observation that “a lot of fruit is wasted because it is not picked up”, underlines its co-founder Benoît Brault. For lack of time, desire, physical condition or simply because they have too much, some owners leave a lot of fruit to rot in their garden or orchard. “It would still be a shame to let so much fruit go to waste,” says Marie-Line, a young retiree who participates in her first harvest.
Gleaning and not raiding
To fight against waste, the association’s volunteers therefore practice gleaning, an ancestral practice not to be confused with raiding, which is considered to be theft. “You don’t break into people’s homes,” says Benoît Brault. We intervene at their request or we ring the bell, we explain our approach to them and very often they gladly open their doors to us ”.
Almost every week, the vitreous gleaners roll up their sleeves to pick kilos of pears, plums, cherries or other seasonal fruits. “We then divide the harvest with a part for the owner, another for the volunteers and we finally redistribute the rest to a solidarity grocery store,” explains Benoît Brault. The apples, which are plentiful in the area, are pressed to make an anti-waste juice, sold or distributed in the surrounding area.
The association seeks to preserve local varieties of apples
In addition to being ecological and supportive, the approach of Tous au verger also promotes social ties and conviviality between residents. “We also discover places that we would not have had access otherwise,” adds Marie-Line.
In parallel with the pickings, the association also signed an agreement with the city of Vitré to operate and maintain three orchards located in the public domain. It offers pruning and grafting workshops there and hopes, in the long term, to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of local varieties that have been somewhat forgotten.