Hello everyone! I couldn't be more grateful for the rain finally arriving this week. Our orchards have been thirsty, and it's a relief to see the skies opening up.

Despite the drought, this has been a breakthrough year for the Common Orchard Project. When we began with our first orchard in 2017, we learned so much about what not to do and how to focus our efforts on the highest quality, freshest fruit grown right where people live. We've been refining our process ever since, and really launched the work full-time in 2021 with six plantings that year.

For a few years now, the only feedback we've had was from our three oldest orchards. But this year – this year was special. For the first time, we got to see our best techniques on full display as those six orchards from 2021 started producing fruit. Pears, peaches, even some apples! The amazing thing about fruit trees is that while you have some off years – drought, a really wet spring, late frosts, all the ups and downs – as the trees start to hit their stride around 7 years old, you really start to see the magnitude of how much fruit they can grow, and it only gets better each year after.

As we move into fall harvests, we can see what those trees will do in year 7, and it's going to be bountiful!

This is my favorite time of year for planting. We've got installations coming up, our compost program is thriving, and we're building stronger connections across our network of orchards throughout Greater Cincinnati.

Enjoy the remaining glimmers of sunshine,

Chris Smyth

Common Orchard Project Director

Last year we began selling compost, and this spring was a fantastic launch with over 50 cubic yards sold! Our compost is made from food scraps and wood chips diverted from the landfill – turning waste into the rich, high-quality soil amendment that helps our orchards (and your gardens!) thrive.

We've been hand-filling bags since we started, but thanks to generous support from Hamilton County Resource, we were able to purchase a machine to load bags faster. This means we're upgrading from 5-gallon bags to full cubic foot bags – that's almost double the size!

Same high-quality compost, same $10 price per bag, just a lot more for your money.

Ready to order? Visit commonorchard.com/compost to purchase bagged compost for local pickup at Camp Washington Perennial Farm. Whether you're enriching your home garden or supporting one of our community orchards, you'll be part of the cycle that keeps organic materials out of the landfill and puts them back into our soil where they belong

[Bulk orders available – contact us for pricing and availability, it goes fast!]

This July, we gathered stewards from across our orchard network under the new covered area at Camp Washington Perennial Farm. Despite the rain throughout the day, we made it work – sharing stories, connecting neighbors, and distributing compost and plants to enhance their sites.

One of the biggest challenges of running a decentralized network of community orchards is simply getting everyone together in one place. Each steward is doing incredible work at their individual sites, but opportunities to connect, learn from each other, and share resources are rare. That's why events like this summit are so important – and why we're committed to creating more pathways for our steward community to collaborate.

We were thrilled to welcome two new stewards who committed to taking on orchards, and we've already scheduled site visits with three more prospective stewards. We've also been continuing to distribute Common Orchard signs across our network.

We're looking for dedicated community members to help care for existing orchards in the network. We currently have five orchards (in Price Hill, Walnut Hills, and Roselawn/Kennedy neighborhoods) in need of new stewardship. They're young orchards, but in the next 1-2 years they'll start producing fruit and will need increased care. We'll be hosting steward training sessions in November to help you get started. Whether you're interested in taking the lead at one of our sites or joining an existing steward team, we'd love to connect with you.

We have five orchard installations lined up for this fall, and we'd love your help getting these trees in the ground! Fall is the ideal time for planting – those cool, easy conditions give trees the best possible start.

Sign up for our volunteer list to receive up-to-date announcements as installation dates are confirmed. Whether you can join us for one planting or all five, every pair of hands makes a difference.

We're especially excited about our Price Hill installation on November 1. This is an expansion of our very first orchard from 2017! We've learned so much since we started that orchard, and now we're going back to clean up some things and add new genetics and varieties to the planting. It's a full-circle moment that shows how far we've come, and a chance to apply everything we've learned to strengthen one of our founding sites.

More installation dates and locations coming soon – stay tuned!

Reply to this email to reach Chris. For questions regarding membership, visit here or email membership@greenumbrella.org.