PQB Fruit Tree Project

We’re deep into fruit picking season right now, but we still have time to organize fun social and educational events.

First off, September 20 will see our annual Apple Festival and Harvest Swap. We’ll have our own hot apple cider on tap, apple desserts, an Apple Pie contest and a live piano players. It’s a celebration of a wonderful growing season. We encourage gardeners and farmers to bring their excess produce to share and trade with others. Saturday Sept 20 at the MAC Community Garden, 3:30-7:30 pm

This is the busiest time of the year in the garden and in life, but we realize it’s been 3 months since our last update. Unfortunately, Facebook is still the quickest, easiest way to keep updated.

We are deep into fruit picking and processing season. As of today, Sept 2, we’ve picked and shared 2450 pounds of local fruit.

Other upcoming events to watch out for

Apple Festival Sept 20

Ghost Stories in the Garden Oct 3

Orchard Maintenance Workshop Oct 4

Pumpkin Carve-Out Oct 25

Just to keep you up to date on the Community Garden as of June 3, 2025.

We’re picking food and giving away food every day, mostly lettuce, kale, chard, green onions and herbs. The peas are in flower. Lots of bees in the raspberries. Tomatoes and squash are still in the greenhouse, thanks to a cool and damp spring. Our permaculture food forest is establishing itself nicely. Other fruit trees are also getting used to their new homes after we planted them early this spring.

The garden piano has been moved outside for the season, and we’re gearing up for a Strawberry Social and Piano Party on June 10th, from 11 am – 1 pm.

Enjoy this gallery of photos, which should take the place of 1000s of words. Better yet, come for a visit, we’re at 133 McMillan St. in Parksville, BC.

We received a great show of support and a welcome cash infusion from Parksville Rotary this weekend. This $5000 grant will help us grow and distribute more fresh, healthy food directly from our downtown Parksville location. We’re already crushing last year’s totals and we’ve barely begun the growing season.

Did you know that Parksville’s Rotary Club mobilizes 30 volunteers per week, and processes about 25,000 recyclable bottles and cans. That’s amazing!

We’ve been super-busy planting seeds, building soil and running workshops all spring, it can be tough to remember to update the website too.

2025 promises to be a big year at the MAC Community Garden though, especially now that we’ve got our infrastructure solidly in place and can simply grow food and community, instead of running a construction site as well. Here are some photos taken at the garden today, to show where we’re at, and what you can expect when you come to pay a visit in person.

ticket sales are closed, thank you for your support

Announcing our Spring Fundraising Raffle! The Grand Prize draw will take place May 3rd at 1:00 pm at the Mac Community Garden, with a prize of a freezer full of beef (1/4 beef from Berryman Farms) or the cash equivalent of $2300.

Tickets are $50 each and we’re only printing 400 of them, so odds are pretty excellent. Buy here through PayPal

You can also etransfer $50 to pq******@***il.com for your ticket.

Please call 250-240-3564 if you have any problems navigating any of these payment options.

We’re raising money to help increase our impact on local food security, by doubling the amount of seedlings on offer to our neighbours from 2000 last year to 4000 this year. We want to double the amount of gleaned fruit from 2500 lbs to 5000 lbs. And we want to double the amount of grown produce from 1000 units to 2000 units. Help support our efforts for local food security and third spaces today.

Get news on upcoming workshops and events, and other pertinent food security and local gardening news and issues.