Gardening Australia

SPARE HARVEST

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Helen Andrew had just moved to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, in 2013 when, after reluctantl­y burying most of her bumper crop of sweet mandarins, she thought there had to be a better way of reducing waste.

“The citrus season is abundant where I live and I tried to pursue the old-fashioned way of giving them away, but a lot of the people in my network were also keen gardeners and were having the same problem,” says Helen. “I had no choice but to dig all those mandarins into the ground. It was heartbreak­ing, just to waste them.

It was a debacle and it should not have happened. There had to be a solution to this problem.”

That solution was the Spare Harvest website, which Helen launched in 2016 across Australia. It’s now also in the US and Europe. The website makes it easy to share, swap, sell and source produce and garden items. Also open to businesses, farmers and charities, the website features a global map where you zoom into your location, pinpointin­g the buy, sell and swap listings from more than 2000 members.

“We’ve had a cafe use the site to give away their coffee grounds for gardeners’ compost, and a local Men’s Shed using gifted produce to generate income,” Helen explains. “There is even a teenager looking for extra pocket money by doing backyard work. It connects people in so many ways.” Visit spareharve­st.com

Meryl Aldous, from Nambour in Queensland, has made more than 1500 jars of cucumber or zucchini pickles over the past two years to donate to Care Outreach, a local charity that supports farmers with care packages. She uses Spare Harvest for jars and some produce. “It’s about community and living; it’s about being here for each other, whether you’re giving or sharing. It’s about loving, basic love.”

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 ??  ?? CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Spare Harvest helps people o er and share produce and services, including gardening labour; Helen Andrew with the mandarin tree that started it all; Meryl Aldous (on right) gives homemade pickles to Jenny from Care Outreach.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Spare Harvest helps people o er and share produce and services, including gardening labour; Helen Andrew with the mandarin tree that started it all; Meryl Aldous (on right) gives homemade pickles to Jenny from Care Outreach.
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