This September, Common Vision, the traveling tree-planting troupe famous for turning city schoolyards into urban orchards is going rural on a special fall tour that will plant hundreds of fruit trees in Mendocino County, Shasta County, Nevada City, and Chico.
Now in its 8th year on the road, Fruit Tree Tour’s veggie oil-powered caravan–the largest known one of its kind–will roll into Shasta County this month carrying 16 Common Vision crew members and hundreds of fruit trees for a day-long orchard planting at Montgomery Creek Elementary on Friday, September 23rd. Students from Indian Springs School in Big Bend will make a field trip to Montgomery Creek to help with the planting and go home with fruit trees for a new orchard program at their school. The tour will also perform a community planting at Big Bend Hot Springs on Saturday, September 24th.
Fruit Tree Tour will plant varieties including apple, pear, plum, fig, persimmon, and cherry among others. Fruit Tree Tour typically travels the state for two months each spring with an Emmy Award-winning green theater troupe onboard, but this fall’s special tour will focus exclusively on putting new orchards in the ground. It also marks Fruit Tree Tour’s furthest foray into remote regions of rural Northern California.
Since 2004, the all-volunteer crew of modern-day Johnny Appleseeds has directly impacted over 85,000 students and planted nearly 5,000 fruit trees at public schools and community centers throughout California, mostly in junk food jungles and other areas classified as urban food deserts due to a lack of local access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
“Millions of Californians eke out an existence in food deserts with no access to real food such as fresh fruits and vegatables.,” share Michael Flynn, a program director with Common Vision. “The bottom line is that industrial food production is failing to properly nourish a generation.
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