Volunteer Newsletter, November 5, 2005

The Village Harvest team that used to meet at Second Harvest Food Bank has moved to Downtown San Jose.  We're modeling this team after the success we've had with the Mt. View CSA.  There are many advantages with this move:  Fresher, more nutritious fruit for those who need it....  Shorter days and more convenient for volunteers,....   it's all good!

The SJ team will be starting its shorter, weekly harvests at the new location on:

Tuesdays, November 8th (and weekly thereafter)
8:30am - 12:30 pm
Salvation Army, 349 N. 4th Street, San Jose

We'll be harvesting persimmons in November and early citrus in December.  Please RSVP to joni@villageharvest.org if you'd like to join in our new SJ team.

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Recently two Mediterranean Fruit Flies were found in San Jose, and a quarantine area has been declared by the State of California. Mediterranean Fruit Flies are extremely destructive to backyard fruit so we are actively complying with the quarantine and encouraging homeowners to do the same.

This quarantine is effective immediately through October 2006, for a 77 square mile area in San Jose (see map). At this point the detection and eradication is limited to a small area and if we all cooperate we can prevent further spread. For those of you that remember the MedFly Quarantine in the 80's, this time the flies were identified early so the quarantine area is smaller and the eradication effort not as severe.  But it's still important that we do what's necessary to ensure that the flies don't spread. 

Everyone within the quarantine area is being asked not to transport any homegrown produce off their property. The Medfly is not a good flier and is spread mainly by people transporting infested produce (most fruit, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants).  For Village Harvest this means that we are helping to educate homeowners in the quarantine zone and will not be harvesting the fruit in the zone until the quarantine is lifted.  Also volunteers in the San Jose area will be instructed on how to identify and report MedFly larvae.

If you're interested in more information about the Medfly Quarantine and what to do about it, www.villageharvest.org, or call the State’s Fruit Fly Hot Line at 1-800-491-1899.