Local woman planning community orchard near YMCA for everyone’s benefit

Bloomington resident Amy Countryman is trying to set up a completely free and publicly maintained fruit-tree orchard in the City of Bloomington.

The orchard would be on the south side next to the YMCA. This particular orchard is going to be a completely public enterprise, maintained by volunteers, Countryman said. It would be supported by, but not run by, the City of Bloomington.

Countryman, who explained the idea for the orchard in her graduate thesis, wants the orchard to directly contribute to locally grown and healthy food.

“It will connect people to their food source,” Countryman said. “And it will be very fun.”

Burnell Fischer, Bloomington Tree Commission member and School of Public and Environmental Affairs professor, suggested implementing Countryman’s thesis, the public orchard. He advised Lee Huss, who oversees urban forestry for the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department, to help set up the orchard.

“She helped write the guidebook for this,” Huss said.

Countryman said she used Bloomington’s public forest as an example.

There will be one major difference between the forest and orchard, however. While there are few edible plants there, this project is all about the food.

The orchard currently being planned is only the beginning, Countryman said. She said she views the project as the pilot location, the first of many.

“My goal is to have small pocket orchards throughout the city,” Countryman said.
Countryman said she wants everyone in the city to enjoy the fruit at no price, whether someone is harvesting many apples for a recipe or it’s just children grabbing an apple on their way to school.

Countryman said she hopes to educate the public about their food. Bloomington and IU will teach classes about taking care of the fruit trees.

While it’s a novel idea, some residents are not convinced yet.

IU staff member and Bloomington resident Lituo Huang said she wants to see how the orchard develops after it’s set up, which she thinks could take years.

“I’d go to check it out,” Huang said. “I would want to wait to see if it could become successful. I mean, don’t fruit trees need years before they can be productive?”

Huss said the timetable for the orchard depends on getting volunteers and how the public will be educated on caring for the trees.

“I’m optimistic that we can have some trees planted by this spring,” Huss said. Because the orchard will probably be organic, Huss said that effects the type and number of trees that can be planted.

In the end, Countryman said she wants to make it clear that the orchard is good for the city in many ways. It’s not just about feeding people, she said. It’s also about bringing the community together to work on something and become personally invested in their food.

“It should be fun and educational,” Countryman said. “And it will contribute a lot to our food supply.”