Online answer to a produce problem

Is your tree groaning or your backyard drowning in feijoas as the fruit's short, sharp season produces an onslaught of the distinctive-smelling green delicacy?

Or are you in need of more of the juicy-fleshed, egg-shaped, sweet-tasting treat, which only fruit in a small window between March and June?

Both sides of this fruit-filled conundrum are being answered with the creation of a new online forum called the Katikati Fruit & Vege Swap page.

Katikati couple Tomo Hay and Erin Cooper had a ‘why don't we help' moment last month.

'There was a post on the Katikati Buy, Sell, Exchange page on Facebook from a lady who was asking for her grandma, who is in one of the retirement homes; apparently they don't get a lot of fruit.

'And she just asked if anyone had any spare fruit and there was a really good response.

'And heaps of people offering feijoas – more than she could pick up – and I said: ‘Oh someone should start a page so we can all swap or spare fruit and vegetables'.”

'And everyone said: ‘Go on – do it'. So my partner Tomo created the page on Facebook on April 13.

'And we were getting ‘adds' by the minute. Now it's got 129 members.”

Erin says the idea of the page is people can make posts offering local produce for free or to swap with other residents – ensuring everyone enjoys fresh, tasty fruit and vegetables.

'We're just hoping if it can keep rolling until summer, when all the fruit is ripening – we are kind of in the down season now for everything apart from feijoas – then it will be great.”

'It's about using our local produce and saving stuff from going to waste – and giving everyone access to fresh fruit.

'Because there are people who want fresh fruit and others who let produce drop from trees and go to waste.”

Erin says people are welcome to suggest other types of food to swap, with one person recently suggesting seed-swapping. The act also avoids dull-tasting supermarket produce.

'Even if people have overloads of a certain fruit – and others wanting it for jam or bottling – the good thing about the page is it answers the call from both sides.”

To see the page, visit Facebook and type in ‘Katikati Fruit & Vege Swap'.

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