The Great Waiheke Plum drive

This is a great model for community engagement in locavore living. Plum Drive

This page will offer details of The Great Waiheke Plum Drive. As mentioned in the “About” page, this is being run as a social enterprise.

Social enterprises are social mission driven organizations which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. The movement includes both non-profits that use business models to pursue their mission and for-profits whose primary purposes are social. Their aim – to accomplish targets that are social and or environmental as well as financial – is often referred to as the triple bottom line. Many commercial businesses would consider themselves to have social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose remains central to their operation.

Another part of the philosophy behind this initiative is transparency in every aspect.

• Here are the Timeline, Record-Keeping and Timesheets.
• Here are the Assumptions, Process and Planning records

The last 2 lines are as much the key as all of the rest. It looks at the economics and plannign requirements to make use of produce in glut. Not just the financial econimics but the whole economics of the process.

Having just processed my neighbour's plum tree, the biggest frustration is the huge amount of windfall plums I raked up, about 250Kg from a single tree. Next year we plan to have a local working bee to process them and now we have a model for the job.

This is how we will need to manage our local food production and management, not just for plums, but all the fruits and seasonal vegetables.