Plums, Plums, and more Plums.

So remember that three houses a day vow I made last post?

I um... I broke it.

So, if you look at the map below, the dark red ones clustered around Fairfax are the ones that my volunteers went to today; one more than my promise.

In my defense, I gave the volunteers the list of houses and one of them hadn't confirmed yet, so I wrote "TBD" beside the address. As it turned out, my mother didn't know what TBD stood for—to be determined—and went anyway, which is also my bad because I didn't clarify, but still. So yeah, my poor overworked Pickers went to four houses today, and three of them were plums.

I'm still in IOWA, but I get periodic updates on how the picking is going throughout the day, and I'll be honest, the texts my Mom was sending me—she has been a lifesaver through this, by the way. She's been on every single picking trip and worked right alongside my volunteers from the start, which is more than I can say at this point—were very... pointed.

Yes, I get the message. Plums are hard. No more than 3 houses. I'M SORRY.

But, there is one bright side, I've gotten much better about organization and communication through this whole experience!

This is something I'm not sure is common knowledge about Fruits of Labor, but we keep donations separated by house when we're weighing everything at the SF-Marin Food Bank so that I can tell Donors how many pounds we were able to contribute from their trees. This is something I am proud to say I have been very meticulous about, and have successfully reported back to every single Donor we've gotten fruits from.

This is a snapshot of what the receipts look like from the food bank—the numbers in the name look random, but I swear it's logical—and the system is very successful. Though there was one slight issue. I, as I am wrought to do, got too wrapped up in my IOWA assignments and procrastinated reporting the past picking trip's pounds. Therefore, instead of the simple four I had to match to communications across various forms of media,

I had ten. Rest assured, I will not be making that mistake again. I only have to learn my lesson once, thank you very much.

I just realized I have fifteen minutes until class and I haven't finished the reading, so I'm going to do that now. And it takes a good eight minutes to get to the building in the first place. Whoops.

All the love,

Carrie