Where does the fruit go?

At ThirdLeaf NW, we pride ourselves on delivering the best, freshest seasonal produce available to businesses all over Seattle and the rest of King County.

Unfortunately, not all apples are grown equal.

While we deliver the best of what we have to offer, several apples won’t make the cut. These apples don’t necessarily have anything wrong with them. Simply put, they do not meet our quality standards.

Still, these apples have value and we do what we can for our apples to make a nutritional impact in our community. We have neither the reach nor breadth as a company to do this ourselves. Northwest Harvest, to the contrary, specializes in addressing hunger.

Northwest Harvest has a network of over 375 food banks, meal programs, and high-need schools and provide, on average, two million meals each month. NH is focused on equitable access to nutritious food across Washington State.

Every week, NH arrives to pick up our donated apples and re-purpose them to be used in foods and the like. In the last month, we have donated in excess of 800 lb. of apples.

Another way ThirdLeaf NW strives to provide the freshest fruit possible is switching our seasonal fruit as the weather dictates. In the doldrums of the summer heat peaches, nectarines, and plums are primarily in season and as such, that is what we deliver to our customers.

We also do our best to source our produce from Washington state and sometimes get fruit from California.

The fruit we have now is juicy, sweet, and vibrant and only here for a short time before the more hearty citrus fruits start making their way into our bins and your kitchen.

Don’t forget! If you happen to see one of our vans or pop-up events, post a picture on social media with #gimmesomeapples and you could win a free week of our service.

Not a fan of leaving things to chance? Schedule your tasting today!