This goal will be accomplished, says ReTreeUS co-founder Moriah Salter, “thanks to our members, sponsors and a recent benefit hosted by Flatbread Pizza in Portland.”

For every pie sold that night, Flatbread donated $3.50 to ReTreeUS, where Salter and her co-founding partner Richard Hodges will use the funding to establish their fruit tree nursery in Durham. This nursery will enable ReTreeUS to install five school orchards every year from 2013 on, by providing space for ReTreeUS staff and volunteers to plant saplings and graft onto existing trees.

Four schools in southern Maine will receive orchards this year — before the ReTreeUS nursery is even planted. Students, teachers and families at Cricket Hunt, Mast Landing and Merriconeag Waldorf Schools in Freeport, as well as Waynflete School in Portland, will have orchards planted and begin educational programs through ReTreeUS this spring.

“It was easy to get the word out to these schools about our program,” said Salter, “because we both have existing connections at each one.”

Hodges, alum of Waynflete and former student at the Merriconeag Waldorf preschool, is now also a substitute teacher at Mast Landing. Salter works in the office at Cricket Hunt School and serves as a part-time art and music instructor there.

Thanks to networking with fellow orchardists and farmers, the word of their many loyal supporters and a strong online presence, however, the mission of ReTreeUS has spread beyond the greater Portland area to schools in Wiscasset, Denmark and beyond.

The ReTreeUS queue for receiving school orchards is growing, but the program always welcomes new applications. “We want to reach as many students as possible,” said Hodges. “The orchards go in at no cost to the schools, and our gardening resources, workshops and farm-fresh produce is available on a sliding scale.”

To learn more about ReTreeUS orchards, produce or mentorship, visit www.retreeus.org or read the blog, www.retreeus.blogspot.com.

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