Friends of Pipers Orchard

4/1/2012 posting

ritzen — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:30:52 +0000

Check out the photos from the orchard last Sunday (4/1). Looks as though we’ve got some unusually early, healthy fruit!

: Art and fruit combine. This bee house was installed in the orchard last summer as part of the Heaven and Earth exhibition at Carkeek Park. We hope it will attract bees again this summer to help pollinate the fruit trees.

: Proper thinning of early fruit can result in healthier, more robust ripe apples when ripe, though it’s pretty unusual to find fruit like this in early April.

: A mason bee house is already up in the orchard.

: We hope the bat houses (this one near the grapes) will attract residents this year.

April 14th work party

ritzen — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:21:49 +0000

On April 14th, we had gorgeous weather for our work party, and we busied ourselves, learning about the hows and whens of hand pollination. It was a bit early for many of the trees, but we worked on several pear trees that haven’t set fruit for the past several seasons. In addition to brushing pollen into blossoms, we hung up a bucket of pear blossoms with some sugar water in one of the trees near the mason bee house to attract the bees to pollinate the old fashioned way. Don also placed some pollen near the mason bee house so the bees could transport it to pear blossoms. We also weeded around the base of a number of trees and placed mulch around them.

Don places pollen in front of the mason bee house in hopes that some will make it to a waiting pear blossom.

Kathy brushes pear pollen into one of the blossoms.

We're examining blossoms to better understand the blossom components and where the pollen needs to go.

And we're pollinating.

February 11, 2012 Work Party

ritzen — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:43:35 +0000

We had a great work party on February 11th, with a good turnout of experienced pruners cutting down both big and small branches. Then we brought them down to the trail, cut them up and stacked them (pretty neatly) for Parks and Recreation pick-up. (Thanks, Rich!) We even had a visitor from Spokane who’s working with a historic orchard there, and wanted to learn and work with our experienced pruners.

Pipers Permaculture Plan

willamorgan — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:34:23 +0000

Pipers Permaculture Presentation

2011 Festival of Fruit

ritzen — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:07:49 +0000

The fifth annual Festival of Fruit and Piper’s Orchard 120th Anniversary a great success!

On Saturday, September 24th we held a very successful festival, with over 200 visitors, great presentations, apple cider, apple pie, kids crafts, music and a visit to the orchard. The weather was the best we’ve ever had, in the mid 70′s and sunny. We even managed to make the festival very environmentally friendly, due to a total power outage at the park (and surrounding neighborhood) during the festival. Good thing we had a mechanical as well as an electric cider press! Thank you to all the volunteers who helped make the festival a rousing success.

Click here to watch a youtube video about the festival.

Susan Dolan, our keynote speaker, is a historical landscape architect for the National Park Service and gave a fascinating talk about historic orchards in America.

: Susan Dolan illustrates her comments with her book, due to no power for PowerPoint.

Meanwhile, many hands helped press cider through the mechanical press.

: All hands on deck for pressing apple cider.

After Susan’s presentation, David Randal Gould, discussed fruit foraging in Seattle. Gail Savina of City Fruit talked about the Seattle Parks orchard stewardship program. And Ken Workman, a descendant of both Chief Seattle and Jesse Hiatt (who discovered the Hawkeye, which became the Red Delicious apple), described the historic Duwamish tribe diet.

Meanwhile, visitors were buying pie and cider at Tillie’s Cafe, apple pies were being judged, kids were making bee houses, music was entertaining the crowd, and visitors were learning the identity of their apples, tasting apples from the orchard, and learning about mason bees and other points of interest.

: Piper’s Orchard apple varieties

: Seattle Tree Fruit Society volunteers helped identify apple varieties

: Music hath charms to sooth . . .

: Kids assembled and painted bee houses.

: Visitors helped clean out the mason bee hutches.

Finally, it was time to announce the winners of the apple pie contest. First prize was a $50 gift card to Swansons Nursery! Then everyone lined up to buy pie.

: All the pies were great, but there was a grand prize winner, made with apples from Piper’s Orchard!

In the afternoon, many visitors head up to Piper’s Orchard, where they learned about orchard history, the heirloom variety grapes growing there, permaculture, and organic pest management.

: The orchard was in fine shape.

Work Party April 9, 2011

willamorgan — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 02:12:57 +0000

Don, Bruce and Dave left a good plot of brush to get sorted given Will was the only sorter.

Admittedly I also cleared the back row towards the low edge of the orchard of some brush that would constrict a lawn mower running in between the grapes and the two new trees just planted above the path.

The weather was fine, the buds were bustin’ and the air smelled sweet and strange.

Trent refreshed and rehung the Blue Orchard Mason Bee condo!

Hope to see you June 11 at the next work party. Meanwhile always feel free to move a loose limb or two down the hill into neat stacks by the trail if you have the time and inclination.

Work party January 29, 2011

ritzen — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:09:30 +0000

The orchard received the benefit of a skilled group of volunteers winter pruning many of the apple trees. We also trimmed brush from around the perimeter of the orchard, and identified trees that have some disease on their bark. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

We cut all the limbs to 3' lengths.

Adam, Andy, Lily Zaborski, Ingela Wanerstrand near heirloom grapes.

: The Macleans carry a ladder to a tree for pruning.

Work party August 7, 2010

ritzen — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:33 +0000

A crew of experienced pruners conducted summer pruning on a number of the apple trees, as well as several pear trees. Here are some photos.

2010 Festival of Fruit

ritzen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:38:06 +0000

Friends of Piper’s Orchard, City Fruit, and Seattle Tree Fruit Society held the 4th annual Festival of Fruit on Saturday, September 18th, from 10:00am – 2:00pm. It was a big success, with great pies, fresh-pressed cider, information, visitors, and cooperating weather.

The program started with Dr. Bob Norton (a reknowned western Washington apple expert) giving a talk on making hard (and soft) apple cider.

Dr. Bob Norton discusses making cider.

Meanwhile, apple tasting and cider pressing were going on outside.

The MacLeans provide orchard apples for sampling

Will Morgan feeds the cider press while others examine the output

Kids enjoyed coloring fruit and planting it on the tree

We also enjoyed listening to Blue Star Creeper.

Blue Star Creeper

Following Dr. Norton’s talk, the pie judging started, and we were introduced to Ken Workman, who is a descendant of both Jessie Hiatt (an Iowan who was the originator of the Hawkeye apple, renamed Delicious) and Chief Seattle.

Ken Workman got Chief Seattle's cheek bones

Next, it was time to announce the results of the pie judging contest. The jury awarded all pies a ribbon, and selected 3 favorites. People lined up to get their pick from Tillie’s Cafe.

After all the pie was gone, people headed up to the orchard to hear presentations about Piper family and orchard history, viticulture and the heirloom grapes planted at the orchard, organic pest management, compost tea at the orchard, and permaculture at the orchard.

Fran Clifton shares Piper family and orchard history.

Andy Zaborski describes what grapes have been planted

We were fortunate to have a group of Boy Scouts help with parking and directions.

Security staff

Following was the day’s program.

Time	ELC	Outside ELC
10:00 – 10:45	Cider making – Dr. Bob Norton	MusicCaféDisplays tablesKids crafts
10:45 – 11:00	Intros of presentations to take place in the orchard later
11:00 – 11:15	Meet Ken Workman, a descendant of both Chief Seattle and Jesse Hiatt, developer of Red Delicious apple
11:15 – 11:30	Announcement of apple pie judging results
11:30 – 12:00	Treats available for sale and sampling
12:00 – 12:30		People walk to orchard
12:30 – 2:00		Presentations in orchard (weather permitting – otherwise in ELCA) Orchard history Grapes Pest management Permaculture/guild planting

Work Party, June 19 2010

willamorgan — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:43:27 +0000

Putting foot socks on the small apples was most of the work this party…

not that there weren’t other distractions …

The grape vines have taken root and are protected and thriving.

It’s looking like there should be a good dozen trees full of apples come harvest!