Friends of Pipers Orchard

February 9th winter pruning work party

ritzen — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 06:14:30 +0000

A number of new as well as seasoned volunteers showed up for the winter pruning work party on February 9th. We were pleased that a number of trees had already been pruned. Work party leader Bob Baines shared his approach on winter pruning with those looking for expert guidance. Several of us got involved in either moving large quantities of mulch up to a number of the trees or clearing away the large Oregon Grape growth above the Piper’s Orchard information sign, which has blocked a clear view of the orchard from that vantage point. Good job, everyone. Thanks!

Bob discusses winter pruning with some of the volunteers.

Bruce is pruning his “adopted” King apple tree.

Pruning and mulching.

Will’s ready for another load of mulch.

Some good results for Meriam and Dave. And enough twigs left over to make a wreath.

Wilma and Bob review the pruning job.

Check out the improved visibility of the orchard from the information sign.

January Apple Wassailing Party

ritzen — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 05:27:49 +0000

On January 12th, we were blessed with the presence of Sound and Fury Morris dancers, and other Morris dancer groups from as far away as Portland and Vancouver, B.C. We had a Wassail King – David Frances, and a Wassail Queen – Lily Zaborski. We had merriment, dancing, tree toasting, noise making, hot mulled cider, hot chocolate, treats and a good number of visitors. And, we had sunny, if chilly, weather. A perfect January day. Following are some pictures from the event.

Visitors learned about the history of apple wassailing as well as Piper’s Orchard.

Hark! I hear some bells, some marching, some music!

All kinds of instruments and costumes.

Celebrants and the Wassail King.

Let’s have some cider to warm up.

Wassailers check out the Piper’s Orchard story.

One of the wassailers learned that mud can be somewhat slippery.
The end.

2012 Rootbound: Heaven and Earth in Piper’s Orchard

ritzen — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:03:07 +0000

The Rootbound: Heaven and Earth sculpture installations opened on June 23rd. There are 3 in the orchard, and they will be on display through the end of October.

The Orchard Room

Fruitless Grafting

A M’s Mended Heart

2012 Piper’s Orchard Festival of Fruit

ritzen — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 21:17:16 +0000

6th annual festival was a great success, with about 275 attendees, tasty fresh-pressed cider, 11 terrific pies in the pie contest, tasty pies and cider available from Tillie’s Cafe, music by Blue Star Creeper, kids crafts, informative booths, a trip to Piper’s Orchard, wonderful weather, and electricity – which greatly facilitated the interesting presentations in the Carkeek Park Environmental Learning Center.

We thank all the volunteers who helped make the festival a success (including Boy Scouts, Campfire and Hillel), the Holman Road QFC that provided us with a generous gift card to purchase supplies, Swansons Nursery that provided a $50 gift card for the winning pie, Starbucks for tasty coffee, and Seattle Parks and Recreation for providing staffing and facilities in support of the festival.

Following are photos from the festival.

Click to view slideshow.

Particular thanks go out to:

Presenters Tim Smith and Kathy Mendelson
Tillie’s Cafe lead Fran Clifton with kitchen support Robert and Judy
Pie Contest lead Jenn Dunlap, and judges Lori Brakken, Jon Rowley, Bob Norton
Cider presser Will Murray
Music lead Will Morgan
Artist in residence Dave Francis
Apple health and harvest coordinator Don Ricks
Set-up lead Ingela Wanerstrand
Master of ceremonies Bob Baines
Seattle Parks and Recreation staff and volunteer coordinator Brian Gay – Mr Signage

January 2012 snow pictures

ritzen — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 23:01:59 +0000

We got down to the orchard during the snowstorm in mid-January. Here are a couple of pics.

: Happy Day for some sledders in the orchard

: One of the art pieces from last year may serve as home to some bees this year.

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.