Friends of Pipers Orchard

2017 News

Piper’s Orchard Festival of Fruit – September 16 – We will be holding our 11th annual Festival of Fruit on Saturday, September 16th in Carkeek Park at the Education Center and in Piper’s Orchard. If you’d be interested in volunteering, please send an email to pipersorchard@gmail.com. The festival will run from 10:00AM to 2:00PM.

This year we’re again holding the ever-popular apple pie contest – bring a pie between 10:00 and 10:30 for judging. We also welcome pies and other baked fruit treats as donations to Tillie’s Café. Contest pies, other baked goodies, and warm and cold hand pressed apple cider will be for sale at Tillie’s. Proceeds go to fund orchard maintenance.

Blue Star Creeper will be providing musical entertainment.

At the Education Center, the Master Gardeners will also be there, offering their expertise and kids activities. You can also tour the Wildlife Habitat Gardens.

Kids and grown-ups will have an opportunity to press apples into cider, and bring apples from your own garden or orchard to have identified.

At historic Piper’s Orchard, you can learn about orchard history, taste apple varieties, learn about mason bees, and explore the Orchard Oculus art pieces hanging from trees in the orchard.

For more information about the festival, you can email pipersorchard@gmail.com.

August 12 work party – On August 12th, we’ll be doing summer pruning. Don Ricks and Adam Wargacki will be heading up the work party. We welcome you whether you’re an experienced pruner, eager to learn some pruning techniques, or want to help cutting up the branches and bringing them down to the trail for later pickup. The work party will run from 10:00AM – 2:00PM.

June 17 work party – On June 17th, we put foot socks on our developing apples, as well as tenting a couple of trees, replacing tree tags, and light weeding and mulching. Thanks to our hardy volunteers who showed up to help out. On other dates we’ve also been placing trichogramma wasps in apple cups to fight the coddling moth pests. The orchard doesn’t have the amazing bounty we experienced last year, but the apples are growing well, loving the sunshine and warm weather.

On February 4th, we hosted Sound and Fury Morris and Sword in the orchard for apple wassailing at 11:30AM. It was a damp day, but we enjoyed their singing and dancing, and learned some traditional wassailing songs. We also did some winter pruning.