Daily Archives: May 3, 2010

Bus trip & Lunch – $20 a seat.  Now open to all WCFS Members.  If you have not heard of Tom Woods, pay attention now because there will be a STFS sponsored bus going to see his innovative greenhouses full of produce on June 5th.  We are holding the group to the 47 on the bus so that we can get close enough to him to ask questions and hear him talk.  We’ll start the day at Raintree Nursery for their 50% off Bare-root Sale, get a tour of Raintree and picnic in the orchard – Yes, and lunch is included in the $20 bus ticket.  After lunch, we’ll head over to Tom Woods for a tour of his All Season Fruit greenhouses.  It is amazing the amount of produce he grows. He assures us peaches, apricots, tomatoes, and blueberries to taste. 
 
When I receive your $20 then your name will go on the list.  First come first served.  Only 47 seats!  We’ve been to his place in the past and people want to ask questions and hear what he has to say.  Bigger crowds don’t allow that.  You can email me to expect your check and find out where to mail it. At seattletreefruitsociety@hotmail.com
 
Also, tell me if you have any food issues.
Thank you.
Lori

8:00 am  – Meet at the Park & Ride at 6810-8th Av NE, Seattle            

10:30 am – Raintree Nursery 50% Off Bare-root Sale and Tour of the Facilities

11:30-12:30  Picnic in the orchard

1:30 – 4:00 pm – Tom Woods Greenhouses Tour

6:00 pm – Arrive back at the Park & Ride at 6810-8th Av NE, Seattle   

 I volunteer for the City of Bellevue as a Neighborhood Liaison, and was recently contacted by a local church with an idea they had for the Neighborhood Enhancement Program (NEP).  Part of the church’s property is an old orchard from one of the original farms in Bellevue.  They wanted to know if the City of Bellevue could partner with them using NEP funds to recondition their orchard, and then the Church would provide the fruit to the local food banks.  Since the orchard is not on public property it does not qualify for money from NEP.  Nevertheless it does seem like a great idea.  The local food-banks get a lot of canned and dry goods but not so much fruit, especially organically grown fresh apples, which fetch a premium price on the market.  The church’s congregation is elderly, and is not physically able to maintain the orchard themselves which is why they are requesting help.  Although, the STFS’s primarily mission is to provide education, I thought this may be a project that members of the STFS may wish to support and donate some time to.   Lorine Brakken, went out on a Saturday to look at the orchard and said the trees are healthy, but are large, as most old orchard trees are.  There are a number of ways members of the STFS, with their special skill set, could help: pruning, and perhaps grafting new disease resistant varieties are a possibility.   Also, it could be the church would elect to replace the old trees, with modern varieties on dwarf root stocks which are easier to maintain.  While none of the above is currently planned, the church does have an immediate need for which they are requesting help.  They have asked for a maggot barrier workshop.  We will teach the congregation how to put on “footies”, and work several hours installing them.  Since these are large trees, anyone with an orchard ladder is encouraged to bring it. The “footie” work part will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday the 22^nd of May.  Come have some fun, and do something good for the community!    Anyone willing to donate a few hours for a public service project please contact seattletreefruitsociety@hotmail.com

Maggot Barrier Workshop

When: May 22nd, Saturday

Time: 9am Lecture, 10am Footie Party Begins!  A piece of apple by and a beverage for the volunteers!

Location: Holy Cross Lutheran Church Orchard, 4315 129th Pl. SE, Bellevue, WA 98006

Learn: How to apply Surround to the Maggot Barriers, how the Maggot Barriers work, lifecycles of apple pests, and how to apply them to the fruit

Experience: Hands on Surround application to MB’s and orchard application of footies to the trees

Contact: seattletreefruitsociety@hotmail.com

Bring: Ladder for working in the trees (if you have one), sack lunch, water

STFS & FOPO ‘Meet Up’ May 8^th

(FOPO is Friends of Piper Orchard)

Potluck, Lecture, games at Carkeek Park

Door prize: Get a free entry ticket for bringing your own cup and a Nametag (you can make one if you don’t have a STFS nametag)

What is a ‘Meet Up’?  I searched the web and came up with this…

Do something • Learn something Share something • Change something

 A Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest.

Where local community gets together to network, socialize and show-and-tell new technology.

Time:   10:30am to 2pm

Location: Carkeek Park meeting room/Piper Orchard

10:30 Lecture: Bob Norton ‘Summer Pruning’

11:30 Drawing for Door Prize

11:45  Potluck: This is Lunch.  Cake, Drinks, and plates/utensils provided.

12:15 Dessert: A Special Cake by Mike Ewanciw’s friend.

12:30 Fruit Grower’s Jeopardy Game

1:00 Presentation of heritage grape to the Piper Orchard, followed by planting of the grape and tour of the orchard.  I’ve requested an electric cart to get those up to the orchard that cannot walk the ¼ mile flat rolled gravel path.  Hopefully we will have the cart available.

We have a heritage Campbell Early (Island Belle) grape to present to the Piper Orchard.  Bill Horn of the Tahoma Fruit Club informed me that there was a Northwest heritage variety of grape from the site of the original Stretch Island Winery homestead that is now to become the Sehmel (Homestead) Park in Gig Harbor.   Local Master Gardeners heard that there was going to be construction on the site and rescued this grape.  They handed off a 5-gallon sized start of the Campbell Early grape to Bill, who handed it off to me (Lorine Brakken), and we will present it to Piper Orchard’s Andy Zaborski who is planting a row of heritage grapes in the orchard.  We will follow him up to the orchard and get it planted right away.  Hopefully everyone will get to toss a shovel full of dirt in the hole.