Approaching the March 10 work party at the Burke-Gilman trail orchard… It was giant slope of blackberries v. local stewards, folks from WSU on spring break (“Spring to Action, Break for a Change”), Barb and family, plus Trent from Picardo. Fruit trees and humans, 1. Blackberries and trash, zero. :-)
Burke-Gilman trail on the left, a whole lot of orchard stewarding on the right. At the March 10 blackberry removal work party.
A powerhouse of cross-orchard collaboration if ever there was one! Trent from Picardo and Gail from Burke-Gilman working together. Woo hoo!
Barb demonstrating a few of the many tasks of a lead orchard steward: deciding and explaining what to remove and what to leave, blackberry clearing and root removal, trash and found treasures inspection, fern protection, fruit tree protection and new tree placing, orchard steward protection, and public relations…
More of the March 10th work party. Whoops, Lori messes up with the camera she borrowed (because mine died), and this one’s a little dark.
Most of the March 10th work party.
That’s a lot of wood chips and blackberry brush!
Sometimes photos tell their own story. This is Gail, the gumption and heart behind City Fruit, and Bob (of the Seattle Parks Department) who Gail introduced as “the brain behind the orchard steward program.” Love and respect for fruit trees, orchards, gardens, parks, and community radiates off these two in waves (not to mention how they feel about each other). Beautiful. Seattle is so very lucky to have these two.
The amazing Barb and Betsy at the City Fruit/Edible Seattle book fundraising event. Barb is an orchard steward extraordinaire—coordinating other stewards along the Burke-Gilman Trail. She told me that they started with 6 trees and now have 22. That’s not 16 new trees. That’s 16 found, liberated from vines, and now cared for old fruit trees: holy crap Batman! And Betsy is the West Seattle orchard steward who’s been instrumental in encouraging City Fruit to expand harvesting to West Seattle. I need to get over to West Seattle to learn more!
The very beginning of the City Fruit/Edible Seattle book event at Santoros bookstore. While the extroverts chat, introvert me wonders if it’d be appropriate for an adult to play with the giant stuffed animals on the floor. :-)
