The learning trees

Camp Hamiltons orchard a teaching tool

The Seattle Tree Fruit Society

Founded in 1985, the society promotes interest in fruit bearing trees, shrubs and vines through fruit shows, orchard tours, meetings, seminars and workshops. For more information, contact Greg Giuliani, vice president, at 425-788-7573 or e-mail him at dasgoog@ hotmail.com.

Story by Debra Smith

Herald Writer

Photos by Michael Martina

Herald Photographer

I t’s Wally Wilson’s first time and already he’s hunkered down next to a pear tree, aiming his digital camera at a cluster of ripening fruit.

The Seattle man is tagging along with a group of fruit tree enthusiasts to visit an orchard and vegetable garden planted among the folds of the rugged Cascade foothills near Duvall.

This square of tamed earth is part of Camp Hamilton, a 570-acre summer camp with rustic log cabins and a clear, cool mountain lake with a swimming dock. The camp used to be logging territory, but now a thick curtain of tall evergreens shutters out the modern world.

This is the first time the Seattle Tree Fruit Society has visited an orchard at a summer camp, said Marlene Faokenbury, one of the founding members of the society. The nonprofit group meets monthly and takes field trips to orchards to learn and socialize.

At the camp, nearly 50 apple, pear, cherry and plum trees grow in rows behind a double fence that keeps chickens in and deer out. There are 50 blueberry plants, a neatly tilled corn patch, and more than a dozen planting beds filled with herbs and vegetables.

When the 20-some members of the society arrived recently, they found the orchard swarming with kids relaxing under the trees and eating lunch. Campers washed carrots just pulled from the ground under an outdoor spigot and crunched into them. They sniffed flowers and filled their stomachs with fat blueberries.

The one-acre orchard and garden serve as a teaching tool for the children who visit the camp, owned by the Catholic Archdiocese in Seattle. Campers help plant and weed, prune the trees and take care of the chickens who roost in a corner coop.

They learn about decomposition from the compost bin and the connection between animals and the earth by helping spread manure from the camp’s 16 horses.

The orchard and garden are a medium that can further children’s connection with the Earth and God, said camp properties manager Jon Romanelli.

“We get a lot of city kids from Seattle, Everett and Tacoma,” Romanelli said. “I don’t think they’ve seen a garden, much less worked in one.”

He said children, particularly those who have never gardened, can be transformed by the experience. He’s seen it day after day: in the gentle way a child gingerly handled lettuce transplants, in the excitement of watching something they’ve planted and nurtured grow and end up on the dining hall table.

He remembered digging a trench and asking campers to plant potatoes and cover them with dirt.

“Most of them said, ‘We have to touch that with our hands?’ Within 15 minutes, most of them were swimming in dirt up to their elbows.”

Camper Olivia Hale, 12, of Tacoma has turned compost many times during visits to the orchard. “I’ve learned about a lot of new things you can compost,” she said, naming banana and orange peels.

Being in the garden isn’t all about work. She usually spends 20 minutes working and several hours relaxing, she said. Campers are encouraged to eat as much of the produce as they like. What isn’t used is donated to a food bank.

The important thing is for kids to feel empowered, explained Jimmy McArthur, who served as a naturalist at the camp this spring. “It lets kids be in charge,” he said.

As the society gathered around benches near the orchard, Romanelli explained how he created the garden and orchard more than 10 years ago from clear-cut land and trees saved from a dumpster.

He bought the saplings for the orchard for 75 cents a piece at a Fred Meyer that planned to throw them away. All the trees – except one renegade in the corner – are dwarfs that won’t grow taller than 10 feet because they are easier for the campers to maintain.

Society members fanned out through the orchard, at times fingering leaves and fruit and hunching down to scrutinize tree bark or pruning methods.

The orchard and garden are organic. Romanelli teaches campers to remove pear slugs from the trees with their fingers and flick the pests into the grass. An insecticide soap takes care of aphids. Instead of fertilizing with chemicals, campers spray seaweed extract, which feeds foliage through the leaves. The chickens eat many of the bugs.

“The condition of the trees, given they are completely organic, is great. The leaves are green and healthy,” said Hildegard Hendrickson, a charter member of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society from Lake City.

“The only thing I would have done differently is thinned the fruit, especially those Asian pears,” she said, pointing to a tight cluster of five pears.

She praised the way Romanelli pruned the trees and how he created circles of mulch surrounding the base of each tree. Grass competes ferociously with the tree roots for water and nutrients, she explained.

The society was formed in 1985 by fruit tree lovers seeking more varieties that would thrive in the soggy climate, Hendrickson said.

The experience and knowledge of the members varies, said Greg Giuliani, vice president of the society and the organizer of the field trip. “Some people’s knowledge is so vast, you won’t teach them a thing” during field trips, he said.

But the society welcomes newcomers too, and the group is planning a mentoring program to get novices up to speed.

Some of the society members have advice for Romanelli, the property manager who created the orchard, but they also have questions.

“It works both ways,” Romanelli said of the information shared. “These guys are super knowledgeable.” The experience has convinced Romanelli to join.

So will Wally Wilson, who tagged along on this field trip. Wilson is a University of Washington student interested in environmental horticulture and pest management.

“There’s a lot of experience here,” he said. “They’re not professionals, and they’re doing grafting on their own trees. There’s some very nice experimenting going on. The field trips share the ups and downs of that.”

Herald writer Debra Smith may be reached at 425-339-3197. Send e-mail to dsmith@heraldnet.com.