Heart shaped bundle in drilled apple tree Piper Orchard Seattle

Piper Orchard is a fruit orchard containing primarily heirloom apple trees, located within

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington's

Carkeek Park Carkeek Park is a park located in the Broadview neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The park contains Piper Orchard, Pipers Creek (and its tributaries Venema Creek and Mohlendorph Creek), play and picnic areas, picnic shelters, and hiking ...

History

Early

The orchard was planted in what was then the homestead of notable Seattle settler A. W. Piper, sometime after the

Great Seattle Fire The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington on June 6, 1889. The conflagration lasted for less than a day, burning through the afternoon and into the night, and during the same sum ...

of 1889 which destroyed the Pipers' downtown business, the Puget Sound Candy Factory. The orchard is located on a hillside in what is now known as Piper Canyon, above Pipers Creek. Mrs Wilhelmina (or Minna for short) Piper was the primary gardener and grafter. One of the Pipers's sons, Paul Piper, used to take the fruit to market in Seattle.

Restoration

In 1983 a group of volunteers began clearing away overgrowth that had hidden the orchard from most people. The Adopt-A-Park office of the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation encouraged the work. Twenty-nine surviving fruit varieties were discovered on the cleared of overgrowth. A tree planting grid of squares was apparent from the locations of the surviving trees, most of which are apple and were available in 1890. Included are

Wealthy Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an I ...

, King,

Gravenstein Gravenstein (Danish: ''Gråsten'', meaning "graystone", after Gråsten Palace) is a triploid apple cultivar that originated in the 17th century or earlier. The fruit has a tart flavor, and it is heavily used as a cooking apple, especially for ...

Dutch Mignone Dutch Mignonne is an apple cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cutt ...

, Red Astrachan,

Rhode Island Greening The 'Rhode Island Greening' is an American apple variety and the official fruit of the state of Rhode Island. History The Rhode Island Greening originated around 1650 near Green's End in Middletown, Rhode Island. The first Greenings were grow ...

, Bietigheimer, and

Esopus Spitzenburg Esopus Spitzenburg or Aesopus Spitzenburgh is a variety of apple. It was discovered early in the 18th century near Esopus, New York and is reputed to have been a favorite apple of Thomas Jefferson, who planted several of the trees at Monticello. ...

. There are also several pear, cherry, and chestnut trees.

Current status

There are about fifty fruit and nut trees in the orchard arranged on a grid demarked A-L going up the hill, and 1-16 going across to the right. About half have been added or grafted from old stock since the restoration in 1984. The orchard is currently cared for by a combination of Seattle Parks employed and volunteer labor from the community. The volunteer work is facilitated by the Friends of Piper Orchard organization who work with the Carkeek Park office of Seattle Parks to facilitate volunteering and orchard work party and community festival planning. Work parties meet most months of the year on the third Saturday to prune, clean up, or do other maintenance work in the orchard.

Festival of Fruit

An annual Festival of Fruit has been held at the orchard since 2007, where, among other activities, visitors can participate in an

apple pie An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. The earliest printed recipe is from England. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream ("apple pie à la mode"), or cheddar cheese. It is generally ...

baking contest or taste heirloom apple varieties from Piper Orchard.

References

External links

Friends of Piper Orchard
neighborhood group website

- Carkeek Park {{coord, 47, 42, 35, N, 122, 22, 00, W, format=dms, display=title, type:forest_region:US-WA Broadview, Seattle Gardens in Washington (state) Orchards Parks in Seattle