No gatherings of more than 250 people in Oregon for 4 weeks, Gov. Kate Brown says
https://www.oregonlive.com/cor.....-says.html
For those wrestling with the decision of whether to attend, public policy has made it simpler. This year's event is canceled.
I hope such measures will help impede the progression of Covid-19 and give our health and public systems a better shot at reducing the affect of the spread.
We can take some solace in the fact that spending time in your home orchard is approved and probably should be encouraged.
A note about membership: Many members, or prospective members, handle their enrollment and renewal at the Spring fair, the Home Orchard Society's biggest event. You can take care of that at the following link either via Print and Mail or directly via Paypal:
https://www.homeorchardsociety.org/join/
For those inclined, there is also a "donate" link on that page. The HOS does not run a surplus, and relies heavily on the revenue from the Spring Show to fund it's activities throughout the year. If you value the organization and its work or enjoy the comradery, please consider making a donation.
This is sad news and somewhat expected due to the timing.
Is there any chance a smaller scale event could still happen? Purhapse the number allowed in at one time could be limited to under 250?
Also events where you can remain three feet apart are allowed, and I think we could manage that as well as a secondary precaution.
This would allow those who purchased grafts earlier in the year to pick them up, people would still resubscribe to the membership etc.
Being the news I would expect turnout to be smaller than normal anyways.
Thanks for letting us know
I have big bundles of "Miss Jessamine" apple and "hey jack," crabapple scions that I was planning to bring. I could leave some on my porch (Prune Hill in Camas) and leave some in the back of my pickup in a parking lot near my work in Hazel Dell (north Vancouver) all next week, if there is interest.
If the scions that were gathered for the event are going to be thrown out, I would be willing to drive to Canby to grab some and put those on my porch/pickup too. Along with a sign reminding people to make a donation to HOS 🙂
Erik said
Davem, that's a great idea.I would also be willing to drive to Canby to pick up scions that were cut for the fair. I could create a "station" in Beaverton or at my families place in the Tigard Lowe's area.
Yes, perhaps we could disperse the distribution in space and time. The virus is killed by sun exposure so unless there is a big mob, we should be ok.
Logistical idea:
- HOS posts to google docs or their website a list of all varieties from their database, with a unique ID number for each - 1, 2, 3, ...
- HOS buys 5 boxes of plastic sandwich bags
- volunteers go through all the scion inventory, dividing each variety into say 5 sandwich bags, each bag labeled with the ID number for that variety using a sharpie. The idea being that it is easier to write a number vs. fruit type + variety name on a sandwich bag.
- place the bags into 5 piles, or boxes, or feed sacks or whatever.
- 5 "site stewards" drive to Canby, pick up their piles, and drive back home.
- The site stewards use 1-gallon pots or whatever they can think of to arrange all the sandwich bags in rough (or precise) numerical order.
- HOS sends out word with the site addresses and a link to the inventory list with ID numbers.
- People show up at the sites and use the numbers to find items from their wishlists. They are so happy that we figured this out that they give a generous donation to HOS 🙂
Thank you Jafar for the update.
I was very much looking forward to some scion for new trees and trying new varieties, and share, compare experiences, and just being in an environment were there were lots of other home orchard enthusiasts around. I'm not all that social and HOS is something I like very much. My little orchard is also one of my favorite places.
At this point I want people to be as safe as possible, in my own circle and the community at large. It looks like we have a challenging time ahead. Puttering in the orchard will help make the time better on a personal level.
Idyllwild
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