To fabulous members in Idaho, Oregon, Washington....
My family and I will be on about a nine day tour to visit my relatives in Boise, Idaho to Surrey, BC. On the way back we might be heading straight down I-5, passing Washington and Oregon.
That would be sometime in the third week of august, perhaps I can visit some of you folks if you are along the way, that is, if you welcome me and my family just for glimpse of your trees, I would certainly appreciate it.
Will tell more details as the date gets closer.
Regards,
Joe
[quote="tstoehr":1tf97huz]You could drop by my place. Nothing spectacular. Approximately 40 trees on one half of my one-acre plot.
Apples, pears, sweet cherries, euro plums, asian plums, pluots, figs, peaches.
I'm in Canby, about 10 minutes off of I5, about 30 miles south of portland.[/quote:1tf97huz]
Much appreciated. Will let you know if we can make it as more details pour in. It is good to see someone else's setup, there's always something new to be learned. I'll be bringing some grafting tapes and my budding knife just in case.
Funny, I've read this topic and thread at least 5 times and each time I read it as being started by Viron rather than Joe. I thought it strange that Viron was making a big deal about visiting folks that were an hour away. Duh! I just figured it out.
Joe, you are beyond welcome to come check out my place, but I doubt there would be anything very noteworthy to you. If anything you would mostly get grilled with questions by me 
I've only really been doing this for a couple of years.
I suppose it could be interesting to you to see what happens when somebody with no experience takes your grafting tutorial and goes to town on some unwitting trees.
I've got a maybe 5K square feet suburban lot with 6 apple trees that several of which have been majorly topworked, 1 cherry, 1 multi euro plum, 2 paw paws, 1 quince, 2 feijoas, 2 chilean guava, 1 fig, 1 contorted mulberry, about 9 blueberries, 5 varieties blackberries, 5 varieties grapes, 3 varieties raspberries, 1 black raspberry, 2 goose/currant crosses, 1 black currant, cranberries, lingonberries, 7 evergreen huckleberries, 4 aronia.
From plumfan I also got a hawthorne rootstock to which I grafted Old Home pear this spring. I plan to graft Hosui pear onto the Old Home next year. I also grafted an edible Mt. Ash (Alaya Krupnaya) to one of my aronia and a Mt. Ash/Pear cross (Shipova) to another.
When I write it all out it sounds like more than it really is. Again, most of these things are 3 years or less in the ground at my place. I live 5 minutes from I-205 or 15 minutes from I-5, in Vancouver, WA which is just accross the river from Portland.
And there's always the HOS Arboretum along your way, if you happen to be passing through on one of the days it's open! Not sure how interesting it'd be to you, but they do have a large collection of edible trees.......and just minutes off the I-205 bypass route around Portland area.
Dave
lotus026
Hey Joe, this banter's outpaced me... entertaining my kids for the summer (with rarely a dull moment). I've given 3 HOS tours out here over the years... and would feel I'd need things in pretty nice order for you. We're not close to I-5, or 205 - which is why there’re fewer people out here. A pretty good trek out Hwy 26 from Portland would get you closer.
You and your family are welcome to visit, we've got trails and a nice sized pond too. But I think of my trees as boring when compared to what you’ve done! Though the contrast between available land, situated in a hungry forest, could be interesting.
...Try a contact e-mail through Steven here at the forum if you're so inclined? ...Now should I start mowing and weeding immediately.. 
Addition: try contacting me through the 'contact Viron' in my profile.
Now I'm wishing I lived further South, since Joe will be bringing his budding equipment it probably pays to be the last house visited. Who knows what budwood he'll have collected by then?
Joe, how does your family feel about stopping at various places to look at fruit trees? My GF says she doesn't envy them, but she still doesn't get it.
Viron, I told her about your daughter tying grafts with budding strips at the Scion Exchange all day and she said, "yeah, but I bet she's young".
Jafarj, "My GF says she doesn't envy them, but she still doesn't get it." Wait till you give your first HOS tour, and people are praising your effort and abilities. Have her there too - it's addictive. And, wait till all your goodies come into production, then walk her through any organic produce section to look over their prices and quality. Take her to the HOS All About Fruit Show this fall and let her meet some of the contagiously wonderful members happily force-feeding their homegrown fruit to passers by. And haul her around to some member tours to witness the eventual bounty of our addictive hobbies! She'll come around ~
"I told her about your daughter tying grafts with budding strips at the Scion Exchange all day and she said, "yeah, but I bet she's young."
How young's 14..? Young and rebellious … but addicted to fruit and most of what it takes to produce it! Though learning to graft & prune is a lot more exciting than raking leaves and dragging pruned grape and kiwi vines 
" title="Wink" /> …And I know both of mine are tired of hearing it... but food closer to home will become much more important than it has been, and a young person knowledgeable in how to produce it may be quite valuable, if rarely hungry!
Viron,
All of your selling points work on me, but I'm afraid my GF is more immune than you might think.
I did drag her to the All About Fruit show last year. She was a good sport for a couple of hours, but she was pretty worn out and won't be joining me this year when I try to catch the whole thing. She got involved a little bit by taking notes, but in most cases she wasn't even interested in tasting the fruit. Can you imagine that! She usually doesn't try samples at the Farmer's market either.
Maybe I'm strange, in that I can spend 10 minutes perusing all of the labels to select butter at New Seasons, but she's on the other end of the spectrum. And for somebody who is generally good with money, she has absolutely no conscience when it comes to food prices. I remember visiting her in Florida and she had bought for me an $8 bottle of orange juice from Whole Foods!
Here's the kicker. She doesn't like to harvest food. She just told me this the other day (I've been layed up after knee surgery) and I was almost floored. I think she'd rather dig a ditch. I asked her about it to try and figure her objection expecting to hear something about how it is tedious, or messy or something. The best I can tell from her answer is that she feels like harvesting is hurting the plant. It doesn't feel right. Hmmmm?
Fortunately I'm mobile enough that I haven't wasted much of my first harvest from my thornless blackberry plantings.
As for her being impressed by the adulation of strangers, I'm not holding my breath. Even if such praise would have an effect on her, my operation has no overarching asthetic and is unlikely to wow anybody. In fact looks are an afterthought for me at best. Any efforts to make the yard presentable have been at the instigation of my GF (something to thank her for).
When I have kids I'll definitely have to get them hooked early. I have latent memories of picking raspberries, black caps, and eating fresh apricots from the yard in Yakima and blackberries from empty overgrown suburban lots in Troutdale as a child. Its strange that the bug to grow these things myself didn't hit me until I was in my 30s. Gardening was something that never appealed to me in the least. In fact, I didn't really like the outdoors.
I say its better to discover fruits and vegetables at 35 than it is to buy a sportscar and chase women.
Jafarj... wow... you've had me stumped with this 'fruit problem’ - no 'easy search' for your answer. I was laughing with pity several times... 
I'm afraid you've described the attitude of most Americans with regard to fruit… sad to say. As much fun as I had hanging out in a grocery store produce department, most people know no better than what they sell - year round. And I doubt force-feeding would work..?
I was in Portland yesterday visiting my Mother. She's was one of many I'd 'pushed' a fig tree on. She'd been slow to accept them as food, let alone delicious. Well, yesterday I harvested 13 giant sweet ripe Desert King figs from her tree - the first of many. She's so proud of them; and though a generous person, said, "I'm not going to share these." Well, we family members got ours, but not the neighbors!
I MAXed home late where my youngest daughter and I feasted under our Satsuma Japanese plum by moonlight! What we'd just seen of the big city was devoid of fruit, and I'm sure the memory of those sassy-sweet plums by moonlight will last her a lifetime. -- Yes - get em hooked early 
Fortunately, my wife was exposed to fresh fruit growing up (across the street and 4 houses east), but she's defiantly had to learn along with me as I've pushed the limits of 'new stuff' out here. She'll eat any fig she finds; prefers persimmons firm; shows off seedless grapes; finds apples overwhelming; Comice is her favorite pear, so she’s one of her own; Kiwis are coveted; raspberries hunted down ... and there's little she won't go after now - and anything she doesn’t -- just more for me and/or the kids!
Anyway... you've still got me laughing with pity over your GF's reluctance toward fruit. I remember having the best time at a long-ago HOS Summer Picnic. While the 'menfolk' were off counting seeds and comparing the distinctive characteristics of a Summer Rambo in the melting sun, I decided to hang out with their lady's in the shade. They were a blast! Most only tolerated their husbands obsessions, and likely added the necessary grounding to keep them from volunteering at some isolated apple experiment station. They had a healthy appreciation of fruit, though 'baking' seemed a priority over fresh-eating. But as they secretly laughed at their husbands obsessions I found them all quite sane, healthy, and perhaps slightly better balanced than the bulk of our gung-ho members!
Keep trying, and thanks for insight – though it sounds to me like a predicament best sorted out by the Car Talk boys!
pineapple guavas, Cornelian cherries, arctic, hardy and fuzzy kiwi, autumn olives, goumi, jostaberry , chinese magnolia vine, buddhist pine, fresh eating quinces, gooseberries, red and black currants, edible mountain ash, shipova, etc.,,,,, Too numerous to mention. I would attach a list if I could figure out how to do it. Basically if you look at One Green World, Raintree, and Burnt Ridge Nursery, that's what I have.
John S
PDX OR
I don't have anything except a pear tree that should become firewood, one grape and one kiwi. However, I am a docent for the Portland Classical Chinese Garden and I am familiar with some of the other ornamental public gardens in Portland. I am aslo a member of the HPSO, and their members host open gardens on weekdays.
Let me know if that is something of interest to you.
Mary M.
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
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