HFS Orchard Workshop

The next HFS Volunteer Workshops at the Petty's Orchard Heritage Fruit block will take place:

this month's third Wednesday, 18 May
the first Wednesday in June, 1 June
the first Sunday in June, 5 June

You're cordially invited to help us with:

Doing checks on young trees in the plum and apricot collections
Doing checks on all mature trees throughout the heritage block
Beginning our annual tree pruning
In the HFS Nursery:
- Checking on status of trees and the irrigation cube
- Preparing additional "bath" areas there
Mowing, weeding, whipper-snipping, hole-filling and removing blackberry plants
Painting labels on trees

As always, we'll make time for a social break over cuppas and home-baked nibbles. Please bring your own keep-cup to avoid generating unnecessary rubbish. We hope to see you soon!

WHAT'S GOING ON AT THE HFS BLOCK AT PETTY'S

Dates for this year's annual HFS Grafting Days: Traditionally, our biggest public-facing events each year are our Grafting Days in early August. Over the last few years, COVID has prevented us from running these in a "normal" way. But this year we're finally expecting to run both of our "traditional" HFS Grafting Days:

Saturday 6 August - at CERES Nursery in Brunswick
Sunday 7 August - at the HFS Heritage Block at Pettys Orchard

Details about these events and what they offer will appear in our next newsletters.

What it means to be a member of the Heritage Fruits Society: You may well wonder what the benefits are of being a financial HFS member. In truth, the organisation cherishes altruism: the main reward of HFS membership is to belong to a group with unusually long-term goals, and the knowledge that the organisation continues to pursue these.

The Heritage Fruits Society is a not-for-profit group which aims solely to conserve and study heritage fruit varieties, some of which are over 500 years old. We enable and encourage members to research these, and to advocate the benefits of heritage fruits for health, sustainability and biodiversity. Most of our activities revolve around the maintenance of the heritage orchard block at Petty's orchard, sustaining and extending its collection of historic fruit varieties, and encouraging the public to treasure and help protect this rich and precious resource.

Funds for HFS activities come from payment of membership contributions, and also from tree sales and our public events, namely our Grafting Days in August and our Apple Tastings in summer and autumn. The tasting events and the materials we offer (scion and trees) are sold at very low prices, in line with our goal of encouraging the public to assist in the preservation of fruit varieties. Of necessity, during the last two years we could only run a few of these events, and they have been poorly attended. And meanwhile our expenses for materials and equipment continue unabated: trees, weeds, predatory birds, kangaroos and everything else in the orchard haven't been hindered by COVID! Despite all this, we've refrained from pushing for new and renewed memberships during this difficult time for everyone.

All this means that our coffers have run down a bit - so we're appealing again for the HFS community to renew their memberships or to join the organisation as a member here. HFS membership is deliberately inexpensive, to make it easy to join. Only with the support of many can our efforts continue,

COVID-19 NOTICE

Most long-standing COVID-19 restrictions have now been lifted, but nonetheless:

If you are feeling unwell - even with only mild symptoms - please protect yourself and others by doing the right thing and staying at home and getting tested
All volunteers should endeavour to maintain social distancing at all times
Please feel free to wear a mask if and when you wish