From junkyard to orchard

Hard to imagine on Friday, as a dozen volunteers worked their way through wet grass to a healthy apple orchard, plucking crisp, ripe Liberty apples off the trees and filling 70 lug boxes with fruit.

Over the past six years, the former eyesore and illegal dump outside Roy has been transformed – mostly with federal funds – into fruit trees and low-income housing.

The Orchard Project, as it’s called, has received national attention. It received the 2006 Community Development Award from the National Association for County Community and Economic Development for its cascading levels of benefits.

The environment is better off now that the junk and toxic waste is gone. Six energy-efficient houses clustered at one end of the property provide low-income housing, and the orchard produces food for local food banks.

The 70 boxes of apples picked Friday went to the Pierce County’s Emergency Food Network, which, through food banks, meal sites and shelters, helps feed low-income residents, seniors and the disabled.

“It’s partnerships such as this that allow us to help feed the hungry,” said Helen McGovern, the network’s executive director. “At a time when things are getting more and more difficult for people, it’s important to use more creative means to provide help to those who need it.”

Total cost of the Orchard Project was about $1.6 million, most of which came from federal Department of Housing and Urban Development grants to Pierce County.

The state Housing Trust Fund chipped in $90,000, and a smaller portion came from private donors.

Pierce County spearheaded the project, but it’s now managed by KWA, the Tacoma-based social service agency founded in 1972 as the Korean Women’s Association.

KWA has a purchase agreement with Pierce County, calling for it to pay $960,000 for the property over 30 years, beginning in 2013.

“This is a successful adaptation of a hazardous site – an unlivable piece of dirt – into something useful, including a sustainable food supply,” said Peter Ansara, KWA’s executive director. “Hopefully, people will be harvesting these apples for the next 50 years.”

Good as it is, the Orchard Project has not turned out exactly as planned.

The Liberty apple trees are doing very well, said Sok Dang, a KWA employee and the resident manager of the property. But a nearby stand of Gravensteins has never produced, he said, and plum trees planted by volunteers in 2005 all rotted and died.

The vision for a large community vegetable garden never really panned out either, said Dang’s wife, Sun.

The soil and growing conditions are so poor, residents gave up on trying to raise vegetables there, she said.

She and Sok have consulted with the Washington State University Extension Agriculture Program and have tried to find other groups who want to use the property for a community garden, Sun said.

“So far we haven’t been able to find anybody who’s interested,” she said.

Rob Carson: 253-597-8693 rob.carson@thenewstribune.com