What does this 95-year-old Salem woman wish for on her birthday? To give away 95 trees
Lorene Bartell celebrated her 95th birthday Tuesday, sharing a home-cooked meal with family in northeast Salem.
Her only other wish was to give away 95 seedlings harvested from a 50-foot-tall Port Orford cedar tree in her backyard.
"It was just an idea," Bartell said during a recent visit. "But I had given up on it."
Her daughter, Amy Dixon, hasn't. She's watched her mom stay focused the past few months on pulling seedlings sprouting below the tree canopy and putting them in pots.
"She doesn't like to see things go to waste," Dixon said. "Whenever anybody comes over, even workers helping with the electrical, and she's giving them a tree."
If she is the least bit concerned about a potential flood of requests generated from this story, she doesn't let on.
"I can put up some more," she said, pointing to a couple of fresh bags of potting soil her son dropped off.
A conversation with Bartell about her prolific cedar tree and her garden and mini orchard confirms what her family already knows. She is generous.
She recently donated 425 pounds worth of Gravenstein apples and 83 pounds of purple grapes to Salem Harvest, a nonprofit that distributes produce to hungry individuals and families in the community.
Bartell requested the produce be shared among several smaller locations, and Harvest leaders reported delivering to St. Francis Shelter, Simonka Place, Center 50+, Head Start and Marion Polk Food Share.
'The most important part of a garden is the sharing'
Bartell's desire to share her bounty has been well-documented.
About 20 years ago, she was one of three local winners chosen to grow an edible garden. A garden center supplied each of the winners with plants, soil and advice, while the Statesman Journal followed their journeys to harvest.
"To me the most important part of a garden is the sharing," Bartell wrote in her winning essay, "not only the food but the knowledge and love of growing things."
Bartell grew enough food that season for her and her family and still had plenty to give away. She donated some to the Union Gospel Mission and gave some to friends and neighbors.
She still does today without support from a garden center or the spotlight of media coverage — which brings her to the big cedar tree in the back yard.
Her late husband, Morland, who died in 1997, brought the once tiny tree home while working for the state highway department in Port Orford. Another one they planted in front of the house, as tall or taller, did not drop many seeds this year.
The one has kept her busy enough.
Some seedlings to be planted in Santiam Canyon
Bartell gets around the property with a walker, steadying herself on gravel and uneven ground. She has a bucket and a trowel in hand, ready to demonstrate how she harvests the cedar seedlings sprouting under the backyard tree.
She easily bends over to retrieve them, using a trowel, scoop under the roots. She drops the seedlings into a bucket before transplanting them into a small pot with soil.
Bartell said she has given away about 40 so far, and is keeping track in a notebook.
About 10 seedlings went to a woman who intends to plant the cedars where she lost her home in the Santiam Canyon wildfires. Others have gone to family members nearby and in Washington. She also gave a couple to a woman in her knitting group.
Bartell has many interests besides gardening. She loves to can — she and her sons recently put up 145 quarts of dill pickles — and she attends a woodcarving studio once a week. She learned to carve when she was 70, after retiring as a Head Start teacher, and helped work on Salem's Riverfront Carousel.
She entered the workforce later than most. After raising eight children, she went to college and graduated from Willamette University at age 58. She then joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in Honduras before going into her early childhood education career.
Harvesting to find new homes for hardy trees
Dixon figures her mom can teach us all a thing or two about kindness and generosity, although Bartell shrugs off the flattery.
"People need to know so they can be like you, Mother," Dixon said.
Bartell could just rake the seedlings out, but she doesn't have the heart to do it. She also doesn't have room to plant them on her property. So, she continues to harvest them and hopes to find new homes.
She has potted another 50 since the visit last week.
In her experience, the Port Orford cedars produce fairly hardy seedlings.
"They don't like to get dried out," Bartell said, "and they don't like a lot of sun when they’re young."
With that said, let's help grant her birthday wish, even if it is a bit belated.
If you would like a cedar seedling, please email Bartell at mabartell78@msn.com
Capi Lynn is a senior reporter for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips to her at clynn@statesmanjournal.com, and follow her work on Twitter @CapiLynn and Facebook @CapiLynnSJ.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem, Oregon woman gives away trees for her 95th birthday
