Orchard
- Our orchard started in 2017 with a few hundred trees and more added each year until we reach about 1,000. Harvests aren't immediate, but here are some varieties that are in the ground and growing - we look forward to offering them to our customers ... and eating ourselves!
Apples
Our mix of apples is planned to provide apples that are good for eating fresh, baking in pies, making into apple sauce, pressing into cider, and most other uses for apples. We plant 10 trees of most varieties as we are interested in a lot of options rather that a lot of just one option.
- Braeburn - one of the world's best fresh-eating apple; also good baked and in cider. Green with red stripes. Harvests November.
- Jonagold - good dessert or fresh eating apple. Harvests mid-September.
- Liberty - Crisp white flesh with balanced sweet-tart flavor that improves with storage. Dark red. Harvests mid-September.
- Mutsu (AKA Crispin) - yellow Asian apple cross with spicy complex flavor. Best eaten fresh from the tree but also keeps well. Harvests late October.
- Northern Spy - bright red fruit with exceptionally juicy flesh. Excellent fresh or in pies. Can store up to five months. Harvests mid-October.
- Red Fuji - crisp flavorful red apple that keeps up to a year. Harvests late October.
- Red Jonaprince Jonagold - deep red apple with large size, excellent flavor, and stores well. Harvests September.
- Snapp Red Stayman - tart, juicy taste with a crisp crunch. Harvests October.
- Wealthy - green fruit with a red blush and crisp white flesh with occasional pink flecks. Good fresh but excellent baked and in cider. Antique variety. Harvests late September.
- Winesap - this old favorite has a wine-like sweet-tart flavor. Harvests November.
Apricots
We love apricots - fresh, dried, juiced into nectar, canned, as jam, and baked in delicious desserts. We have a nice variety planned so we have an excellent choice for all of our uses. So far we have in the ground:
- Perfection apricot - orange-yellow fleshed fruit is one of the finest commercial varieties; firm texture. Harvests late July.
Cherries
Fresh cherries, cherry pie, cherry lime-ade, cooked and filling crepes ... so many delicious ways to eat cherries. As our first fruit of the season, they are welcomed sweetness after the bareness of winter. Some varieties we have planted so far include:
- Montmorency (pie) - the most popular cherry in the US - red cherries are excellent baked or canned. Harvests mid-June.
- Napoleon/Royal Ann (sweet) - gold cherries with red cheek, firm flesh. Excellent fresh and canned. Harvests late June.
- North Star (pie) - delicious tart cherry great for juice, pie, and other dessert recipes. Harvests mid-June.
- Van Dark (sweet) - slightly smaller than the Bing; good all-purpose cherry. Harvests June.
Nuts
Unfortunately of all our trees, nut trees take the longest before they start producing delicious crops. We eat them as snacks, bake them in crusts and desserts, and enjoy them all winter (especially the holidays). Hopefully before we retire we can enjoy nuts from some of these varieties we have already planted:
- Black walnuts - stronger robust distinctive flavor than English walnuts, it's a popular addition to ice cream, baked goods, and confections. Harvests October - November.
Pawpaw
This tropical-tasting fruit is native to the eastern US - the only member of the plant genus that grows naturally outside of tropical climates. It has a thin skin filled with sweet custard flesh and a row of large dark seeds. It does not keep long or transport that well, and is not commercially produced for the fresh market. Flavors vary based on variety but is usually described as being like vanilla custard.
- Varieties include: Pennsylvania golden, sunflower, SAA Overleese, mango, prolific, NC-1, and Wells pawpaws.
- We sell them fresh for the short season as well as used to flavor ice cream - extends the time we can eat and sell them!
- Harvests September through early October.
Peach
This versatile fruit reminds us of summer - fresh, grilled, in ice cream, in pie, made into jam, on waffles, and there is almost no end to the delicious ways they can be prepared. Some of the varieties we have growing include:
- Elberta (freestone) yellow fruit with a splash of red. Excellent for fresh, canned, and for freezing. Harvests August.
- Redhaven (freestone) brilliant red fruit that is almost fuzzless is excellent fresh, frozen, or canned. Harvests late July.
Pears
This amazing fruit (Brandon's favorite) we eat fresh, make into sauce for sorbet, poach, can, and dry. So delicious! Asian pears have more apple-like qualities than the European varieties, and there are many excellent non-grainy choices.
- No pears planted until 2018 ... look for Asian and European pear varieties.
Persimmon
The first we ate persimmons, we were not impressed. When our aunt from the Philippines showed us how to properly ripen them into soft delicious sweetness with no sour acidity, we loved them. Half a persimmon with breakfast or for a snack is a delicious light touch of fruit.
- Prok American - larger than most American persimmons. Astringent, which means it needs to fully ripen and soften to develop its sweetness. Harvests mid September to late fall.
- Yates American - when this astringent persimmon is fully ripe (soft), it has a sweet apricot flavor. Harvests early September.
Plums & Prunes
Mildly sweet plums and prunes are excellent fresh, baked, dried (what many people think of as prunes), jams or jellies, made into sauces, and many other ways. Some varieties we look forward to harvesting that we have in our orchard include:
- Bubblegum (Toka) Plum - very popular plum has a hint of bubblegum flavor and smell. Clingstone, red-bronze skin with yellow flesh. Harvests late August into early September.
- Italian Prune - medium to large fruit of superior taste. Freestone, stores well. Harvests early September.
Orchard Tree Care
What do we apply to our trees? The orchard is planted in previously neglected land growing native plants and noxious weeds. For orchard plantings, we will use glyphosate (Roundup) to kill what is already growing. The orchard area may have sections killed if severely overrun with noxious weeds and then seeded with a mix of grasses, broadleaf plants, and herbs that are intended to improve the soil, provide habitat for beneficial insects, and provide understory grazing at certain times of the year. If the noxious weed infestation is not too bad and spot-killing is adequate, we overseed with the same mix of grass and herbs.
Trees are fertilized with horse and livestock manure and compost usually applied under the trees within the drip ring. Small ruminants (usually lambs) and poultry (chickens and ducks) may be pastured in the orchard, but not during harvest or several months before. Hogs may be ran through the orchard for a short while following harvest to clean up any fallen fruit, but not within six months of harvest. Live animals in the orchard introduce the risk of contaminating food with waste and pathogenic microbes it harbors, which is why we limit when they are present and exercise careful harvesting practices. Not only does grazing them there provide added pasture, it helps break the cycle of some insects and reduces the need (or increases the efficacy) of some sprays. I also helps us keep the ground plants down.
Any currently applied sprays to the trees or the broadly to the orchard floor are noted below with one exception: glyphosate (Roundup) may be spot applied to noxious weeds. If this is done, it is not noted as it is applied only to the problem plants and not broadly to the orchard.
Trees are fertilized with horse and livestock manure and compost usually applied under the trees within the drip ring. Small ruminants (usually lambs) and poultry (chickens and ducks) may be pastured in the orchard, but not during harvest or several months before. Hogs may be ran through the orchard for a short while following harvest to clean up any fallen fruit, but not within six months of harvest. Live animals in the orchard introduce the risk of contaminating food with waste and pathogenic microbes it harbors, which is why we limit when they are present and exercise careful harvesting practices. Not only does grazing them there provide added pasture, it helps break the cycle of some insects and reduces the need (or increases the efficacy) of some sprays. I also helps us keep the ground plants down.
Any currently applied sprays to the trees or the broadly to the orchard floor are noted below with one exception: glyphosate (Roundup) may be spot applied to noxious weeds. If this is done, it is not noted as it is applied only to the problem plants and not broadly to the orchard.
- No sprays have been applied to the orchard aside from what is described above.