Why We Need a Better Camera, or Is this Your Momma?

A couple days ago, as I was running the little dog out for his morning constitutional, I stopped in my tracks, one foot out the door. Why? Because there were three llamas in my driveway.

Llamas in my driveway.

On days like these, I don't miss the city at all. (I still miss good Thai food, though.) The only thing that could have made it better would be a camera with a zoom. That and the presence of my friend Zoe and her daughter.

Fun with Photos

Goodness gracious - apologies for neglecting the blog! I'm running around like crazy trying to sell the apples that weren't taken by any of you reading. But that's no excuse. So here are some fun pictures for you to enjoy, all of which have been taken since the last post:

Did I say 85 pounds? Oops.

These guys got 160 pounds of Empires off their tree this past weekend! 160! That's about thirty cents per pound for naturally grown apples. Wow!

Weasley liked 'em, too, as you can see.

Pictures of their first

batch of apple sauce up next...

Before... After!

Start spreadin' the news!

It's up to you Time Out New York Kids! Woohoo - check it out! (It's alphabetical, so we're about halfway down.)

Dates!

No, not the kind you eat, the kind you put in your calendar. I just got off the phone with my Extension advisor (love ya', Mike!) and he tells me that the best, most super-optimal picking weekends will be the last weekend in September and the first weekend in October. Apparently, this applies to Empires and Red Delicious.

This is news to me, as I had been told that Reds are usually ready a week or two after Empires. But I suspect that we can chalk this difference up to the general disagreements between farmers and agricultural researchers. I won't go into gory detail here, but let's just say that there's a dissertation's worth of material in the clashing of those two cultures.

So mark your calendars! September 26-27 and October 3-4 are going to be the best for picking. I'll send out an email to that effect soon. And I will also warn you that the absolute last day to pick will probably be October 11th. After that, I'll have to hire guys to get the rest of the fruit off the trees quickly.

So Close!

I'll be taking some sample apples to the lab today or tomorrow to get the scientific word on when they will be perfectly ripe for your picking pleasure. But, having put a few in my mouth, I can tell you (unscientifically) they will be ready SOON. The Empires will be ready first, then the Red Delicious.

In other exciting news, the logo is (pretty much) done! Woohoo! As soon as I can figure out how to get a pdf up on this page, I'll show you what we've been working on. It's almost as cute as the mascot!

rain, rain GO AWAY

And yet another day is lost that could have been spent getting apples off the orchard floor. Boo on rain! Go out west, where you're needed!

Boy, do we need a tractor!

I'll post photos soon, but today I'll just tell you that Jody and I have been making progress on the non-orchard part of the yard. One of the strangest things we have to do is to pull up apple saplings. "But Julie," you might say, "you're growing apples! Why pull up apple saplings?"

That's a fine question, my friend. But here's the story: Real apple trees, the ones you find growing in our orchard and every other orchard, are all grafted in order to combine what's called root-stock and fruit-stock. The saplings that are growing in our yard are just root-stock, so the fruit they produce would be sub-par. Besides, we have 1200 trees. You think we should have more? If so, you can help me thin next year!

We started pulling the saplings with our mighty Forester, but decided not to wreck the clutch on our little project. So we invited our friend Cos and his (genuinely) mighty truck to come over and play. The boys and the truck made quick work of the saplings.

Thanks for the help, Cos! You rock!

Ridogulous

Those of you who know Weasley know that he isn't especially dog-like. He doesn't get excited when you say "dinner", "treat", "walk" or "outside". He hates car trips. He's not much for barking. And he doesn't play fetch.

Or does he?

This picture was taken after playing fetch with an apple for about half an hour. Yes, an apple. I swear I'm not making this up. We tried substituting a small tennis ball, but he wasn't having it. He wanted to fetch the apple.

I love this dog!

By the way, your dogs are welcome at LDO when you come to pick your apples. If I get my act together in time, I'll make a small fenced-in area so everyone can hang out off leash. If I don't, they'll have to stay on leash. But do bring them (assuming they like to travel more than Weasley).

Thoughts on Thinning

Apple trees need to be thinned. This means reducing the amount of fruit the tree produces naturally. We do this because the tree produces as many blossoms as it can, in order to increase its chances of reproduction. But apple growers want quality fruit. So we reduce the quantity, in order to redirect the trees' energy to growing the tastiest fruit possible.

Conventional growers spray chemicals on the trees shortly after pollination (in general). The weaker buds fall off, and what's left becomes big, healthy fruit. But I can't use those sprays, so I have to use alternative approaches. This year, that means hand-thinning.

I have learned this: thinning by hand is INSANE. It's absurdly time-consuming, and for a rookie like me, it can even be scary. Some of the trees are quite tall, and getting high enough to reach all the fruit can be precarious. Jody and I have both had some heart-stopping moments when the ladder wobbled. Yikes. Also, I'm having a really hard time finding hired hands to help. I had assumed that there would always be guys around who were looking for work. And that may be true. But I don't know yet how to find them. So we're behind on the work. So I apologize for the effect that might have on the trees.

That said, there is SO MUCH FRUIT out there. You will absolutely believe you are in Eden when you come. And yes, I'll have lots of different recipes to give you, to help you use up all that wonderful fruit!

Too Many Apples...

Man, it's hot out and I am WAY behind on the thinning. Wish me cool thoughts!

Worse than Elmer Fudd

I am a terrorist of rabbits. It's true. I don't mean to be; I just am. I was out the other day, mowing the orchard to gear up for thinning (about which, more later). So there I am, mowing away. The garden tractor is LOUD and I tend to assume that critters will hear me coming and get out of the way. But then I see said critters, scampering off in a panic. The poor things. As far as I know, I have no reason to scare them off. Unlike the woodchucks...

How to get ahead in the apple business

Yes, I do favor the low-hanging fruit.

Conundrum

If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, is this deer my friend? I find it a challenge to believe that, but there she was, chewing on the sumac. Anyone who helps me contain the menace of sumac, well, I have to love. Okay deer, here's the deal: You eat the sumac and I won't hang bars of stinky soap in the orchard for you to nibble on. But we're going to have trouble if you go after the apples...

Farm Friends

It's not only about dogs here at Little Dog Orchard. We have lots of wildlife friends, too. This here is a snapper turtle, laying a clutch of eggs. (This happened a few weeks ago.) I spotted her from my office window. She dug a nice hole, laid probably 50-80 eggs, buried them, and headed off into the sunset. Sometime around September, we'll be inundated with little snapper babies. Maybe you'll see some when you come picking.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

The hatred I have in my heart for Japanese beetles is matched only by the joy I take in crushing them between two culled apples.

Jerks.

Remember that "I am crushing your head" guy? That's me, stalking the metallic bastards.

Lots and LOTS of apples

Wow - okay, first, an apology: I'm sorry I've been neglecting the blog. I making a New Week's Resolution to be better at keep you up to date. (And I'll go back and fill in some of the exciting farm details that you've missed.)

Today I started hand-thinning the apples. See, conventional farmers do chemical thinning. They spray any number of things (usually throwing in a pint of Sevin) on the trees, and the weaker apples die off, leaving minimal work to do by hand. I can't do that, though, 'cuz Sevin isn't exactly organic. So I get to go through the orchard and pick thousands and thousands of apples.

This might be a strange thing to say, but it's good that we have a bit of scab with year. It makes deciding which apples to pick really easy. See scab? Pick apple. As I make the orchard healthier, it's going to be harder to thin. I'll feel much guiltier. Poor little apples. They never got a chance.

This here is the first load. That is less than half of what I'll pull off the first row. (This year, I have 11 rows.)

Now I just have to figure out what to do with them. Compost, yes, but not all of them. Anyone out there have any ideas?

The Fine Art of Literature

A whole day devoted to creating and delivering brochures? Hell yes! Especially when a really nice person from Lincoln Center invites you to bring some by. (Thanks, Lisa!) So yes, I spent pretty much all day crafting the very first Little Dog Orchard Lease A Tree brochure. As soon as I figure out how, I'll post a link to it.  

The great thing about this endeavor is that I get to meet a lot of really cool, nice, thoughtful, interesting people. (I swear I am not sucking up to the reader.) There are so many people out there who get excited at the idea of being a part of a healthy, sustainable food economy that it makes my heart sing. 

On a not-totally unrelated note, check out the Silk Road Ensemble on Live from Lincoln Center tonight. It's a great show!

Total Failure

Operation Double Bubble is a complete failure. I might try again with more gum directly in the holes. I might try Leslie's approach and throw used kitty litter in the holes. (Anyone with used kitty litter around should drop me a comment.) But the woodchucks best be warned: A new sheriff is coming to town, and he's armed. (Hint: It ain't me.)

Operation Double Bubble begins!

The Weapon

The Target

Operation Double Bubble went into effect yesterday at 15:00 hours. The goal? Target elimination. The weapon? A 99 cent package of Double Bubble chewing gum. Yesterday afternoon, I unwrapped the pink pods of doom and laced the area in and around the woodchuck holes. As of this morning, the gum I left just outside the holes was untouched, and there were a few targets roaming around and grazing. So I threw everything into the holes. 

And now I wait.

(For those of you worrying about my mental health and/or assuming I'm turning into Bill Murray, I have at least three more approaches to woodchuck elimination that I'll attempt before resorting to plastic explosives shaped like rabbbits.)

The mascot likes the product!

It's so good for my ethical side (hopefully the majority share) that our mascot likes the product. 

Nothing exciting to report today. It's dreary weather, but good for working on establishing the business side of LDO. I'm also following an enticing lead about possibly getting some technical assistance from the USDA/NRCS on organic transition planning. Having regular access to someone who can give me advice on what the heck I'm doing would be so great! (As would not having to wear out my welcome with my farmer-neighbors...) 

So Many Lessons

Being a new farmer means learning. All the time. Some lessons are big and some not so big. Today I learned that spending more than than five hours weed whacking is probably not a good idea. It might not be the biggest lesson, but I'm sure it will serve me well in times to come. 

Things are moving quickly around here!

Man, let me tell you - Mother Nature does not waste time. We went from tight cluster to pink to blossom overnight. Well, it felt like it went that quickly anyway. I have pictures of blossom time that I'll post shortly. And I promise I'll get better about posting photos. I think Jody might have a few of the bees that were brought in to pollinate (I'm still a bit bee-shy.)

The learning curve continues: A few days ago I went to the annual Thinning and Pest Management Meeting that the good people at Cornell put on. The majority of the conversation revolved around chemicals that I won't use in our orchard, but it's still good to know what the standards are. It's also fun to meet the guys who have been growing apples around here for a lot longer than I have!

About a week before that meeting, I went to a workshop on sprayers for small growers. That was REALLY interesting. It turns out that I really only have one option for our orchard because of the spacing between the rows and trees. So now I'm looking for a 50- or 100-gallon air blast sprayer. If you know of anyone with a spare, let me know!