Incredibly cute (and yet, no picture), plus a bit on thinning

It probably goes without saying that I am besotted by our mascot (a.k.a. The Hudson Valley's Handsomest Hound), but I just had to tell you that he is especially cute when he is enjoying fresh asparagus. It's hard to capture with a camera because I'm greedy enough that I never give him a whole stalk. He gets the bottom ends only and he chews them waaaaay back with his hind teeth. I have no idea why it's so cute. I'll have to figure out if I can take a video. I have to be able to post video when the apples are ripe, because another endearing thing Weasley does is fetch apples. He won't fetch anything else, though. And I swear we didn't train him to do that!

Okay, apologies for gushing over my dog. I got a little distracted by the tractor and sprayer out my window. I would imagine they're putting another (?) thinning agent on. I'll talk more about thinning in the next few days. This year, we're going to get into it MUCH earlier than we did last year. (I hope!) The fruit set this season is amazing (go bees!), and we hardly got hit by frost, which means there are entirely too many little fruitlets out there on the trees. The conventional response to too much fruit is to spray any number of chemicals that kills off the weaker buds. Obviously, here at Little Dog, we don't roll like that. So I'll be reaching out to my neighbor to hire hands to snap off hundreds (possibly thousands) of buds per tree.

The crazy thing is, thinning ends up meaning more fruit in the long run. I'm going to try to take or find good pictures so I can illustrate this stuff for you a bit better. Pictures are good, right?

A mixed bag

Do you want the good news first or the bad news first? Okay, the bad: Temperatures dropped last night to the point where we may have suffered damage. And they're going to drop again tonight. If we freeze, we could lose any portion of the crop. If it's a mild frost, it could do the perfect amount of damage, which is a funny thing to say. But every crop has to be thinned (more on thinning later), and if we lose just the right amount to frost, we don't have to spray to thin or spend serious money for hand-thinning. But if it gets TOO cold, we could lose it all. That would be BAD news.

Now the good: I had a trained professional look at our current business plan last night and he doesn't think I'm crazy! (Wipe that look of surprise off your face, soldier!) I still have a few serious blanks to fill in, but those will have to wait until the second week of May. (Have I mentioned how bad I am at waiting?) But the basics look good. We're not going to get rich off this place, but we might be able to grow apples without spending more money than we have. And THAT'S good news.

Now all we need is to not lose the crop to frost. Think warm thoughts!

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!

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?

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!