Thursday, September 26, 2019

Notes on Holistic Orcharding

Holistic Orcaharding was not pioneered here on the hill. It is the result of Michael Phillips distilling 20 odd years of tinkering with the Organic process and by scientific trial, along with a bit of haphazardness, founding a new approach to growing fruit. It could equally be applied to cultivating annuals. In my search for a way to grow food that would avoid the pitfalls of conventional methods, I happened upon his writings. Mr. Phillips helped me find this hillside. So, if you really like what you have stumbled upon, write him and thank him for putting one more grower on a path to both heal the planet and grow delicious and nutritious food. If you are truly curious about the whole process, ask your local Library to Inter-Library Loan you a copy of The Holistic Orchard, then curl up with a cider this winter and read all about his journey and our approach to bringing you an apple.

One of the apples you ate might have been in the picture above. This is what they looked like the first week of June. We had yet to spray clay. It is best to hold off until the fruit are a bit bigger. This year, with all the dark skies and abundant rain all spring, along with winter holding on a month later than usual, the blooms and resulting sets were all at least two weeks late. Stihl, we apple on.....

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