 |
AppleLuscious Organic Farm
|
|
AppleLuscious Organic Farm
|
Greeting Fellow Apple Connoisseurs
2004 just flew by. I believe that one of Einstein's Undiscovered Theories of Relativety, is that TIME SHRINKS IN THE PRESENCE OF LARGE QUANTITIES OF APPLES. So that is why apple farmers have so little time.
Some of the highlights of 2004 at Apple Luscious Organic Orchard:
1) From January to April we sold many 1 year old apple trees grown in our nursery, which had been grafted last March.
2) Watching the chickens eat the fallen apple petals and also watching these same pesky chickens jump up to eat some of the lower apple blossoms on apple trees.
3) Seeing the beautiful butterflies on our white and purple wild phlox.
4) Hearing the explosive and numerous bird calls in the spring about 5 AM.
5) Hearing and seeing the determination of the bees at blossom time. We harvest and cleaned about 2500 orchard (mason) bee eggs the previous October and then put out in place about March, just in time for them to hatch. They are a great pollinator and also a very friendly bee. In addition we get lots of honey bees from places unknown.
6) Watching the new apples form and when the size of peas they all look the same. Then over the year, they continue to show their diversity.
7) We are still tasting apple varieties for the first time since many of our new varieties are trees planted in the last 5 years. This year we got to taste Maigold, Karamijn de Sonnavile, Golden Supreme, Northfield Beauty. Mutsu, Silken and many more. One of the true joys of having over 200 varieties, is that your taste buds are always getting a surprise.
8) Watching the newly grafted trees in the orchard show the first sign of growth. The sign of a successful graft. This is always an even greater thrill for a new varieties which we don't grow. It is like successfully capturing a new variety.
9) We say a small garter snake eat a huge slug. I even got some photos. It is an amazing process, slow but sure. Those things are so sticky, I don't know how the snake can get them down.
10) We had a family of swallows in our bird house and they hatched about July 1.
11) It is said that the presence of chickens in an orchard is very good for both. The trees are healthier and the chickens get to eat lots of apples. The other real incredible thing to see is our 3 dogs, 3 chickens and 30 some chickens all coexisting peacefully. The cats didn't even bother the young chicks.
Our chickens have free range for the whole orchard, so sometimes, a mother hen will decide to sit on eggs in the coop, sometimes in the orchard. A mother hen is indeed a great treat to watch, since she does such a good job. We had the following birth announcements:
a) a Polish cross raise 9 chicks from 13 eggs in the coop
b) An Americana sat on and raised 4 chicks in the orchard
c) a Buff Orphington sat on 21 eggs, when we found her fairly close to the house. We moved them at night into the coop and she raised 14 of those fluffy little golden balls.
d) An Americana disappeared in mid August just at the start of a very unusual rainy period. About Sept 1, she appears with 8 little chicks. She had sat on those through all the rains. She did a marvelous job of raising them and you would have loved to see all 8 disappear underneath her to warm up. She stayed out with those until they were older, so I made a shelter over her nest area to keep her dry when the Oct rains came. Eventually though, when the chicks are about 10 weeks, the mother says< I've had enough and just leaves them. They are old enough and have learned enough to survive quite well.
12) We didn't travel much this year, but did lots of work here on the farm. We planted 28 new roses, most grown by us on their own rootstock; 7 new grape vines, 58 new apple trees, 5 new plumcots (half apricot/half plum) and 5 new Asian Pear varieties.
13) We sold lots of apples this year at the Farm Gate in our new selling area which we call Apple Heaven. We sold at the new Tuesday Market in Ganges, at the Moss St Saturday Market in Victoria and at the Salt Spring Fall Fair.
14) The Salt Spring Apple Festival which we organize was a great success this year. We had over 600 apple lovers visiting 15 farms as well as the Fulford Hall. The weather was wonderful. The three highlights for me were:
a) a display at Fulford Hall of about 215 apple varieties all grown organically on Salt Spring Island. The display is shown below.
The Apple Display at Fulford Hall
b) showing off our red-fleshed varieties, which we at Apple Luscious specialize in. Note the red juice on the knife.
Pink Pearmain
c) offering people tasting of about 100 different apple varieties at Apple Luscious Organic Orchard. A smorgasborg
15) Deb shows off our incredible apple juice at the Apple Festival. One of the benefits of being on an orchard is to have access to great apple juice. We do not sell juice as we have not got a pastuerizer yet, but we drink our own juice and it is heavenly. We freeze it and drink it as we need it. Hopefully we have enough to last us until the first apples arrive this coming August. That way we have no apple withdrawl symptoms. Note her wild apple earrings.
Debbie showing off AppleLuscious Juice
So it has been a busy year. A toast to your health and happiness.
HB
Apple Luscious Organic Orchard
Harry and Debbie Burton
110 Heidi Place
Salt Spring Island, BC
V8K 1W5
www.appleluscious.com
250-653-2007