The Orchard

We are in the process of slowly building an orchard. Last year we purchased a Feleciano peach, plum & apple tree. At mid year we purchased a fig we found for $4.48 and a Satsuma orange a few months after that. This week we bought a Montgomery cherry & Bartlett Pear. Sadly we found out that the apple tree is dead and we will have to buy another tree this year.

We buy our trees from Producers Co-op and we try to get 2-3 trees a year. Producer's only buys trees that grow in this area which makes our selection process much easier. The trees at producers co-op are 2-3 years old so most will start producing in 2-4 years.

This time we learned that if you pluck the fruit from a young tree it will grow stronger and faster more quickly. That while it is fruiting it is not growing all the energy is going toward making fruit. Our goal is to have enough trees to sell our fruit at farmers market or in a buyers co-operative. This is a long term goal as it we will not be able to do so for a couple of years. However, once the trees start to produce we will be over run with fruit.