July 15, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Japanese style hand-held sickle

All the weeding of the young trees around the old house and the BRC is complete. The farm is suffering from the heat wave, now in its eighth day. Leaves are curling on apple trees and bean plants, and tomato flowers are dropping off the plants before setting fruit. It appears as though we won’t get relief any time soon. Still it’s great to be out with the trees, checking the trunks for borers and trimming back the comfrey, blackberries and bracken ferns that are threatening to take over the BRC. I crawl into the jungle engulfing each tree with my Japanese sickle in hand and hope that I’ll find my way out sometime before dark. The sickle has a very stiff thick blade that attaches to the handle at a right angle. These sickles are not easy to find for sale (try Hardwick & Sons), and they are sometimes not easy to find in the orchard either. If you aren’t careful you might bury it under a massive pile of weeds, never to be seen again. Cammy painted the handles of our tools bright yellow.  We recommend you do the same.  

July 13, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Topworked graft with compromised foliage

Today I spent time in the Nursery weeding the two year old trees that were grafted in 2023.  Keeping on top of the weeds in the nursery is a key summer activity as weeds can overwhelm the young trees in a week or two. I was aided by my friend Bill Kelley who was up for the weekend from Boston.  Despite the heat, we got a lot done while solving all the world’s problems in the process. I’m concerned about the young growth on a number of the newly topworked trees. Some leaves are turning brown while others are curling. This does not appears to be fire blight. My best guess is that it’s the result of a combination of a lot of abnormal heat combined with a lot of moisture. I do not think it has anything to do with the quality of the scionwood or the grafting.  

July 12, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Culvers Root (Veronicastrum virginicum)

Laura and I sprayed all the fruiting apples and plums throughout the farm this morning. One tank (100 gallons) was enough. The recipe is below.  “Culver’s Root” flowers are now opening. What a spectacular plant! We planted it several years ago at Finley, and it is establishing itself, albeit slowly. The Queen Ann’s Lace (Daucus carota) is now in full bloom, and there are thousands of plants up at Finley Lane (and all over central Maine). Queen Ann’s Lace which is botanically identical to our orange garden carrot derives from selections made over the past few hundred years. Laura weeded and neemed our neighbor, Stevie Haskell’s orchard this afternoon. His orchard contains a number of valuable apple cultivars. Bunk continues to weed and neem in the BRC and around the farm. 

Todays spray: MilStop (for sooty blotch and fly speck) -2.5lb, Regalia -1 quart, EcoSwing -1 pint, CYD-X -1.5oz, Surround -25lb, Cal Plus (calcium) -1 quart, Manganese 1- pint, Dipel -1 lb (Many webs appearing this week)

July 10, 2024

First Bee Balm flowers (Monarda fistulosa) with young apple tree in the background, July 10, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today I again beat the heat and went up to Finley Lane in the early morning to weed apple trees for a few hours. Later I returned and painted neem on another 80 trees. The scything, weeding and neeming apples at Finley is now complete. The pears still require scything and weeding, but that can wait for now. The heat was mitigated somewhat today by a light breeze and overcast skies; however, it was still very hot. Today the first Bee Balm flowers opened. We planted a few Bee Balm plants several years ago and now we have thousands; it has seeded itself throughout the entire orchard. The five hives of bees are in heaven.

July 9, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today I slipped out of the house early to continue scything before it got too hot. I was able to finish scything around all—or nearly all—the apple trees. Yesterday in the heat there were no audible birds songs. Today was a different story; I was serenaded by the chirps of dozens of birds. Perhaps they were happy to have the temperature at least a few degrees below 70F.  I was reminded of the old English folk tune, Country Boy: “I like to rise when the sun she rises early in the morning. I like to hear those small birds singing merrily along the laylum…”  (What is laylum? ) The chorus ends, “and hurrah for the life of a country boy for to ramble in the new mown hay!” 

Elisha Hutchinson was an orchardist (and mower) who died in the 1940’s. You can read about him in Bunk’s book in the chapter, “The Boy With No Name.”

July 8, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

We worked all day in the high heat up at Finley. I scythed until about 4 PM when I had to quit and go lie down. Somehow Laura hung in there for another hour and completed another row of neeming and weeding.  Seth the bee-keeper came by to check on the bees, most of whom were out of their hives and massing on the hive-walls. It was even too hot for them. Olivia, our next-door neighbor with the awesome Golden Russet tree I grafted about 25 years ago, stopped by to get some neem oil and a lesson in apple genetics. She wants to plant a bunch of apple trees next spring. We hope that all of them will come from Finley.

Over the weekend we went to the famous Thuja (aka Thuya) garden on Mt Desert Island. The beautiful garden is laid out on the site of a former apple orchard with only one tree left.  Being a big fan of orange and green, I couldn’t resist these Zinnias. 

July 5, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Every borer checker needs the help of a good borer-sniffing dog.

This morning we worked in the BRC, the orchard fondly referred to as Jurassic Park by some and the multi-factorial synergy orchard by others. What does “BRC” stand for? Perhaps “Breathe, Rest, Center” or “Begin Running in Circles”. So many possibilities. In the afternoon we continued to weed and dig out borers up at Finley Lane Summer orchard care (scything, weeding, borer check and neeming) is a huge job, but it gives us the chance to examine every tree - something that merits being done every year. For the second day in a row the weather cooperated, and it was a delightful day in the orchard.  

July 4, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today we scythed two rows of apples in the Finley Lane Orchard. The morning conditions were perfect: not too hot and the grass was slightly wet from an early morning shower. In the afternoon Laura and Alyssa weeded trees and cut out borers. Cammy and I painted Neem Oil on the trunks of four rows of trees and many trees in the nursery. It was  busy and productive day at Finley Lane.

Two scythes with handmade snathes, ready for action at Finley.

July 3, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Bunk on the field with the “Green Monster” on his shirt and in the background

I did a lot of scything and weeding in the BRC and Finley Lane orchards. Cammy painted Neem oil on the nursery trees up at Finley.  The Neem oil either smothers or deters the borers from laying eggs on the trunks of young trees.  We not sure which although it does work. It’s an annual ritual.

Another annual ritual is a trip to Fenway Park, home of the fabulous Boston Sad Rox. This past weekend I got to see them play twice at Fenway. Not exactly an apple orchard, but lots of really really green grass, perfectly manicured and of course the huge and mighty 37 ft high wall—the Green Monstah. What a treat!

July 2, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today Laura and I sprayed the entire orchard with exactly two tanks. Had there been one tree more, we would have run out. Had there been one tree less, we would have had too much. It was rather incredible. We sprayed (per 100 gallons);

Cueva 1 qt, Double Nickel 1/2 lb, Regalia 1 qt, CYDX 1.5 oz, Ecoswing 1pt, companion plant teas 8 gallons

After the reentry period (4 hours) I spent the rest of the day weeding the BRC and looking for borers. It was a beautiful day in the orchard. 

Early morning spray in the orchard

July 1, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

A truckload of apple branches with fire blight.

Laura did a tour of the entire orchard today looking for pest damage and other potential challenges. Fire blight is back this summer, particularly in the orchard near the old house, where a couple of trees have substantial infection. Other areas of the farm have practically no fire blight. It is important to be vigilant and look at every tree regularly.  In the afternoon Laura cut out a truck-load of fire blight. I continued with the task of weeding around every tree and examining the base of the trunk for borers. Once the trees are checked and borers dug out, we will paint the trunks with Neem oil. 

June 27, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

I spent the day in the Finley Lane Orchard making compost, laying down more landscape fabric to suppress weeds between rows of newly grafted trees, scything around the older trees and beginning the arduous task of checking every lower trunk for borers, beginning with row 7 along the woods. While not perfect, the report on the first 30+ trees is good: only two trees with borers. I will dig them out of the trunks tomorrow.

A Roundheaded Appletree Borer can destroy a young tree

June 26, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Valerian in bloom

Today I cut fire blight out of the orchard and completed weeding the asparagus patch. Fire blight should be removed from the orchard as it appears. This is to minimize its spread to other trees. The fire blight has not been terrible (yet) this year, but what is there needs to be removed. We cut it back to green live wood if possible but leave a stub to be cut off more neatly next winter.  

The Milkweed, Valerian and Yarrow are now in bloom, as is one of my favorite wild flowers: Pinks.    

June 25 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Laura laying down landscape fabric in the Finley Lane Nursery.

Laura came to the farm to help with scything, weeding and setting out “red ball traps”.  Red Balls are fake plastic apples that we smear a gooey substance on called “Tanglefoot.” The apple maggot flies are attracted to the red apple-like spheres and get caught up in the sticky Tanglefoot when they land on them. This makes them easy to count. Once we get a certain number of catches, we know it’s time to spray.  We also laid down black landscape fabric in between the rows of newly grafted trees. The landscape fabric smothers the emerging weeds and minimizes the need for more weeding.  We all love that!

I also picked up an old cider press at a friend’s this morning.  It’s in rough shape but could be valuable in the future for pressing small batches of cider.  Cider season is not far away! 

June 24 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

A few last asparagus spears in a well-weeded bed

Today marks the end of asparagus season at Super Chilly Farm. It’s been a great season. One of the things that can be different about living on the farm and eating what you produce yourselves is that the foods all have a season. It has been asparagus season for several weeks. There’s an old expression, “Make hay while the sun shines.”  You could change that slightly and say, “Eat what’s available when it’s in season!” So we ate a lot of asparagus for over a month. We ate it prepared in many ways, and it was delicious. But a now we need to allow the remaining spears to grow to maturity in order to feed the roots for 2025.  Today, in between the raindrops, I weeded about half the patch.  For asparagus to remain healthy and productive, it needs to be weed-free.  Once it gets overgrown it can be impossible to resurrect.  Not quite done yet, but it’s looking very spiffy!

June 23 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

A tray of Sparkles 2008

Today is the height of Strawberry Season which brings up a question I gets asked regularly: how did you and Cammy get together? Was it my obsession with apples?  Cammy’s passion for growing vegetables? Our mutual love of teaching young people? All of the above? None of the above?

Actually it was all about a strawberry. Most of you probably think that a strawberry is a strawberry, but not all strawberries are the created equal. There are strawberry varieties. As with apples, most strawberry varieties (aka cultivars) are selected—you guessed it—for their large size, productivity, firmness, and ability to ship. Not their flavor! The strawberry at the root of our romance has none of those qualities: it’s medium-size at best, unproductive, not all that firm and would ship terribly if anyone bothered to try.  But it turns out that we both love this strawberry and consider it the epitome of perfection. The strawberry is called Sparkle.  

Sparkle originated at the New Jersey Ag Experiment Station in 1942. It is a cross between Fairfax and Aberdeen.  Fairfax is reputed to be THE best tasting strawberry in the world, but alas it is almost impossible to find any more and neither of us have ever been able to try it. (Fairfax was introduced by the amazing breeder Albert Etter who also came up with the Wickson apple among many others.) The only bad thing about Sparkle from our perspective is that once you try it, it’s difficult to eat any other strawberry. It’s that fantastic. When you go to your local U-pick Strawberry place, ask for Sparkle.  It is rarely but occasionally grown commercially, and if your grower really knows their berries, they’ll know Sparkle.

June 22, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today was MOFGA’s annual Farm and Homestead Day, a small but wonderful educational event focusing on skills we all might find useful in our lives. I taught an apple ladder workshop. We made a beautiful ten-foot pointed ladder with rails of cedar, ash rungs fashioned with a draw knife on the shaving horse and a point made of apple wood. A number of attendees stopped by to help during the day. It was a rainy day but productive and fun.

A high-light of F and H Day was seeing Sy Scholtz and hearing him talk about scythes, snaths, blades and all things Scything. Most people think that scything on the farm and in the orchard is antiquated and irrelevant. Far from it. Scything is great for your body and your spirit, uses no electricity or fossil fuels, and enables the user to do large scale as well as detailed grass and perennial mowing anywhere on the farm. The scythe itself is a simple, elegant and magnificently designed tool that can be sharpened to a razor edge. Everyone should have one. But watch out for your toes! 

Three scythes in Umbria, Italy (2006)

June 20, 2024

Keepsake apples. (Frostbite (MN 447) x Northern Spy from NYC.

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today Laura came over and scythed at the Finley Lane Orchard. Later we went through the remaining apples in the root cellar and composted most of what was left.  There is a bushel of Roxbury Russets in still in good condition as well as smaller amounts of several other cultivars including Keepsake.  Keepsake is from the University of Minnesota breeding program and is a superior storage fruit. We often have them in June.  We also picked up a truck load of pine boards sawn by Bruce Potter our neighborthat we will use for making or repairing apple boxes.   

June 17, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

A brand new heap ready for the great inhalation

I worked in the orchards and gardens near the house and barns, doing some late planting and cutting back spring growth to make paths into the fruit trees. I capped off one compost heap with a load of year-old cow manure and started a new heap nearby. The compost piles are 6 foot square and about 5 feet tall when complete. They are built one layer at a time with soft wood poles (primarily spruce, fir and hemlock). The poles are not tied or screwed together; they just rest on one another. The building of the compost pile is the in-breath, and the dispersal of the finished compost is the exhale. When we inhale, a large amount of air is sucked into our lungs. When we exhale, the concentrated air leaves us and spreads out into the world around us. Into the heap goes plant material from throughout the farm.  At the end of the season when we clean up the gardens, the garden-remains are collected and concentrated into just one or two heaps. There they decompose over the next two years. In spring we get out the forks and shovels and spread this concentrated material throughout the farm. That is the exhalation. The compost pile is the entire universe focused in one small space. Inhale and and focus; exhale and discharge!  

June 16, 2024

TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today we completed inventorying the fruit throughout all the orchards. The crop is light but still worth the attention. We sprayed all the fruiting trees late in the day, finishing up about 7:30 PM. Alyssa was here to help. We sprayed 100 gallons:

• Surround: 1 bag 25 lbs

• Cueva copper: 1 qt

• Double Nickel: 1/2 lb

• Regalia 1 qt

• Cyd-X 1.5 oz

• Multiple plant teas: 1 gallon each

Chives are in full bloom but not much longer