Apple scab on fruit and leaves. Photos by C.J. Walke. By C.J. Walke Autumn is an exciting time in the orchard, because you get to taste the fruits of your labors and share the harvest with your family and community. Autumn is also the time to clean up the orchard, prepare trees for winter and
Toki Oshima drawing By Roberta Bailey While visiting a friend and touring his high bush blueberry patch, I was taken by the thick understory of shiny leaved plants covered in small red berries. Lingonberries, he informed me, then went on to explain that this cranberry-blueberry relative made a great second crop in an area where
A well mulched apple tree at MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center. English photo. By C.J. Walke One of the foundations of organic agriculture is the belief that healthy soils grow healthy crops. We can spend a lot of time battling insects and diseases in the orchard, but if the tree is not rooted in a
A crabapple tree produces fruit that are, generally, under 2 inches in diameter. The trees can serve as pollinators, feed wildlife, flavor cider, and can be used to make jelly. Illustration from “Handbook of Plant and Floral Ornament from Early Herbals,” by Richard G. Hatton, Dover, 1960. Who can resist the beauty of a crabapple
Drawing by Toki Oshima. By Julia Davis one red leaf balances precariously and drops Part One First, pick a sunny fall day when the smell of falling leaves is in the air. It must be a day when summer almost feels like a distant memory, a day when the air is crisp in its coldness,
John Bunker coats an apple with Tanglefoot. English photo. Hang about two sticky apples in each tree, at eye level, and prune away nearby branches. The apples trap apple maggot flies. English photo. A soda bottle with a hole cut in the side and molasses and vinegar in the bottom can trap codling moths. English
“If I’m an outlaw, I’m the ultimate patriot.” Bob Sewall At the Great Maine Apple Day in October, Marilyn Meyerhans, Bob Sewall and Mark Fulford shared their experiences in making cider and with the increasingly complex regulatory world that surrounds cider. For a decade, the FDA has been tightening restrictions around cider production, resulting in
Allen Smith and daughter Isabel selling apple products at the 2007 Common Ground Fair. Photo courtesy Allen Smith. by Craig Idlebrook When I first met Allen Smith at the end of the 2007 Common Ground Country Fair, he had the tired look of someone who had dished out hundreds of apple cider-sweetened snow-cones for three
By C. J. Walke Most MOFGA members and supporters I talk with at organic orcharding workshops and other events don’t seem to mind eating an apple that has a cosmetic blemish, such as insect feeding scars or a touch of scab. In fact, I’ve pulled MOFGA-grown apples out of storage for events in March and
An old apple tree at the Wooden Boat School in Brooklin, Maine. English photo By John Bunker Magnificent, ancient apple trees can still be found scattered throughout much of Maine. Look for them behind old barns, next to abandoned cellar holes, along roadsides nestled in thickets, sometimes even beside a gas station or a convenience store
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