Back 25 years ago, when Farmer Ike (The Fruit Breeder) and I were getting married in between our junior and senior years of college (how about them apples?!), Ike was considering going to grad school for plant breeding (which he opted not to do) and was already working on developing new varieties of fruit (which he has done).

The first project he started, while we were still in college, gave us a number of trial apple seedlings which moved around with us as we finished school and moved on to work on farms. At one point, we had the apple seedlings growing in pots in our college apartment (which was certainly a conversation starter at parties). To differentiate the individuals, we gave them working names based on characters from the films 2001 and Alien (hey, why not?). That first apple breeding project resulted in our apple “Monolith”, which is, you must admit, a more interesting apple name than the others had. Apples “Hal”, “Floyd”, “Ripley” and “Bishop” are definitely less-interesting names, but “Monolith” is still a conversation starter.

“Monolith” was a long time coming, what with us graduating and then moving several times over the next 5 years before we started North Star Orchard and could give it a permanent home.

The next fruit breeding projects yielded the new peach varieties “Margaret” and “Erin”, both of which are fairly petite, but very flavorful and juicy. “Erin” was named for Ike’s orchard assistant Erin. And “Margaret”? I have no idea. Ike says he just likes the name. (I notice there is no “Lisa” anywhere abouts….)

The Fruit Breeder is back to apple variety development projects now. One, started a couple years ago, is a cross of Gold Rush and Florina. Those trees, now over 6 feet tall are in later stages of selection.

Making selections in fruit breeding reminds me of some of those reality TV shows where people get whittled down to where there’s one left in the game. Same things go here. Potential varieties are culled out based on their lack of disease resistance, a poor growth habit, and eventually, by the taste of the fruit they bear. Unlike those TV shows, however, we don’t take great glee in tossing out the ‘losers’. But decisions are made nonetheless, and may the best variety win.

Please take note: The Fruit Breeder makes use of plain old ordinary plant sex to develop new varieties, not modern in-the-lab type genetic engineering or GMOs (genetically modified organisms). For more info about “Sex in the Orchard”, check out our blog post from last year here.

Just last week, The Fruit Breeder made a bunch of selections from new fruit breeding projects he started last year. Although to us, it looked like he was tossing them aside willy nilly, in each case he was making real decisions on these little babies’ first efforts of life. The ‘winners’ were planted out in rows in our front field, right next to the ‘teenagers’ who went through the same selection process last year.

Now that we have space to plant so many babies, we certainly don’t name them all. Back in the college days, we started with only five babies, so naming came naturally. Now, there are hundreds. But someday there may be only one or two “winners” from these crosses and then we’ll have to go about the difficult process of naming them.

We may have to go with names from some shows/movies which are more current. How about “Leela”, “Sheldon”, or “Schrute”? Hmmm….we may need to work on that. But with long-term projects like this, The Fruit Breeder has plenty of time to contemplate names. Although, I’d still like to know where “Margaret” came from!

(originally posted on Laura Beth’s own blog here)

Dear Readers………

MONDAY:

Today was gusty! The wind almost knocked me over a couple of times in the field. In the afternoon, the North Star crew planted onion seedlings (baby onion plants that we grew from seed and nurtured in the greenhouse). We loaded a truck with Transylvanian Red onions and drove them over to the other side of the orchard, where Ike used a tractor to mark parallel rows in which to plant the seedlings.

We planted hundreds and hundreds of the seedlings today, and we have many yet to go… it’s fun work though. We crouched over the beds toting piles of onion seedlings, quickly pressing their fragile roots into the ground. We stayed close enough to talk while our hands were busy; the conversation ranged from the sacred atmosphere of the greenhouse to the perfect doughnut (Bavarian creme, I learned, is a controversial one).

Tomorrow, we will break into a Tree Planting Team and an Onion Planting Team (“and go to battle,” John suggested when he heard this plan). I foresee some tractor action in my future…

TUESDAY:

Just kidding! Everybody worked on the onions again all day. We laid irrigation hoses as we planted, so the onion babies could stay hydrated in their fragile state right after they went in the ground. We just barely finished by the end of the day, but MAN did it feel good to see Claudia plant that last little onion seedling.

We’ve got five varieties planted, and a little bit of a sixth planted as a test run; we’ve never tried growing it before. If it grows well and we like the flavor, we’ll keep it in future years; if not, we’ll keep experimenting with new onion varieties.

In the evening, we had the farm crew over at our house for a popcorn fest (homemade honey cinnamon popcorn!), and watched an amazing documentary about how corn has taken over the food industry in America; it’s called King Corn, and I highly recommend it!

WEDNESDAY:

Planted trees all day, fell into bed immediately after work and pretty much stayed there until 8:30 pm, when I fell asleep. Don’t judge.

THURSDAY:

We planted 8 baby walnut trees this morning. They won’t bear nuts for years, but it’ll be worth it when they do. In the afternoon, Ike taught us to graft! Grafting means attaching one tree species to another, resulting in delicious varieties. I’ll do a whole post on that soon. It’s incredible that so many of the small muscles in our hands go unused until we do some specialized skill, like grafting, that requires very particular hand motions in repetition. My hands will be sore tomorrow…

FRIDAY:

Grafting all day long. It’s a good thing that Ike tells excellent stories; he kept us well entertained.

For the last hour of the day, I got to prune “suckers”– low branches that suck the energy from the main trunk– on the pear trees. When I lifted one of the severed branches to my nose, I caught the scent of perfectly ripe, sweet pear. It never occurred to me before that a fruit tree holds the essence of its fruit inside. And it makes perfect sense.

I hope your weekends, dear Readers, are as satisfying as the smell of fresh pear and spring grass.

Dear Readers,

Welcome to my first post of the 2012 season!

It is the season for planting, and we at North Star Orchard are busy tucking apple, peach, Asian pear trees, and grape vines firmly into the ground. They arrive from our suppliers in 10 foot long, heavy boxes, their roots kept moist inside plastic wrap. Each morning, we load a truck with the boxes and drive less than a mile through rows of blooming apple trees to the next field. One person drills holes in the ground with the tractor, and everyone else plants the baby trees, using hoes to surround each tree with a small mound of dirt.

I have some exciting news… that tractor driver is ME!!!

On my second day at work, Ike (the farmer and co-owner of North Star Orchard with his partner and wife, Lisa) taught me how to drive a tractor on the quirky Kubota L210. I learned to drive stick at Drumlin last season, so I had some elementary knowledge of how to drive a tractor. In the past week, I have spent almost 20 hours driving the L210. My job is to back carefully up to equadistant marks along the rows, and drill a hole with the drill attached to the back of the L210.

Lisa and Ike are trying something new with these baby trees: they are asking people to sponsor a tree. Sponsors get a tag on their tree, free gifts from North Star, and information about how their tree is doing over the years to come. Some people give the gift of a sponsorship as a memorial; others do it to have a baby tree in their life. If you’d like to sponsor a tree, don’t be shy! Click here for more info.

At North Star Orchard, we grow literally hundreds of varieties of fruit. In the past week, I have had a couple of Goldrush apples left over from the 2011 season; every bite contains a shock of rich apple-cider flavor that develops with each second. As Ike said to me at my interview in the fall, “We are big fans of crisp.” That’s when I knew I had to work here; there is nothing better than a perfectly crisp apple, straight from the orchard. Over the season, I hope to open my imagination to a world of fruit that I couldn’t have dreamt of; and I will be sure to share it with you.

As always, please ask questions, and comment! If I don’t know the answers, I’ll ask the farm crew, and pass along the info. Enormous thanks to Lisa, who took the pictures of my first time on a tractor.

Love,
Laura Beth

P.S. And Lisa put together this lovely video of pictures, detailing our work this week… to some VERY enthusiastic music. This is how excited we are ….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGGmbewWSB4

When introduced to a guest at a party recently, I shared that I work in an orchard. He seemed surprised and responded, “You mean, like, picking fruit?” We chatted briefly and since that conversation I’ve been thinking about everything that leads up to the iconic, but brief, moment of picking fruit within the context of the entire growing season.

Looking back nearly 6 months to frozen ground and blankets of snow, it’s strange to think of the trees as leafless holdouts waiting for their time to shine. With comfy boots and layers of warm clothing, I embraced winter as the time for pruning and learning about all of the different growth habits and training systems for the trees. It was hard to imagine these naked branches being weighed down with clusters of fruit and trying to prune accordingly – they didn’t even have leaves yet!

But before long, the trees burst into bloom and the orchard transformed from bare-boned rows of trees into stunning blocks of pink and white flowers. With spring under way, we focused on tying and training the trees to desired shapes and growing habits: “V’s” for peaches and nectarines; central leaders and open centers for apples, pears, Asian pears, and plums.

With the time for tying and training passed, thinning continues to be the main task, especially among the Asian pears. At first, it seems terrible to snip off so many tiny fruits, but after seeing (and tasting!) the size and quality that the remaining fruit achieves, the hours devoted to thinning are definitely worthwhile.

In the middle of everything, we found time to graft dozens of different apple, pear and peach varieties, notching together rootstocks that control the size of a tree, with scion-wood of the desired tree varieties. The grafts and hundreds of apple trees grown from seed were planted in two new on-farm nurseries.

Watching them bolt into waist-high trees has been exciting sign that there are still so many new and antique varieties of fruit to grow and try – it just takes a few years. I’ve already been so impressed by the Purple Heart and Early Golden plums, Pristine and Redfree apples, Eastern Glo nectarines, and GaLa peaches that were new to me this season!

So in response to my fellow party guest’s earlier question about working in an orchard, in addition to pruning, tying, grafting, planting, weeding, thinning, tasting, and all of the surrounding tasks, my condensed answer is “Yes! – Picking fruit!”

(Sophie has been a full-time helper since spring 2007)

Background: I don’t really keep track of what I’ve done in the past… there’s too much to do in the present! Plus, I always have to be on the look out for rabbits, treats, concrete trucks, and Amish buggies… I can’t spend time thinking about the past. What if one of them shows up?!

Why are you working at North Star Orchard? Wait, I’m working? I was just having fun… that’s not work!

What do you want to do when you grow up? I’m four… I’m already grown up!

Least favorite farm job: Fighting groundhogs, accidentally biting frogs, going in the house, hiding from thunder, waiting for Mom to come home.

Favorite farm job: Getting treats and toys, chasing concrete trucks that go past my house, barking at buggies, scouring the farm to chase out those pesky rabbits, watching people do things in the barn.

Favorite vegetable/ fruit: I really like Housi Asian pears and some of the really sweet apples. Carrots and Brussels sprouts are awesome, too.

Favorite flavor of ice cream: I’m not sure if the blog’s reading audience would want to know just what I like to snack on while I’m running around the farm…

(Jay helps out part-time every year.)

Background: I’ve been homeschooled all my life, which has given me a great chance to really follow my interests during all the times at public schools which are wasted (role call, travel [on the bus and between classes], dealing with loud/obnoxious kids, etc.). Thanks to having a more flexible schedule, I have more time to really focus on what I want to do. Right now, that is web programming and other computer science topics.

Why are you working at North Star Orchard? Well, the most obvious thing, maybe, is that it is a very convenient place for me to work, since I live right there. I’ve grown up with the farm, so I think my personality has really been influenced by the work I’ve been doing… rather than coming in to work with preconceived notions of what I do and don’t like, what I like doing, and by extension why I’m working at North Star, are based on my work experiences. Finally, I can’t deny that it’s nice to have a seasonal source of income.

What do you want to do when you grow up? At this point I’m looking towards following some sort of programming, Internet, or other computer-y type path. I haven’t quite settled on just where in that (admittedly vast) field I want to go into, but I’m hoping that the computer science class I’m taking at the Chester County Technical College High School will help me more firmly solidify the details.

Least favorite farm job: Moving all the 40+ pound crates of fruit out of a small box truck in a space of an hour or two. Those things are heavy.

Favorite farm job: Talking to customers at farmers’ markets. Market-goers tend to be really friendly, and it’s been great getting to know some of our customers.

Favorite vegetable/ fruit: Apples. There’s just so much variety!

Favorite flavor of ice cream: Chocolate chip cookie dough. Not real healthy, but even farmers need to give in sometimes.

(Liedeke helps out part-time. Last year, she helped on the farm, this year, she’s helping at a farmers’ market)

Background: As a wee child, I spent my time being home-schooled by my parents, attending home-school co-ops, and playing with my three sisters. That lasted for a few glorious years (up through 9th grade), when I went to a charter school in West Chester. I spent the last two years of high school at Octorara, and am now at Delaware Technical & Community College.

Why are you working at North Star Orchard? Mainly because I need a job while I am in college. That being said, I started working at the farm because I enjoy being and working outside. As of now, I am only working at markets, which is completely different work than at the farm, although no less enjoyable. Markets are fun because of the interaction with customers. Everyone is so relaxed and happy that they are getting delicious fruit. I look forward to market days because of the interactions with customers!

What do you want to do when you grow up? That’s a good question! I know that I love learning about science, and why the world works the way that it does. So, I’m aiming to get a degree in Quantitative Biology at the University of Delaware. I’ll see what opportunities arise after that, and figure it out as I go!

Least favorite farm job: Vacuuming harlequin beetles. Vacuuming beetles may sound like fun at first, but after a few hours of searching under Brussels sprout leaves for signs of insects, it gets pretty old.

Favorite farm job: Picking sugar snap peas. Also, at market stocking plums in the morning.

Favorite vegetable/ fruit: Tomatoes and White Lady peaches.

Favorite flavor of ice cream: Mint Chocolate Chip

(Lisa is co-owner of North Star Orchard)

Background:I caught the farming ‘bug’ while attending Penn State and working on the student farm one summer. Although I was in college for education (I wanted to teach high school chemistry), I found working on the student farm to be very challenging and rewarding work. As I was dating (and soon to be married to) a guy whose plan was to farm, the decision to switch majors was a fairly easy one. I’ve enjoyed the best of both farming and teaching careers, as I’ve homeschooled our son Jay straight through from K to 12. (Although I never did teach him high school chemistry!)

Why are you working at North Star Orchard?:While this answer is fairly obvious (because I own the business), I will say this: when Ike and I started North Star Orchard in 1992, we had absolutely NO idea what we were in for! Challenges like extreme weather, taking on debt, managing an ever-increasing pool of employees, working 12 to 15-hour days during harvest time, and figuring out our goals/marketing plan have been both tough and sometimes awesome to figure out. Getting to know so many great people, including the aforementioned employees as well as our CSA members and farmers’ market customers has been a joy – and a most excellent reward for all of our hard work and worry!

What do you want to do when you grow up?: I think I’ve mostly hit this one already. Some things I’d like to do in the future: find more time to do artwork and writing. At least most winters I can squeeze a bit of each in! I’d also like to do some on-farm educational programs in the future, as well as add a few chickens and a pig or two to the farm.

Favorite farm job (so far!): Thinning Asian pears. I get to listen to a lot of great audiobooks when I’m in midst of thinning mode. This year, I went through most of Charles Dickens’ books. Previous years were focused on history, the sciences, philosophy, etc.

Least favorite farm job: Thinning Asian pears! Ok, that job is a love-hate relationship. The task is completely daunting, as there’s so much to do. For the first half of thinning season, I get stressed that we’ll never get done on time. During the second half of thinning season, I get stressed that we’re not doing a good-enough job. Ugh!

Favorite vegetable/fruit: Veggies: Swiss Chard and beets. Fruit: just about any plums, plus Golden Russet and Gold Rush apples

Favorite ice cream: Espresso Chip (although I’ll take anything that I can add chocolate syrup to!)

You might think by the title of this essay that you know what I’m going to talk about. Here we are, after all, a small farm being directly (and positively) impacted by the ‘Local Foods Movement’. But our journey into the Local Foods Movement (LFM) might be a little bit surprising.

My journey into the LFM didn’t begin with a childhood background filled with sandals and hippy-trippy flower power (although there was a little bit of that, surely). Nor, surprisingly enough, did it begin with the start of our farm back in 1992, nearly 20 years ago now.

I am actually loathe to tell you about some of my very non-local-foods past. I do this as a means of encouragement….if I could do it, so can you! Back when I was in college (and remember, I was a cash-poor college student, after all), my lunch of choice for about – dare I admit it? – two years was a can of Coke, a package of those Lance brand wheat and cheese crackers, and a Tastycake brand chocolate chip cookie bar (or, better yet, the fudge bar!). I kid you not; that’s what I ate for almost every weekday lunch. Eeuuwww!

Not that my breakfasts or dinners were much better, really. I remember eating ‘Life’ cereal daily for years, and dinner could be spaghetti (not too bad, perhaps) or – wait for it – Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli (yep – that delectable stuff from a can). But hey, if I can not only survive, but make so much progress, so can anyone, right? Happily, now I eat greens nearly daily, plus lots of other veggies, fruit all the time, my meat has to be sustainably- and humanely-raised, and I do my darndest to avoid high fructose corn syrup in anything. So, I do think I’ve made some major progress on the food front!

Back in those processed food-eating days, Ike and I were newly married and starting our senior year of college. Perhaps my routine diet was crap, but I did like vegetables and fruits when I had them. The only ‘good stuff’ Ike would eat, on the other hand, were carrots, sweet corn, potatoes, lettuce, and beer (beer counts as a grain, does it not? Ok, forget it). And although the ‘adults’ in our world always stressed the importance of eating wisely, we were still in the 20 year-old “We’re free and out on our own, and we’re going to eat whatever WE feel like eating!” phase of quasi-adulthood.

So, there we went getting into growing fruits and vegetables both during and right after college. An oxymoron, perhaps? Nonsensical maybe? Easily explained, really. Ike had always grown produce while he was growing up, loved doing it, and wanted to do it for a living. Nevermind that he didn’t like actually EATING much of anything he grew. The fruit, yes – but veggies? Icky-poo.

For my part, I hated helping with the family garden growing up, although I loved eating the results (remember, they say opposites attract) – so I could never see myself wanting to work in a garden for a living. But, by my junior year of college, I was starting to develop a mortal fear of going into the workforce. Training in chemistry and secondary education, as I was, the notion of graduating and being ‘stuck’ in a building day in and day out for the REST OF MY LIFE was terrifying. Working on the student farm for two summers opened my eyes to a different opportunity, and I went for it.

One thing and another led us to starting our own farm. But it wasn’t because we were into local or sustainably-grown or organic or anything. It was because HE liked growing, and I liked being outdoors to work (except in winter, that is, when I was and still am a complete weather-weenie). I am happy to say that we had, at least, shed some of our evil ways in regards to poor food choices by that point. Now there were (hardly ever) any cans of Chef Boyardee in the house, and when there were, they were HIS – honestly!

Fast-forward a couple years and I stopped eating all meat, because the notion of unnecessary hormones and antibiotics in my meat grossed me out. Over time, more of the processed foods went, too. I’ll happily note here that our son has never eaten ANY Chef Boyardee (or Twinkies). And veggies for Ike? It was still a long, slow struggle over this period.

And then, soon enough, the LFM was upon us. Of course, we were wrapped up within it from the start, as we sell all of our fruits and veggies to folks at farmers’ markets and through the CSA. But we saw mighty changes, both in the minds of customers and in ours, as things continued to change.

GMOs, CAFOs, water and fuel shortages, food-borne illnesses, etc. All of those have had impacts, as have many outspoken people who have reached the public consciusness, such as Michael Pollan (‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’), Barbara Kingsolver (‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’), and even Michelle Obama (backyard gardening). The web brought us localharvest.org, consumer demand brought new farms into existence, demand for CSAs and producer-only markets increased almost exponentially. There were amazing things to think about, talk about, do about.

I’m now eating meat again, but only from people I know, and only pork and chicken, as I feel they are more in keeping with a sustainable future (they eat scraps to give us food, whereas cattle eat food (or potential food) to give us food). And my veggie quotient is through the roof. Ike, who took up cooking several years ago and is mighty good at it, is eating all kinds of veggies (even greens like Swiss Chard and arugula!) – pretty much everything we grow, really. He may never be able to choke down a plain raw tomato or a serving of peas, but that’s ok, as I’m likely to never enjoy radishes. But, who’s counting?

The point is, we’ve managed to go from just about as bad of a diet as one can have to the opposite – and it wasn’t that hard! The trick is to keep trying things…even those you’re not familiar with. Growing up, my family NEVER made greens or beets. Since I discovered how yummy they are some years ago, I’ve been making up for lost time. It’s all a matter of trying things in different ways – and thank goodness for the internet for offering a seemingly never-ending supply of recipes!

You’ve gotten into the Local Foods Movement too, one way or another. And for most of you, it has likely made for a fantastic change in your own food habits, hasn’t it? Admit it…there’s probably crap food in your background that you are glad is now gone.

We can hope that more and more people hop on board. Great food and good health await!

(Josh is a full-time seasonal helper this year)

Background: I grew up gardening with my mom.  We had a small veggie garden that consisted of 4 raised beds.  Just recently, my wife and I started a much larger garden with over 40 varieties of vegetables, herbs and fruits- this keeps us busy all summer long.  When we have eaten our fill, we can most of our extra harvest.  This way, we are fed almost all year!

Why are you working at North Star Orchard?: I love working at North Star Orchard, not just because Ike and Lisa are the best bosses, ever.  A supporter of CSAs and sustainability, this farm allows me to work someplace that I not only enjoy but share similar values.

What do you want to do when you grow up?: As I look towards my future, I see myself continuing to work in this field.  It may be hard work, but it is something that is important to me and my family.  Plus, who doesn’t like to literally enjoy the ‘fruits’ of their labor?!

Favorite farm job (so far!): My favorite job here on the farm is hoeing because it is so much fun.

Least favorite farm job: My least favorite farm job is gathering the kale. 

Favorite vegetable/fruit: I love Brussels sprouts, especially when they are sautéed with some garlic and olive oil (and cooked by my wife!)
Favorite ice cream: Mint chocolate chip- please note that I will accept ice cream donations willingly.