The fury of the summer harvest season is over but things have not slowed down with field work in the orchard. Fall is the time when we start preparing the trees for the next year’s growth and harvest. During this time, we work to ensure the fruit buds will be energized in the spring to blossom well and set a good crop. 

To encourage robust growth and a solid blossom set, our field crew cuts out branches to open up the center of the trees so that the fruit buds and the leaves surrounding them will receive maximum sunlight. The leaf growth surrounding the fruit buds will manufacture the sugars for next year’s harvest.

While one crew is pruning, another is going through every block in the orchard clearing out broken branches and cutting out suckers from the base of the trees. The suckers rob energy from the fruit buds and branches. Just about every tree produces suckers so you can imagine that removing all of them is a long process with over 60,000 trees in our orchard.

On the ground, the understory of the orchard is being weed-wacked to lay a thick bed of green mulch at the base of the trees. Once a block of trees has been pruned, the wood is collected and chipped to provide carbon for our compost which will, in turn, be used to regenerate the soil in the winter.

Fall is a beautiful time on the farm. It’s a time when we are poised between harvest cycles and feel connected to the circular nature of them. We give thanks for the harvest we’ve just enjoyed and prepare the orchard for those to come.