7-28-10

BARELY OUT OF REACH

EARLY GOLDEN PLUMS

TRIFECTA

WHEEL BARROW SANDWICH

THE NEWEST FAD ON THE FARM


Today was a marvelous day in the orchard. Early in the morning we picked early golden plums. Early golden plums don't necessarily have to be picked early in the morning, but they do tend to ripen earlier than most plums. They are on the small side, and their inside is a yellowish color, while their outside is yellow with hints of fiery orange and red. The more orange and red the skin is, the sweeter and juicier the plum, whereas if its skin is yellow with hints of green, its flavor is a little more tart; but somehow the skin tastes sweeter on the tart plums than it tastes on the juicier plums. These were some of the best plums we've ever consumed, and we happily picked over 50 off the tree. The tree itself is fascinating in that is a dually grafted plum tree. Half the tree produces the variety early golden, while the other half produces another variety with a more traditional purple to red skin and inside.

After the harvest, Carl gave us the much anticipated lesson in pruning and grafting. He explained with fruit trees, through pruning, you can achieve two main types of tree structures: open center, or central leader. Depending on what kind of tree you're growing, you implement one of the two pruning techniques. Carl insists pruning is an art form, and if done properly and regularly, not only does the tree obtain a beautiful shape, but it also produces more fruit. Like so many practices on an organic farm, different farmers subscribe to different methods; some insist pruning is vitally necessary, while others think pruning the tree is sacrilege and totally unnecessary. We're in no position to say who is right, but depending on your climate, especially if it's a wet one, not pruning can lead to fruit rot.

With the basics of pruning under our belt, Carl taught us three different grafting techniques. When grafting, the most important thing to keep in mind is compatibility between the rootstock and the scion. Like blood transfusions in humans, if you try to mix and match two types that don't match, you'll have a big problem. With tree grafts, both pieces of wood must have the same genus, or the graft won't take and the tree will die. So for instance, you can graft certain apple trees branches onto other apple trees branches, but you cannot graft apple trees onto cherry trees. Interestingly, you can graft almond trees, peach trees, and apricot trees together to get a "fruit cocktail" because they all share the same genus. The three types of grafts we learned were "whip and tongue," "bud graft," and "chip graft." Each graft is used for different situations, depending on time of year, type of tree, and desired purpose. The lesson was great, and Carl explained everything to us in a way we could understand. But afterwards, we realized we have a lot more to learn.