June family book report by Jason

Storey’s Guide to Raising Pigs—by Kelly Klober

Another report full of information, unlikely to be of much interest to those not into or considering raising pigs. For us, it was a timely read!

This book is intended to be an informative primer on how to get started with swine raising for any purpose, and a guide for answering basic questions one might encounter along the way.  If the reader pays good attention, it would seem to me that many mistakes can be prevented, and it would be much more likely that the would-be pig keeper will have a satisfying and productive experience rather than a frustrating or disappointing one.

At this stage of life our family has no need for guidance on how to breed or raise pigs for show purposes, how to maintain a herd of breeding hogs, or how to organize a swine venture of commercial scale.  As such, I either skipped or skimmed some of the sections of the book related to these pursuits, and have included many fewer quotations from these topics.

The information I did find relevant to our family’s and farm’s stage of development I have organized into sections.  It seemed to me that the first applicable topic is around the question of alimentation, or feeding.  Do we have at our disposal, from our land or other available resources, what is needed for hog raising, and for how many?  What nutritional program best fits our farm’s swine production goals, and from what era of history does that program hail?

The second topic is that of facilities.  What physical structures must we provide in order to promote the healthy, comfort, safety, and productivity of hogs here at Tangly Woods?

Thirdly comes the question of swine health.  How can we best understand the factors that contribute to the thriving of hogs, and what interventions might be needed from us to support that thriving at critical times?  How can we avoid unnecessary health compromises or losses without incurring unnecessary expenses or exposing the hogs or us to unnecessary chemical health treatments?

Some aspects of these first three topics are highly subject to variability based on variations in the fourth topic: genetics!  A hog can perform at a worse level, but never a better level, than it genetic potential.  But what good performance means varies tremendously by the system of production chosen, and a hog that might perform admirably in one system might fail to produce much at all in another.

In the last section we tie it all together in the topic of the enterprise of hog production.  I organized this section loosely concentrically.  That is to say we start with the microenterprise of hog raising to provision the family table, then work our way outward through small-scale production until we end with some philosophy on what hog entrepreneurs face by way of challenges and opportunities in today’s rapidly changing pork market.

Each section will consist primarily of quotations from the book, with a sprinkling of commentary by me.

Feeding Strategies

We start with some standard, expected advice:

Page 73 “On range, or when adding to the ration food items with a lesser-known nutrient content, it is best to keep the hogs on a complete dietary ration appropriate for their age and role as sow, finisher, grower, and the like.  Consider your additions as a little something extra and offer them in modest amounts that the animals will clean up quickly.  Hogs are like big kids and can easily render their diets completely unbalanced by choosing items they favor in taste over less-palatable, more healthful options.”

Page 181 “Few sights are prettier than a set of hogs, slick and shiny, on a rich, green pasture.  It is the picture of health and wholesomeness.  Hogs can fare well even on total legume pastures—something few ruminants can do. Hogs are not the most efficient users of pasturage, however.  They are omnivores and have a single gut.  They do not totally utilize the browse—twigs, leaves, and shoots—and they need richer sources of energy.  One-quarter acre (0.1 ha) of pasture will adequately carry up to four sows with their litters, but it has to be considered little more than a dessert option for those sows.”

These quotes show good wisdom for most scenarios, especially for commercial production where meeting market expectations and parameters is every bit as critical to profitability as making use of available resources.  But what if your highest priority is making use of resources and production timetables and predictability are less critical?  And what if the genetics you are working with are more generalistic, less tailored?  These questions were not directly answered, and I wonder if this is information that will be accessible anywhere in written form.  We may need to learn this by experience, won in time or borrowed from friends.  If the answer is available, though, perhaps this quote shows where it might be found:

Page 73 “One of the best feeding investments anyone can make is an older, unabridged copy of Morrison’s Feeds and Feeding.  This great old book contains all of the basics of livestock feeding and feedstuffs’ composition.  And it was put together back in the day when the mixed-stock farmer was king and regionalized farming practices were the norm.”

Clearly hog farmers and hog markets used to be more tuned to a more integrated and hands-on approach:

Page 74 “Meat scraps and skimmed milk were once about the only protein supplements to be fed to hogs, along with open-pollinated corn that was much higher in crude protein than today’s heat-dried hybrids.  Together these three items created simple, nutrient-dense rations for all classes of hogs and pigs weaned at around 8 weeks of age.”

Page 75 “Swine rations concocted between 1900 and 1940 were simpler than most seen now—many hogs were finished on pasture or while gleaning grain fields.  Still, as noted above, rations were filled with nutrient-dense ingredients.  Not only was the tankage supplement 8 to 10 percentage points richer in crude protein than today’s widely used soybean oil meal-based protein supplements, but the corn in use then was also more nutritionally dense. In the good old days, skimmed milk or good legume-pasture and corn varieties like Reid’s Yellow Dent or Bloody Butcher were all that was needed for late-stage finishing or sow maintenance.  Those old, open-pollinated field-corn varieties often tested in the 13 to 16 percent crude-protein range.  This was far better than the 8 or 9 percent levels assigned to modern hybrids, and many hog producers are assigning a value of just 6 percent when formulating rations with heavily heat-dried corn.”

Page 78 “Early in the last century, growing hogs were given X amount of corn each day.  The corn was counted out to provide so many ears of corn per head or so many scoopfuls of corn per pen of hogs.  For many months of each year, the hogs were on legume-rich pastures with a bit of corn fed each day.  Skim milk or tankage might be offered in a trough once or twice each day.”

Page 76 “Many producers still feed some ear corn, sometimes even allowing the hogs to glean it in the field, and others feed a great deal of shelled corn, especially if feeding on the ground or in open troughs to better counter waste. A once-common practice was to keep barrels of shelled corn soaking in water to improve palatability and digestibility when fed.”

These quotes tantalize a reader like me with hints of how hog production might fit into our farm some year in the future, even if for the moment it makes sense to keep things much more simple.

Of course, there are some modern health concerns about the practice of feeding meat products to food animals, and Mr. Klober addresses them in some detail.  The upshot is this:

Page 74 “I support the use of fish, dairy, and eggs being added to rations, although some consumer groups prefer those that are vegan.  It is widely known that in the wild hogs eat a lot of red meat.”

Page 77 “There are alternatives to soybean oil meal and meat scraps, including some dairy-based products, but they tend to be higher in price.  The alternatives contain more complex and easily digestible proteins.  They do create very good, palatable rations, and they are a must in formulating rations for very young pigs.”

Essentially, it would seem that the combination of grain and some source of protein form the customary basis of dietary needs for hogs.  If a person wishes to go against this “grain”, they will not find much help for it in this book.

In addition to diet, there is the question of feeding pattern.  Free choice and Limit feeding are the two styles outlined.  Here is the comment on limit feeding (which is closest to our practice):

Page 80 “Limit Feeding a hog to about 90 percent of appetite, the second approach to feeding out an animal, will produce a slightly trimmer hog and will somewhat reduce daily feed costs.  It will also extend an animal’s time on feed; as a result, you will probably realize no overall savings on feed costs.”

Extending the question of pattern beyond the daily and into the pattern of growth of the animal, we have the following quotes:

Page 80 “As a finishing hog ages and grows, its growth rate and feed efficiency slow, and much of the weight gain in the late stages of the growout period is often finish (fat cover) rather than lean or muscle gain.  A traditional feeding practice to help the producer cope with this natural pattern has been to reduce the crude-protein content of the ration as the hog grows.”

To that quote I ask: But what if you want the fat?  Then how would you want to feed?

But let’s assume you did actually have to buy all their feed in a sack.  How much feed are we talking about?

Page 81 “By the 50-pound (22.7 kg) bagful, feed regularly falls into the 8- to 12-cents-per-pound range; one growing hog will generally consume 650 to 750 pounds (295 to 340 kg) of such feed as it grows from 40 pounds (18.1 kg) to slaughter weight.”

Facilities

There was way too much detail on this topic in the book to relate here.  I will include a few nuggets, from which we may extrapolate that appropriate facilities are not necessarily premium facilities, but that knowing the parameters of what makes for hog health and comfort supports the small farmer’s needs and tendencies to make do and to improvise.

Page 54 “…be sure to insulate the roof.  This will prevent condensation from forming on the inside of the roof and falling on the pigs and their bedding.”

Page 146 “Many hog facilities can be made to do double duty by housing other species (a one-sow farrowing house with a solid floor is also a dandy place to brood baby chicks or waterfowl)…)

Page 181 “One of our drylots was in continuous use for nearly 10 years and still sheltered sows in a safe and healthful environment.  However, many producers prefer to rotate drylots every few years, plowing them up and sowing them to grass or legumes for a time.  Leaving them idle for 12 months will disrupt the life cycles of a great many harmful parasites and disease organisms.

Page 204 “Seasonal farrowing on range is possible 6 to 8 months of the year in most parts of the country and is pursued even in Michigan and Minnesota.  On pasture the houses need to be positioned 100 to 150 feet (30.5 to 45.7 m) apart, to keep sows from doubling up in them and thus increasing pig losses through crushing.”

Page 210 “If outside air temperatures are above 60 degrees F (15.6 degrees C) [when farrowing], you may not need supplemental heat.”

Health Management

A few themes I noticed from the extensive commentary on this topic were: 1) If you start with clean and healthy animals and you are careful not to contaminate them, you are not likely to have much trouble, 2) A well-designed environment is the biggest factor in success, 3) The small-scale operation has a huge health advantage over the large-scale one, 4) Breeding and genetics are key, and 4) Supporting and challenging the animal’s immune system is a more effective strategy than barricading the herd from inoculum.  Still, some interventions in the case of disease, or even just in case of it, are recommended in the book.  A sample of quotes follows:

Page 87 “Unless you have been assured otherwise—and have some sort of documentation—assume that all pigs have at least been exposed to all of the major internal parasites or worms, as well as to external parasites and any localized problem parasites.  They will need to be dewormed…”

Page 241 “Current thinking [on pre-farrowing cleaning] is that a simple cleaning and scraping are generally more than enough.  Placing a couple of forkfuls of spent bedding from the farrowing house into the gestating pens a month ahead of sow due dates and getting the sows into the farrowing quarters a week ahead of their farrowing dates will help each animal develop her own natural immunity to any harmful organisms.  This is also an immunity that she can pass on to her young through the milk for the first few weeks of life.  It is also far easier than trying to sterilize all the porous surfaces and nooks and crannies in a farrowing unit.”

Page 268 “Your best money as a producer will be spent on quality feedstuffs and safeguarding animal comfort.  In the worst of weather, I knew I had done the best by my hogs if I left them well fed and watered and with clean, dry bedding before the coming night.”

Page 268 “In nature, when the population of a given species becomes too great for a certain locale, natural forces intercede to trim the population to more sustainable numbers.  Generally, these take the form of some sort of contagious or infectious agent.  The same is true when domestic animals are packed too tightly into an artificial environment.”

Page 269 “Drugs and steroids have kept a lot of hogs in the gene pool producing when they should have been washed out of the herd long before reaching the breeding pen.”

Page 270 “Practice lot and pasture rotation.  This helps to control parasites and mud, which will keep the animals more comfortable.”

Page 270 “…many swine illnesses can be prevented through management—the type of management that the small producer can provide.”

Page 296 “To avoid [Transmissible Gastroenteritis] in your herd, be careful not to buy or bring in infected animals.  Don’t go to other places where there are hogs, or hog producers, in the same clothing you wear around your hogs.  And be sure to keep birds and dogs away from your herd.”

Genetics

So much clearly depends on the genetic material you start with.  Knowing the history and uses of the various breeds and strains, and ultimately of the pig families we buy from or into, could go a long way towards getting animals to raise that catalyze the kind of success we seek.  I was influenced by the book and other reading I have done towards an opinion that a person should not approach these choices with prejudices for or against any particular breed or category, but should maintain an open mind and understand that with genetics you are working with a paradox of dependable traits nested within and dependent on an ever-changing process.

Page 32 “The Chester White is an American-developed white breed that originated in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with the name Chester County White.  It has a medium-sized frame and drooping ears.  It is probably an underutilized white breed, considering its hardiness, which makes it appropriate for producers working outdoors with simple facilities.”

Page 35 “Heirloom breeds are still to be valued for a number of reasons, including the simple fact that they represent some of the hardiest of all the swine genetics.  As a group they are quite naturally lean, adapt readily to a wide range of environments, and are among the best choices for a pasture- or range-based production system.”

Page 44 “Some preservationist groups, such as the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, have brought needed focus on these breeds, but where is their long-term thinking about them?  There needs to be a real meeting of the minds as to where these breeds should be genotypically and phenotypically.”

Page 45 “A couple of breeds that are growing in numbers but that do not fit any practical niche are the Vietnamese Potbelly and the Kune Kune pig.  Their greatest appeal for the moment is as “miniature” swine, but they were developed as meat animals for very constrained environments.  They were raised by families who had limited feedstuff for the livestock, who had to eat all meat when it was fresh, and for whom every bit of food counted.  These and other environmental restrictions dictated the breeds’ sizes.”

Page 46-47 “The exotic breed sector has a hard question to answer and one that must be answered soon:  What is the ultimate use of these animals?...If preservation work succeeds, the “rare” or “sellers” market it fosters will go away…What is the long range vision for them?  Where are the guidelines for breeding them for better and more production? What market niches will they fill 5, 10, or 20 years from now?...The modest-sized whole and half carcasses of exotic breeds might make them a good choice for today’s smaller families.  They may produce some exceptionally flavorsome pork or lend themselves to certain cuisines.  What do they taste like?...I don’t like myself when I become skeptical, but until I see a Choctaw or an Ossabaw hog win a market hog show in the Midwest, I am going to continue my pessimistic ways.  Eventually, they will have to play by the same rules as the Hampshires and Durocs and their producers.  To do this they must be moved along in that direction now.  This means selective breeding for litter size, economic traits, and a consistent standard for breed character…Sadly, right now they are valued mostly as hobbies for the wealthy.  These hogs need some showdowns in the show ring, true-type conferences, a pool of data proving their worthiness and the specific roles they can play, and producers that see them as livestock with a future and not just two hundred specimens with a past.”

Page 48 “Smaller-sized pigs such as the Potbelly and Kune Kune are more easily transported, a trait that was especially crucial in locales such as Polynesia, where the supplies and livestock needs for a new settlement had to be carried by canoe and outrigger.  These pigs can live in harsher landscapes, where their food supply is limited and where their size is economically justified.  These miniature swine were and still are hogs in every sense.  Unfortunately, they are being raised in this country primarily as gimmicks to sell to others.”

Page 49 “Most hybrids are stronger than their purebred parents; the result of two distinct bloodlines coming together is a stronger, more durable animal.  But the traits that are expressed are also less predictable because they are two different breeds.  These days hybrid vigor is accomplished almost entirely by seedstock companies that sell crossbred and composite breeding animals…Many of the modern so-called hybrids are quite complex in their structure, and because the strains are so closely managed, they lock producers into joining a contract program using a whole phalanx of company hogs to maintain even a semblance of hybrid vigor.  It is an expensive and complex practice that require much genetic fine tuning and extensive housing and produces some animals that are not as productive as purebreds.  It’s a system that could shut individual producers out of swine seedstock production in the same way that independent poultry producers were blocked from producing now-favored broiler and laying-hen strains.”

Page 267 “Experience has taught me that before anything else you must select for basic vigor and what we have come to call stoutness.  You want them big, strong, full of vinegar and prunes, and ready for whatever life may throw at them. And that begins in the first hours of life in the farrowing pen.”

These thoughts could be useful for making intelligent choices about feeder pigs, and those experiences could in turn affect a choice down the road about acquiring breeding stock.

The Enterprise

This is a big topic to which I cannot hope to do justice here.  There are innumerable ways one might organize the activity of hog raising, each a response to a different set of constraints and pressures coming from all levels and directions, from personal flavor preferences to health understandings, to 

available market opportunities to public health laws.

The basic pattern

Page 11 “Hogs are very efficient users of feedstuffs, often averaging 1 pound (0.5 kg) of gain on just 3 to 3.5 pounds (1.4 to 1.6 kg) of feedstuffs, even in the simplest of facilities.  While this may not be a trait that first-world weight-conscious humans would find becoming in their own physical development, hog producers gratefully accept the fact.”

Page 102-103 “When you’re up to your elbows in the task of working up a carcass, you’ll soon see the truth in the words of the legendary livestock nutritionist Frank B. Morrison in the ninth edition of his classic text, Feeds and Feeding Abridged: ‘Pigs exceed all other farm animals in the efficiency with which they convert feed into edible meat.  They require much less feed and much less total digestible nutrients for each pound of gain in liveweight than do other farm animals.  They also yield a higher percentage of dressed carcass, a larger percentage of the carcass is edible, and pork is higher in energy content than other meat.”

Page 53 “The growout period will normally be between 90 and 120 days, depending on the starting weight of the pig, and in many places fits into the spring or fall season, to avoid the weather extremes of a Missouri summer or a Maine winter.”

Page 30 “Remember, the goal is to achieve optimal performance from a given set of hogs and facilities.  Maximum levels of performance in any type of production agriculture are seldom, if ever, truly cost-effective, as they must be supported by fancy housing and more-costly rations.”

Page 215 “The performance of young boars is enhanced by the presence of male hormones that will be unavailable to barrow or gilt offspring.”        

Page 250 “Castration may be an even more controversial procedure than tail docking.  Still, in this country the meat from even the youngest uncastrated boars is sharply discounted in price.  In Europe a lot of lightweight hogs are used for fresh and processed pork products, many of them intact males of 5 months of age or less.”

Acquiring stock

Page 49-50 “Long ago I was cautioned that if you bring something in from 1,000 miles (1,609 km) away, you may have to haul it back every one of those 1,000 miles to get it sold again.”

Page 65 “The best place to buy feeder pigs is at their farm of origin…Pigs at an auction are often stressed from the transport and handling.  There is also a very real risk that they might have been exposed to disease organisms or sick pigs.”

Page 65 “Early spring may be the most expensive time of the year to buy feeder shoats because fewer sows farrow in the cold months of December, January, and February, when the early feeders are born.  Still, these pigs are desirable because they will reach a good slaughter weight before the weather grows excessively hot and humid.”

Page 212 “I’ve found the best ways to find out about good buys on hogs are (in order of preference) talking with fellow raisers, attending hog events, reading local newspapers, and checking out hog publications.”

Page 213 “It is perhaps best to go with first impressions when selecting breeding animals.”

Home production

Page 65 “As mentioned, hogs are not all ham and chops, but one or two hogs fed out each year will go a long way toward meeting the protein needs of a typical family of four.  If fed out at least two at a time, the hogs will be more content, because they are herd animals.”

Page 53 “…along with quality control, there is much that you as a home finisher can do to contain costs.  Granted, a pig is not all chops, but when it is raised and processed to order, you can expect to maximize the cuts and quality you and your family prefer in meat and meat products.”

Page 171 “The classic sausage seasoning, sage, actually doesn’t freeze very well and can impart a bitter flavor to the meat in frozen storage.”

“Meating” the public: the commercial scale

Page 177 “In many countries known globally for the quality of their pork, younger, smaller hogs go to market.  Forty years ago, you could have yourself a 220-pound (99.8 kg) butcher when the animal was just a bit older than 5 months.  They were efficient gainers because they were young and growing muscle, and they moved through finishing facilities and off the farm in short order…I believe the younger, lighter-weight market hog may again have a role for those engaged in the direct marketing of pork and butcher hogs.  They are the porcine equivalent of the Cornish game hen or the “baby chicken” broiler now showing up in pricier restaurants.  And this approach would certainly produce the basic cuts of pork now in keeping with today’s smaller families.”

Page 314 “There are some of us who share a fairly common sentiment that family farmers should be freer to directly process and sell their own production.  They can’t, however, because the needed inspection services are not in place.”

Page 315 “Two quality cured hams will now often bring as much as or more than an entire butcher hog on the hoof—but family farmers are now largely cut off from this market, which was once their traditional domain, through a series of nitpicking rules that do not always prove effective in guarding public health or food quality.”

Page 317 “It is far easier to fund and establish 10 different farm ventures netting $2,000 each yearly than to create just one enterprise with a capacity for $20,000 in net earnings.”

Page 5 “The versatile hog will always be a creature of the small farm and the smallholding; it is a far too valuable and utilitarian creature to think it might serve otherwise.”

Page 10 “Many people believe they must have a large acreage and hogs by the hundreds for pig production to be a viable enterprise.  Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Page 5 “Although hog production had been forced into a corporate mold in recent years, those practices don’t consider the nature of the hog, the laws of the marketplace, the wishes of the consumer, and the calling of the farmer to be a wise and thoughtful steward.”

Page 318 “At this writing, the small-scale pork producer must function as something of a maverick—a “repioneer.”

Page 318 “The only farming sectors still in total favor with the consuming public and whose output garners a willingly given premium from that public are the organic growers and the clearly identified family farmers.”

Page 319 “Animal-rights issues, environmental measures, and consumer concerns can and may all grow to a point where the pressure they will bring to bear on the large operations will be just too great.  Some small farmers are already tapping into this resistance by pursuing niche markets for additive-free pork, pork raised outside, and pork with real pork taste.  The niches of today are the only alternatives for tomorrow.”

Page 321 “Optimum production means seeking a fair and reasonable return on investment rather than attempting to totally maximize production in the faint hope that returns will eventually surpass costs.  In other words, by optimum I mean aiming for a fair and livable return, rather than attempting to extract every cent of return possible by any means available.”

Page 322 “The time and resources needed to wring every dollar possible from a venture are simply not always justifiable on economic grounds or sustainable environmentally.  And let’s be realistic here—life is just too short to spend the whole of it down in the hog lots rooting out every last dollar to be had there.”

Page 340 “By becoming more focused on the care and breeding of the hogs, small producers are finding a way out of the morass of agribusiness and pork as a mere commodity.  After years of drifting away, there are young people and families coming back to raising hogs.  It is happening on a modest scale but with the solid backing of a dedicated consuming population that approves of what we are doing.  Consumers are seeking input now, and rewarding our production with premium prices.

I feel better about this kind of production than I have for some time and see a very bright future for this truly artisanal type and level of production agriculture.  Ultimately, it will be what we, the individual producers, make of it.  We have an opening unique and apart from any seen in my lifetime.”

Page 347 “Dad used to say that if you couldn’t walk the whole of your farm before breakfast, you were farming too big.”

The wannabe farmer turns wannabe soccer coach

Recently one of my closest friends (he's the kind of guy who most of his friends think of him as one of their closest) came back to town for a friend's wedding.  During his visit to our place I mentioned that I had volunteered to coach Alida's soccer team in the local league.  "Hm."  He said.  "Didn't see that coming."

Right.  I haven't worn a soccer uniform since seventh grade, and anyone who knows me won't have me pegged as the jock type.  I don't like watching sports on TV, and every bracket I've ever filled out has been organized entirely by how well I like the names of the teams or the cities they come from.  Furthermore, I am nearly entirely non-competitive in nature.

But I love sports!  Everything from croquet to ping pong to javelin...if it involves bodies and motion and performance and is not pure choreography, color me interested.  Actually, I could probably get interested in choreography too if I could see the point!  I am sure there is one.

In team sports particularly, I am pretty intrigued by the mental aspects of the match.  It thrills me that an individual who is less physically capable can end up besting his or her opponent by wits, experience, and presence of mind.  Even more intriguing is how a team full of lesser specimens, if they learn to work as a team and think as a team and keep their eyes on their egos can adapt to the punishing realities of the brute force they are faced with and end up confounding expectations.  Add to that the mutual honing effect of each team meeting the other's challenges in real time, and you have a mighty complex and dynamic system emerging which is pretty interesting to watch and participate in.  In general, I find rooting for one team or the other detracts from my enjoyment, even if I'm on one of the teams.  I am interested in a good and challenging match for everyone (the exception is when one team is totally dominant with bad attitudes and the underdogs are getting demoralized...then I start rooting and every goal or point by them is a sweet and gratifying relief).

I have secretly sort of fancied the idea of coaching kids' soccer for a few years.  I liked the notion of myself being a different kind of coach from what you often see.  No posturing, no yelling, no getting hung up on scores and winning; instead the focus could be on development as players and as a team...crafting the learning, adding one more layer to the dynamics of the season by responding to the specific experience of each game at the next practice and the next game.

This post is partly motivated by meeting the challenge that came in from a friend to blog about soccer coaching and tie it in to Permaculture somehow.  Well there it is.  The Permaculture design process that I learned is what is known as an "iterative" process.  That is to say that it consists of several or even many "passes" or "iterations" of the same basic process with the same basic constraints, but with changes or improvements made in each round.  With Permaculture design, this means you start by getting your working parameters and priorities established, then start taking a crack at integrating them into a design.  Looking at what you came up with, you judge it based on your criteria for success and try again.  And again.  And again.  Until you feel satisfied that you've reached a settled point:  the best working compromise possible under the circumstances, and a design that will help the clients (or the self) know how to direct their efforts in service of crafting a system that supports their thriving over the long haul.  Perfection is unachievable, irrelevant, even a damaging constriction in this kind of process.  Superlative performance is the goal, and the limits to that performance are always being extended, can never by found.

So does that sound like soccer, or what?  The deep joy I get from each year's or each decade's successes on the land is somewhat mirrored by the deep joy of seeing a kid suddenly learn to dribble in the middle of a game and have her play transformed by it, or watching a kid shake off their reluctance to stick their foot into the action and learn to be bold with their motions, or for all of them to stretch out their legs and run for that ball!  And the joy I also get from responding to each season's palette of successes and failures in the next iteration is furthermore mirrored in the enjoyment our team had this year talking over the last game and organizing our practices around it.  OK, so there are limits to how involved the 4- and 5-year-olds got in that part of it, but it was a great start.  I think we kept it light and fun, and it was great to see the kids eager to come to games and practice, and terrific to see them grow as players and as people over the weeks.  I look forward to the fall season.

Blood drive and duckling update!

Kali's four ducklings are taking after all the growing things around here - they are doing it fast! As of this past weekend, she has been letting them out to range for a few minutes each day and it only took them one day to learn, via the adult ducks, where the pond is. Now they head straight there and my goodness what a good time they have. They seem right at home!  Hopefully, when not enthusiastically swimming around and dunking themselves and preening, they are eating mosquito larva! See for yourselves how big, cute and fun they are:



I find that it can go days where I don't get out and about much to really take in what is happening all over our property. Might be a good thing as when I do I experience a mixture of awe and a good dose of feeling overwhelmed at what needs to be done. Last evening when we got home from the blood drive, Jason was pretty wiped out from his platelet/plasma donation and so he hung out with Terah while I did the evening piggie feeding. I was eager to see them and got to marvel at their impressive growth. They were also happy to see me and were soon slurping their milk/whey evening snack with great pleasure. I took the camera with me and focused on the beautiful things growing all around - the yucca is in full bloom, the onion seed heads are looking quite perky, there are gooseberries to pick and our lettuce is just ridiculous!

The butterfly weed that always makes us think of Nora is also in it's prime right now. Perfect timing as we spent last remembering and honoring her with others at Virginia Blood Services. It was a very good thing I had donated a few weeks back, as Terah was not too keen on letting me out of her sight (or out of her reach)! I'm trying hard to embrace this last experience of being the most special, important, amazing person in the whole wide world to someone. If she didn't express her pure pleasure in being with me with bites and pulling my hair it would be easier to enjoy! She gave out lots of smiles and squawks for everyone during our several hours there. She also tried to eat the floor and the chairs and liked jumping on the donation chairs. She was also a big fan of the cheap crinkly sounding water bottles. For being in an odd place with lots of people for nearly three hours, she did quite well. And she slept good (for her) last night so she must have been tuckered out.

If I counted correctly, we had 12 successful whole blood donors and 2 for platelets. In addition, we had a great crew of cheerleaders and snack contributors, and I'm hoping we are attracting some future blood donors. It's really fun to see the group that gathers each time - always a little different with a few that have become our "regulars" and then new people joining each time. It's a very meaningful way to honor and remember Nora with others - some who knew her and many who we have gotten to know in the years since. So count on us doing it again come October!

Fathering our girls...

So it's Father's Day - a day to be grateful for the men in my life who have nurtured me (thanks especially Dad!) and for the man who is on this crazy parenting journey with me and who does an incredible job of nurturing our daughters! He's got his hands full, no doubt, but is my inspiration on many a day! I feel grateful to be partnering with someone who has a deeper reserve of patience, knowledge, endurance and better sense of humor than I do! Couldn't do it without him! I love, too, how much he clearly enjoys our girls. The other evening after a rainstorm, he called me from the kitchen. He was outside with the girls and here's what the littlest had discovered:

I think Terah has Jason's love of music! I like music too, but she is clearly powerfully impacted by it. I've only sat at the piano a time or two with her since she was born, but Jason often goes to the piano to plink out a tune or two. So here she is making some music. Towards the end, she clearly wanted some additional inspiration from the song book.

I think our girls have also acquired much of their amazing brain power from their dad. Terah's bringing up the rear and, while different from her older sisters in various ways, seems to be just as sharp as they are.  We are working currently to get her to transition from going potty in the sink to the little potty (the sink worked great when she was a newborn but let's just say that the potty would be better at this point!). She has peed a few times for me now in her little potty but mostly likes to kick her legs, eat the books on the shelf next to her or try to pick up and move around the large leaf bucket. Her feet don't quite touch the ground but she'll scooch forward and try to stand up. Silly baby! See for yourself:

I know for Jason there are many wonderful moments fathering his daughters, as well as some exasperating ones. I won't speak for him, though, but will share one of the challenges I'm currently experiencing with our middle gal. If Kali had not gone through a phase that shared some similarities I might be joining Terah in yanking my hair out. As it is, on my good days I'm trying to find humor in it, remind myself it won't last, take a deep breath and love her through it. It's the "hoarding, I love it, I need it, I'll never have another one like it" phase. And boy is she in it deeply! This doesn't just include treasures that reasonably belong to her and that she might have some use for. It includes shreds of paper, a piece of clothing of mine that I no longer want, a broken hairband, etc... In a moment of inspiration the other day, I told her that she could put the aforementioned broken hairband in her treasure drawer IF I could take a little video of her explaining its importance to her for her to reflect back on later. As she came out after putting it in her drawer, I heard her happily say to herself, "I convinced her." Our silly baby is not the only silly one around here. Enjoy:

So other than keeping track of these growing, maturing (some more quickly than others), fun, creative and curious girls, what's Jason up to?  The daily stuff: chicken chores, piggie care, keeping the toilet emptied, and being the main one to "notice stuff" around our place.  And then there's the gardens...oh the gardens. We now have a spice garden, kitchen garden, main garden, welcome garden, dry land garden, new garden, root field rotations, not to mention the various other plantings here and there to keep up with. Well, to try to keep up with. We are in "pea season" right now. Jason also has worked on some barley harvesting recently. He was pretty pleased the other day to add something else to his list of life activities - putting barley into sheaves.

Fruits are also starting to come in, but the girls and I are trying to keep up with those. Black raspberries are starting, a few red and white raspberries as well as gooseberries, blueberries next door and a great crop of red currants. The girls picked those the other day and the first jams of 2016 (12 little jars of bright red yumminess) have made their way onto the root cellar shelves. It's a colorful, delicious place we live right now! I'm finding we are putting less in the freezers this year, thus far, as appetites have grown in the last year (for the younger generation that is) and it has been a tough spring for the gardens. But it's ramping up, maybe a bit faster than my ability to keep up.

I can't end this without mentioning how wonderful it's been to have my mom around the homestead this week. I've noticed a trend in myself - as the weeks pass with her not around, I feel myself starting to unravel. She arrives and showers love and care and helpfulness on all of us and by the end of the week the world is a brighter place and I feel like I'm coming back together again. It is clear that Alida especially treasures these days (and nights) close to Grandma. She's also clearly got the puzzle gene as I understand they stayed up together last night until 10 p.m. so they could finish the puzzle they were working on. I know it's not mother's day but thanks mom (by far the best Christmas present I've ever received!). Well, a thanks to dad too for sharing her this week while he enjoys a long birding trip!

Ok, out of steam and likely about out of time. Here's a few more pictures with tidbits from the last few days: 

I might not have my mother's depth of interest in having lots of bouquets inside, but I sure do enjoy the colors outside...

Yep, this is what we are up against these days. This gal wants to MOVE!

Still very fond of each other and still very sweet together! 

Every time we do an outdoor fire and make pizza pockets we say we need to do it more often. Enjoyed being joined by Ethan, Joshua, Sabrina and Emily last evening for time around the fire, along with Isaiah and Miranda who were over for a sleepover! Terah was up until 10:30 and was happy. She then nursed peacefully to sleep - couldn't figure that one out but Jason wondered if the wood smoke was calming. If so, we might have to add making an outdoor fire to our evening routine!  

Last but not least, our Father's Day breakfast after the fun sleepover. I've been gushing to Jason how great our kids and their friends are! I hope they keep rubbing off on me...

8 very full months!

Terah's 8 month birthday was yesterday - 2/3 of a year old! What a busy child she is these days. We are at 6 teeth, pulling to standing, rolling and flopping and scooching all over the place (still moving backwards more than forwards). She is not content to be still for very long - unfortunately that is often the case when she is awake and sleeping (still working on long blocks of sleep for the little one and her mama!). I was just thinking today how I'm not really taking many pictures of the harvests this spring - where are the all green photos of chives, scapes, peas, lettuce, herbs, etc... It's mostly that it's a good day if I just get the harvesting done. Terah is not one to just come along for the ride. She likes the front pack or ergo for limited periods of time and if she is well entertained throughout. If not, she will entertain herself by pulling my hair or reaching for anything she can (pulling pea vines or thornless blackberry flowers off the vine). She is quite the swiper - and often its a smooth motion of swiping and inserting into her mouth. It was not easy for me to get a picture of the four leaf clover Kali found for her today before it was disassembled and partially consumed. So, if previous posts have left any doubt in the reader's mind, she is keeping her big sisters and parents on their toes! Whenever we are anywhere it seems most folks comment on how happy she is. Our response is almost always, "Yes, she is very happy...except when she isn't." She loves to smile and laugh. She is also very ready and willing to let us know when all is not to her liking. I'm glad she has a strong voice - may it serve her well all her life (and may her parents not try to squelch it in their moments of exhaustion or desire to eat one meal in relative peace)!

Here's two of her current favorite activities:

This is how we all get ready for bed before she completely melts down. She will play scoochy-scooch for quite some time.



I have to work pretty hard to keep her happy in her high chair for a full meal. Once she is out of it, she is still quite happy to be entertained by her chair with some arm exercises.



So, what else is going on? Well, we sure are ready and hoping for that "June lull" we have often experienced but it appears that if there will be such a thing it will be of our own making, not because we'll experience a lessening of tasks. We've got the vast majority of the planting done but there is millet to get in, string beans to plant as soon as the hull peas are done and then some transplanting (due to some peppers dying, we think thanks to slugs, and poor winter squash germination). Sugar snap and snow peas are coming in and hull peas right behind them. The lettuce is still marvelously plentiful, but the hot weather is sure to turn it bitter soon. We are eating garlic scape pesto daily and various other pestos (oregano, parsley and basil). The strawberries came and went without much flair - a very poor year with a few containers in the freezer and one batch of jam. So we are rooting for the currants and gooseberries and raspberries and wineberries...

We are feeling grateful for a few things that will give us a little more breathing room - the girls and Jason finished off the spring soccer season yesterday. I think we all feel grateful as the heat was starting to make Saturday games less pleasant - Kali played in 90 degree heat yesterday at 1 p.m. and I think did the best I've seen her play. She even had a break away and got a shot on goal. Yep, I was proud of her - proud of how she has stuck with it and enjoyed it and steadily improved without what I perceive as any anxiety or frustration, just enjoying learning and improving her skills while having fun. What a kid!

Kali's ducklings outgrew the swimming pool so they moved out to the empty half of Kali's duck coop this week. I need to get down their to see them as ducklings, like chicks, don't stay little long. And Alida has some exciting news in the pet department. The other day the girls reported that Alida's chicken Goldie Bean (not sure I'm spelling that right) was acting a little strange - on the nest, ruffling her feather, and growling a bit. Broodie hen behavior!  She has never gone broodie before so this is a bit unusual but just in case Alida went down with Jason that evening and they put fake eggs under her. She's been sitting tight ever since so tonight they'll put real eggs under her and get the incubator going with one more round of eggs. We'll hope for good hatches, as we've had a lot of sub-optimal hatches this year (it's just been a tough spring for growing things - that is except for the baby and our pigs; neither are lagging in growth!).

I'm looking forward to taking most of the rest of this month off from work (my away-from-home job anyway!). We are anticipating our yearly summer trip to Pennsburg to see all the Benners at the end of this month, so happy to all have some time at home before and after that excursion. I'll be working from home most of July and then will get back into a regular work routine in August (currently planning to be in the office two days/week and working from home one day/week). But for now, I'm focusing on the time at home and have high hopes of getting in a little more reading and writing in the weeks ahead during Terah's naps, that have been almost exclusively devoted to office work the last few months. We'll see. Maybe I'll even have a book report to share on the blog at some point. :)

May family book report by Jason

This book report may challenge our most faithful blog readers! If you stick with it, you may understand why this one was a few months in coming - LOTS of material to work through. Thanks to Jason's study of it, we will hopefully be eater even yummier and even more fruits from our land in the future!  Enjoy whatever amount of the info you wish to that is found below!

I read The Holistic Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way by Michael Phillips with the intention of learning how we might manage to obtain reasonably sound, chemical-free, yummy fruits from our several trees, and with an eye to the possibilities for making more extensive plantings that might also produce reasonably well for us with thoughtful, knowledgeable, and diligent care.Though our rainy spring weather made implementing any of this newfound knowledge impossible in the month of May, I was not disappointed in the contents.  It seemed to me that he was neither alarmist nor irrationally exuberant with regard to the challenges of fruit growing.  His approach, while marching to its own drumbeat and articulated with generous doses of the author’s own idiomatic expression, seemed to me nonetheless a very sensible place to start. It seems helpful for me to relay some tidbits from the many pages of useful writing that were applicable to our situation and needs.  I will organize these quotes and some brief commentary into three sections: Theory and Principles, Wisdom and Discernment, and Matters of Practice.

Theory and Principles

Human Nutrition

“Humans evolved eating fruits and nuts and green plants and the occasional mastodon.  None of these foods was shortchanged nutritionally; every bite had fantastic flavor and substance.  Why we accept anything less in modern-day fare is a result of effective advertising coupled with an outright loss of species intelligence.  You reclaim your nutritional birthright when you plant that first pie cherry tree.  How you grow that fruit in turn determines the nutrient density of your family’s own health prospects.” –XIII-Introduction

Page 16: “Inherent nutrition in the food we eat becomes a degenerative joke when there’s little respect for soil biology.”

The general conclusion from the book seemed to be that healthy trees, well-supplied with a full palette of balanced minerals produce fruits that support human health in wonderful ways.  Fruits that come from trees propped up with chemical disease controls and fertility boosters, on the other hand, can be expected to be found wanting, with repercussions for the people depending on them for nourishment.

Intercropping

He supports the notion of growing plants other than fruit trees in amongst and under the canopy of those trees, though he discourages the dominance of grassy plants in the understory.

Page 26: “Far more space in a diverse orchard planting can be productively utilized than you might otherwise think is possible from listening to the conventional party line, which says that trees must be isolated in rows for maximum production.”

Page 285: “An integrated orchard consists of far more than trees.  The very same woodsy ecology principles apply to all sorts of berries.”

Soils

This aspect of fruit tree and berry cultivation has been underappreciated and poorly addressed in any other information I’ve ever come across.  What a helpful perspective!  Of course tree health would be influenced by the soils in which they grow, and of course selecting, preparing, and stewarding such soils ought to be the orchardist’s main tasks.  Why didn’t anybody say so?

“Each tree and fruiting shrub is a system within a system dependent on the vitality of…other life-forms that are invisible to our human eye.”-XII-Introduction

Page 3: “The progression that takes place when microbial feeders restore soil balance—and just where that balance point lies for different plant species—spells out a far more accurate way to grasp plant dynamics than does available mineral fertility as indicated on a typical soil test.”

Page 8: “Most agricultural soils (other than the prairie grasslands) are of forest origin: Soil that has been built from the top down through fungal action undergoes humic stabilization—such soil has staying power and maximized nutrient recycling.  Fruit trees belong in such soils.”

Page 25: “Having the proper mixture of minerals, organic matter, air, and water in the upper layers of the soil—the area where plants grow—is ultimately more important than feeling limited for the rest of your life by poor soil structure.”

Page 60: “Biologists describe soil as a marriage between the mineral world and the organic world.  Many of the elements essential for plant life are provided by the molecular structure of the minerals.  It’s the organic partnership of the microorganism community that transforms these nutrients into bioavailable form.”

Page 61: “It’s the life aspect of the soil that introduces and enforces the whole concept of balanced nutrition, as opposed to the overstocked flooding of the reductionist chemical approach.”

Page 61: “Healthy soil is a biological factory that with time gets richer, increasingly complex, and absolutely sustainable for the long haul…the total amount of a nutrient in the soil is nowhere near as important in terms of the soil’s fertility as is the availability of that nutrient…The untapped minerals in almost any soil—once accessed by a healthy humus complex—are more than sufficient to revitalize every sensible orchard, year after year after year.”

Methods

Fruit plantings are widely known to take careful attention in order to produce reliably.  The particulars of this attentiveness are the first thing people want to talk about when discussing home fruit growing.  Mostly this centers on the decision to use conventional chemical sprays or not.  Mr. Phillips thankfully broadened this discussion to include a wider variety of strategies and a deeper understanding of the issues.  His full instructions are too detailed to reproduce here, but I have included some quotes that set the tone.

Page 14: “Our grandparents’ generation didn’t make the turn towards chemical agriculture so much out of dire necessity as out of uncomprehending enthusiasm.”

Page 16: “I’m not going to engage anyone’s beliefs here about what makes for righteous agriculture.  I am, however, going to make clear what happens in the orchard ecosystem when chemicals are relied upon as a primary means of growing fruit.”

Page 16: “Short term solutions merely address symptoms and can never be more than a prop for a sick patient…although they may seem to do good at the time.  Eventually stronger medicine is needed as the system gets weaker from not having relied on its own internal fortitude.”

Page 16: “Perpetuating imbalance takes more effort than some people might wish to admit.”

Page 16: “Natural defense mechanisms abound in a healthy orchard.  Our job as growers is to support the underlying biology and abet diversity.”

Page 107: “Stewarding what needs to be right while intelligently setting limits on what might go wrong describes health-based orcharding to a tee.”

Page 107: “Our foremost task in the home orchard and the community orchard is to build health.”

Page 114: “Disease cycles require knowing the beast you face and from whence it comes.  All of this is why orcharding isn’t necessarily simple…and yet remains so absolutely fascinating and determinedly doable.”

Page 122: “…we actually need low numbers of foliar feeder populations to maintain helpful species to a sufficient degree to keep those same foliar feeders in balance.”

Summing Up

“Organic orcharding can never be a straightforward recipe where you simply follow steps A, B, and C and then pull a delicious apple strudel hot from the oven.  Nature is dynamic…climate is changing…and every ecosystem is localized.  New growing seasons bring shifts in the challenges to be faced.  Every variety will not necessarily thrive where you live.  A key quality of a good fruit grower is the ability to adapt.  What I love about my fruit trees—and all plants—is the listening and the observing.  Seeing the subtleties brought forward by healthy management choices.  Knowing I can adjust my understanding in order to help shape a better biological reality.  Appreciating the gifts of this special place in the universe.  You have that same ability too.  You really, really do.”-XIV-Introduction

Wisdom and Discernment

Mr. Phillips did more than just provide instructions, he offered advice!  Most welcome.  Some of that advice was intended to save readers the trouble of learning some practical strategies the hard way:

Tips

Page 19: “Starting small is far better than going for the gusto.  This has always been true of the better home orchardists I’ve known.”

Page 20: “Fruit growing quickly becomes a passion.  Keep it reasonable enough so that you never lose sight of the fun.”

Page 37: “Other fruit growers nearby know far more about what grows dependably in your region than anyone else.  Lessons learned over the course of a lifetime are priceless—being able to tap into such knowledge is a great reason to seek out new friends.”

Page 160: “A few good tools up the pleasure of orcharding considerably.  Spending several hundred dollars for quality equipment makes sense when you think about fruit trees being with you for a lifetime.”

Page 164: “Apple varieties ripen over a period of months, ranging from midsummer to the far end of fall.  Spreading out the harvest across this time gives your family a chance to enjoy a number of different varieties in their prime.”

Page 170: “One multi-variety tree of several summer apples will be a happy choice in a tight home orchard.”

Page 188: “Why bother growing grocery types like Anjou, Bosc, and Bartlett—many of which are fire-blight susceptible, when you can explore a diversity of flavors and sensational textures better suited to your bioregion?”

Page 232: “The wonderful flavor of fully ripened peaches—so delectable you can hardly do anything but stand at the tree and eat away—makes local peach culture a must.”

Page 233: “Being able to stand up to disease pressure matters considerably in choosing good peach varieties for your geographic region.  The telltale woes of bacterial spot, brown rot, peach scab, leaf curl, and canker are best checked by the innate ability of the tree to resist any pathogen in the first place.  But know this:  Varietal resistance shifts somewhat from region to region, not unlike how peak flavor correlates to soil type and that season’s weather.  All indicators are only that.  Given the advantage of across-the-board health resulting from deep-nutrition choices, the peach you love may well be the right peach for you to grow.”

Page 42: “Dwarf trees require limiting vegetative competition, the medicinal support of fungicide, regular irrigation, and trunk support in the form of a stake or trellis.  Semi-standard and seedling trees, on the other hand, require far less fuss in maintaining fungal duff; they procure balanced nutrition and moisture through a vaster root system and thus are more likely to succeed with holistic approaches to disease.”

Page 259: “Settlers…watched young apricot trees bloom in Virginia by the early 1700s.  Some years saw a bumper crop; other years an absolute bust due to normal spring cold…and on that score little has changed since then.”

Page 259: “The plus side of apricot culture certainly makes a thoughtful attempt worth pursuing.  Apricots surely have more flavors packed into each fleshy orb than any other fruit.”

Page 259: “The apricot makes a good urban tree, where the heat island effect often proves the difference in warding off a blossom-killing frost.”

Page 270: “European plums are less likely to be damaged by spring frosts, as these trees bloom a good week later than Asian plums most seasons.”

Page 271: “One of the rarest fruit experiences is a tree-ripened Euro plum.  Seriously.  What’s picked slightly green and hard in the commercial trade is little better than a winter tomato.  You get to experience plum finery only by growing these Old World varieties for yourself.”

Page 284: “No fresh plum keeps particularly well.  Those immediate days after picking the crop are for dribbling juice down your chin, but then decisions must be made as to putting up jam, drying the prune types, or letting fruit flies run amok.  The point here is not to plant more plums than you can enjoy.  A few varieties will be more than plenty for a family.”

Page 285: “Larger plantings [of berries] are invaluable for taking advantage of growth habit, being able to protect against birds, and filling the pantry with the very best jam.”

Page 286: “From North to South, brambles are the perfect home garden plant in many respects.  All are easy to get started, requiring little more than a patch of full sun and some well-drained soil.”

Page 286: “Disease problems rarely overwhelm [brambles] though viruses do indeed set regional longevity parameters.”

Page 308: “Growers in transition zones are advised to grow both southern and northern highbush [blueberries] as each highlights different flavor subtleties.”

Page 316: “Gooseberries are typically used for preserves and pies, somewhat like rhubarb, more than for eating out of hand.  Still, the better cultivars will change even that perception quickly.  And then there’s gooseberry butter:  Heat the berries until the skins pop, then force them through a colander; add sugar in equal proportions to the pulp, and simmer until thick.  Top off a toasted English muffin and you’ll understand far more than mere words can tell.”

Admonishments

Some of his advice was intended to set us straight with regard to assumptions we might be bringing to the cultivation of fruit.

Page 9: “I know, I know.  You have particular ideas about how often the lawn should be mowed.  That all trees shall be in a straight line.  That mulch should be applied uniformly and look tidy.  That one dandelion uninvited is an abomination.  Well, it’s time for you to lighten up!  The appearance of your orchard isn’t about you.”

Page 11: “Human notions of neatness are rarely biological!”

Page 14: “Choosing to spray to sustain system health is different from choosing to spray to kill.  If you’re in the camp that has always regarded “need to spray” as the ultimate reason not to grow fruit, shift gears, please.”

Page 111: “…dealing up front with any lingering reluctance around spraying will be pivotal for your success as a health-focused orchardist.”

Framing

Sometimes it helps to take a step back and think in more general terms about what we’re trying to accomplish here, and this allows us to choose our approach proactively.

Page 20: “Be patient about this.  Everything isn’t going to go right.  Recognize such learning opportunities as a chance to do better next year.  In fact, be stubborn about this.  Every back-to-the-lander quickly learns that something else does go right in that very same season.  Nature gives and nature takes.  Here’s a beautiful argument for an even wider diversity of fruit plantings, to gain the best crop insurance going for your family.”

Page 37: “Think about what it means to stretch roots into rich soil, to develop fruit buds with vigor, to close cambium tissue across a graft.  It’s that oneness with the tree that accomplishes far more than descriptive words alone can achieve.”

Page 107: “You’ll come back here many times and find yourself now ready to hear that next bit of guidance about a particular challenge.  Just as trees grow slowly, you too are developing a strong branch structure as an orchardist over the course of time.”

Page 334: “Learning to prune, making woodsy compost, identifying what pests are on hand…none of this comes easy at first.  You learn by doing.  Just as a fruit tree needs to build good wood structure in those early years, you are building ecosystem understanding and personal confidence through genuine experience.”

Page 339: “We don’t need to guess about what’s going right for our trees or the quandaries that inevitably pop up.  We observe, we ask questions, we learn, and eventually, yes, perhaps we even comprehend…all of which should lead to a deeper appreciation of this beautiful creation.  That attitude alone can lead to success at procuring the gifts of this good life for family and community.  Don’t be overcome by learning-curve insistence on orcharding challenges.  Much of this takes time.  The biological lessons presented here become obvious to those eager to grasp the connectiveness of it all.  Listen to what the trees and the microbes tell you to be true.  Trust your inner druid to guide you in these ways.  Growing healthy fruit is for thinking people who embrace being a part of something slightly more than wonderful.”

Matters of Practice

And then there’s the how-to component:

Establishment

Page 6: “Fruit plantings happen in one of two ways.  The go-getter turns the lawn under and, plop, the trees and assorted berries are in.  No real transition towards the fungal state occurs prior to the nursery order being made and delivered.  The soil biology can recover from such unbridled enthusiasm—it’s not “wrong” to do this—but soil preparation prior to planting offers certain advantages worthy of consideration.”

Page 19: “The absolutely ideal site for fruit trees might not exist at your place, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come up with reasonable accommodation...Favoring biological advantage will always be the driving imperative behind orchard layout.”

Page 26: “A broad mix of species belongs under and within the vicinity of fruit trees.  You can make deliberate choices here to reflect a certain look, or you can trust serendipity (enhanced by introduced species left to go to seed) to bring a diverse understory to the fore.”

Page 33: “Wild corners should be granted due diligence—a dear friend once told me to always leave a place for the fairies to dwell.”

Page 53: “A wee bit of mycorrhizal root investment is a worthy idea, because all commercial rootstocks lack this basic biological connection.  Planting fields are fumigated, tilled, and otherwise manipulated as a matter of course.  Very few nurseries in turn choose to inoculate the trees created by grafting onto rootstock purchased from these big commercial propagators.  The soil where you’re planting an orchard doesn’t necessarily lack the mycorrhizal species needed for fruit trees—that depends on landscaping history and the proximity of other tree roots.  Yet jumpstarting a barren root system makes sense to me, as it can take several years for disturbed soil to otherwise be restored in this important fungal respect.”

Page 242: “Siting for shade is a far different notion from creating a microclimate facing due south in hopes of assured warmth.  The best place to consider growing a peach is in the winter shadow of your house or barn, a conifer stand, or what have you.”

Pruning

Too much detail on this subject to treat properly here, but here’s one more generalized gem:

Page 87: “Evaluating the light space between branches and competing shoots—and thereby considering how the chosen limb will develop to fill this space—has helped me more than any other pruning parameter in making good decisions.  Pruning rules (about vertical shoots and the like) are useful up to a point.  But it’s only when you grasp what happens beyond the moment of the cut that you truly become effective from the tree’s point of view.”

Plant Health

Mr. Phillips’ emphasis on fruiting plant health and his recommended strategies clearly set him apart from the crowd, and are bound to win him a devoted following, though I am sure his descriptions of how to go about this have also convinced some that this is too much trouble!

Page 141: “Non-aerated compost tea won’t satisfy purists, but I do see a place for this simple brew in orchard culture.  This liquid extract of compost requires none of the fussiness of the aerated version.  A few shovelfuls of rich compost soaked for a day or two in a 5-gallon bucket, stirred on occasion, then strained, yield a less defined yet still helpful range of organisms to enhance leaf decomposition beneath the trees in the fall.”

Page 150: “Wet springs will always be a fungal challenge.”

Page 152: “There are times in the organic orchard when you may think it best to reach for old-school ways.  That’s okay in the short term.  Just understand there will be more and more biological ramifications the farther you go down this road.”

Page 246: “Barrier protection for stone fruits needs to be in place prior to petal fall on apples.”

Page 257: “The successful nectarine grower will find trap tree selection paramount in making organic approaches work.”

Page 283: “Plum borer larvae tend to be somewhat gregarious; spotting as many as twenty larvae around a single wound site is not uncommon.”

Tricks of the Trade

A few things we might not have automatically known:

Page 250: “…flavor is accentuated by a degree of water stress going into harvest.  Conditions that are overly lush do not bring out the flavor profile of any fruit.”

Page 254: “Painting trunks white in fall to lessen the chances of southwest injury also works to delay the awakening of buds in spring.  This effect can be amplified with early applications of refined kaolin clay throughout the tree well before any sign of bud swell.”

Page 259: “Tree-ripened fruits will keep in premium condition for three to five days after picking.  Refrigeration extends this to two weeks, though the fruit will be far from its best after serving time in the tundra.”

Page 284: “Plums do not continue to ripen completely after being picked and so, just like all the other stone fruits, should be picked fully tree-ripe to taste their best.  Picked underripe, plums will still soften and some of their complex carbohydrates may break down to sugars, but those changes are more akin to the first stages of rotting than the flavor changes associated with true ripening.  That’s what you buy in the supermarket, but not what you should be picking in your own garden of eden.”

Page 333: “Every orchardist needs to create a task checklist to keep biological timing of orchard tasks throughout the year clearly prioritized….Knowing what to do when becomes far more manageable when you take the time to organize your thoughts on paper.”

Conclusion

I was quite relieved to read Mr. Phillips’ several reassurances that orcharding is a discipline that has to grow on you, or rather you have to grow into it.  A person would be well justified feeling intimidated about the prospect of jumping in with both feet, I do declare.  I personally do not feel prepared to act with confidence after even this fairly comprehensive treatment of the subject.  It will require an open mind, reflective character, opportunity, patience, and time.  The good thing is that most of those factors, minus the time, are probably safely declared as being in place.  Therefore I am encouraged to believe that our farm becoming productive of delicious, usable, and healthy fruit from various species is only a matter of time.

June 4 came around again

Well the weather is very fitting for this 8th anniversary of Nora's death. Soon after Nora died, a large thunderstorm made its way through Charlottesville.  On the first anniversary of her death, Jason and I went to Riven Rock park out 33 west and sat in a pavilion reading all the cards that had been sent to us. It was rainy that day. Today, all 5 of us made our way to the same spot. I enjoyed the storms. Alida was not so sure about them. The time there was not nearly as relaxing as when Jason and I went alone, and our brief hike down the trail ended with two of our three kiddos falling apart. However, when we first got there Terah and Alida had fallen asleep in the car and Jason joined them in slumber so Kali and I got to enjoy a few games together. When they woke, we all enjoyed a picnic lunch together - Terah even successfully swiped some sour dough bread when none of us were paying close enough attention - so we'll not only be adding grapes but also sourdough bread to her ever expanding food list! We didn't leave Riven Rock any too soon, as we drove through lots of standing water on our way back to Harrisonburg. But my spirits didn't feel dampened by it. I was grateful for some alone time earlier in the week during one of Terah's naps to be with the memories and emotions. Today I was glad to just be present to my family in this crazy, chaotic, unpredictable, fun, hard, and exciting season of our lives.

It's been a particularly crazy week, and for a number of reasons (some baby related and some due to other circumstances), Jason and I both found ourselves rather sleep deprived on the morning of this anniversary. Jason set out for soccer with the girls and Terah and I were joined by three of my close women friends (we gather quarterly for breakfast). Today felt like a precious time - a walk followed by a delicious potluck brunch and then we all went to donate blood together. I am so very grateful for these friendships that have supported and sustained me for many years now!

It has been almost 2 years since I was able to give successfully - low iron, veins not cooperating and my most recent pregnancy with Terah were all factors. The longer I don't give blood, the more I get nervous about it. But I was more nervous a week or so ago than I was this morning. I was actually surprised how relatively calm I felt. I also was really, really hoping to be able to give successfully again in honor of Nora and get back into the routine of giving as that had become a very meaningful ritual for me. I credit being surrounded by wonderful friends for both my calm and my success. It went great and I've been riding on a bit of post-donation-success euphoria since!

Terah wasn't all that pleased that she was not allowed to be in my arms from the time I was stuck until I was done donating. Even just my voice across the room set her off so she took a little jaunt outside with Virginia until I was needle free. She's a mama's girl these days, that's for sure! So I have not been heading the advice of not lifting heavy things for awhile after donating! She was also taken with the red bandage on my arm; one of the many distractions from nursing today!

So her new news is that at Riven Rock park she flung her head back (a common thing these days) and I noted that she sprouted a 5th tooth on the top that none of us had even noticed.  Maybe that was the cause of the two bad nights earlier this week?  So she sprouted one and Alida lost her first tooth!  She may not be thrilled right now that I am mentioning this here as she hasn't wanted folks to comment on her lost tooth (but I'm banking on her feeling differently years down the road when she wants to remember how old she was when she lost her first tooth). For the first hour after it came out, she was whining and bemoaning how it didn't feel good and she wanted it back in. Changes, changes!  Growing up is hard!!  She has since adjusted and is quite cute with her little hole in front. The other bottom middle is loose, so likely the gap will widen before too long.

The rain has stopped for now and the birds are singing! We won't be doing any outside work this evening, so I'm hankering for enjoying mugs of decaf coffee together.  The weeding will wait...even longer!