Spring is pruning time
Spring? It's still only February! But when you run an orchard, you have to tell seasons by the weather, not by the calendar, and Mother...


Learning to move peaches...and meeting delightfully unexpected neighbors
It's been a couple weeks since we started selling peaches from our house. I've met lots of neighbors--some of them old-timers who...


Peaches!
Let's go back to the story of the orchard. When we left off, we were cautiously optimistic about the peach crop. We had spent hours...


Orchard Update
Oh, the orchard. Lots and lots of fruit trees. Last year we didn't know what all was growing. We knew we had a bunch of apple and a...


Burn, Baby, Burn
Who doesn't love a bonfire? I'm an avid composter. I love having a place for my food scraps and garden debris, where they can sit and...


Sheet-mulching the Peach Orchard
When we first moved in this summer, the orchard was barely accessible. The aisle between the first two rows of trees had been mowed...


Learning a new skill
I did it! I successfully canned 7 quarts of apple juice! I have preserved fruits through freezing, dehydrating, and turning into jam,...


Pears!
We found ripe pears in the orchard. Well, they weren't quite ripe, but that was fine, since pears are supposed to ripen off the tree. ...


The battle against Brown Rot begins
As you may recall, we have scores of productive peach trees, and we have a big problem with a fungal infection. It's time to fight back!...


One Month Since We Left California
We've been in Indiana nearly a month, and we've had a chance to survey our new property. Here's what we've found: Gorgeous wildflowers! ...