Sipping drinks with umbrellas?

Feb 12, 2022

Sitting on the beach and sipping drinks with umbrellas... (I wish!)

This time of year, I am commonly asked, “So, what do you do in the winter?” As if the “off-season” means being “off” of work. I understand most people are far removed from farming, and do not understand all the work that it takes to raise a crop. Even though I know this, I am still amused by the question, and even more by their surprise when I talk about working outside when the temperature and conditions are less than friendly.

You see, we raise tree fruit. This is a bit different from many other specialty food crops like vegetables; once we plant trees, they are in the ground for many years (hopefully) and require annual “maintenance” of sorts. Unlike annual crops we don’t plow our fields in the fall and wait for spring to plant.

So, when I use the term, off-season, I’m really talking about the time when the hard work happens. We’re talking equipment maintenance, structure repairs and upgrades, taking out old trees, planting new blocks of trees – you know, the “to-do” lists we placed on the back burner during harvest season. And then, most importantly, the care and maintenance of our trees. Each and every tree gets personal attention as we prune out sickly, dead, or ill-placed branches.

The pruning on our farm takes around 3 months. We make thousands of pruning cuts! And there are piles and piles of brush left behind. You see, everything we cut from the trees falls to the ground. To say the least, we generate a lot of brush! We toss the branches to the aisles and then use a tractor to push them to form piles. Instead of burning the prunings, we choose to mulch the wood and use the chips around the farm. Whew, this seems like a job that will never end. Won’t be seeing you at the beach!

(P.S. If anyone wants wood for their BBQs, send us an email or leave us a message… less to run through the mulcher!)