Tag: Fruit

Scionwood & Fruit Trees

Grafting A primer on Grafting from the MOF&G archives. These are very clear directions about how to graft – here and here. Both of these are printable for keeping close at hand. Here are clear directions on Bud Grafting. Here is a video of Delton Curtis bud grafting in Thorndike, Maine in 2013. Thoughts on

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Yes, You Can Grow Figs in Maine!

Figs are a subtropical plant from the Mediterranean region and need some special care to flourish in Maine … but you can do it! The easiest way to grow figs is in a container. You should bring it inside in fall after leaf drop. maintain dormancy. Unheated cellars work great. Potting mix should be well

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Blackberries The Sweet and the Thorny

By Joyce White My blackberry patch has a history, and it begins with raspberries. When I moved to the small town of Stoneham in the Western Maine foothills 23 years ago, I told my elderly neighbor, Arlene, that even though I had started a new raspberry patch, I missed picking fresh, ripe raspberries. “Well, you

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Mixed Orchard Crops

Jesse Stevens of Sy’s Trees in Sweden, Maine, grows a “hyper-diversified” orchard of more than 1,000 varieties of woody plants. Photo courtesy of Jesse Stevens Honeyberry, Lonicera coerulea, is an underutilized species that Stevens believes is well suited to organic culture in Maine. Photo by Opioła Jerzy, from Wikimedia. By Jean English Farmers from Sy’s

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Cranberries Dont Assume You Cant Grow Them

  Many Maine farms and homesteads have low spots where cranberries will do well.   Cranberries ready for harvest By Will Bonsall Most folks think of cranberries as a crop with requirements that are too challenging for their situation. Cranberries like sandy, acidic, soggy peat soils that can be flooded at will, whereas the average

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Who’s Stealing My Fruit

By C.J. Walke This season was the first in my 10 years of working with fruit tree growers that I heard numerous reports of apples and peaches vanishing from trees in just a few days or even overnight. In early August, emails starting popping up in my inbox with subject lines reading “Vanishing apples” and

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35 Years of Harvest Kitchen

Drawing by Toki Oshima By Roberta Bailey Happy Anniversary to me! This spring marks the 35th anniversary of my time writing this column. My entire adult life has evolved around the full flavors of homegrown food straight from the garden, pantry and root cellar. I have never thought of myself as a fancy cook. Instead, I feature

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Harvest Kitchen Simple Gifts of Kindness

Toki Oshima drawing By Roberta Bailey These days “kindness” is the word that I hold in the foreground of my mind. It is on a slip of paper at the corner of my bathroom mirror, the base of my computer, and I envision it on the inside of my forehead. It helps me move through

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Low Energy Food Storage Solutions

Warm air from an attic is blown through this cabinet to dry produce. The drying cabinet setup. Warm air from the basement keeps plants in the coldframe from freezing. A small, well insulated box in the garage stores root crops. By Eric Evans My wife, Laura, and I love to eat the fruit and veggies

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Fall Reminders

By C.J. Walke It is now almost fall in the orchard and time to think about harvest, cleanup (orchard sanitation) and preparations for winter. Managing fungal diseases can challenge organic tree fruit growers all season, but we can decrease overwintering fungal pressures by putting in a little effort now. Apple scab overwinters on infected leaf

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