Monday, November 25, 2013

December Potluck

[From Dwight]
 
Mark your calendar!
Let's get together at our house in Tijeras on December 14, at 12:30 for a potluck meal and visiting.
No Meeting! No raffle!
No jobs, walking, or touring!  Just sharing food, fellowship, and conversation.
Bring your spouse or friend.
Bring a dish to share and if you want to bring something to share to drink...bring it along!
 
If you have been busy and haven't made a meeting in a while (or forever)  this is the time to reconnect, just come share time and visit.
 
 

Friday, November 15, 2013

Notes From Tooley

Ken Jones took some notes during our walk with Gordon, and promised to share--here they are.

  • Use legumes as ground cover.  Hairy Vetch, peas. etc. Nitrogen fixer and encourages microbial growth.
  • Make habitat for bluebirds and bats to fight pests.  Bat houses should have 2-3 layers as one layer will only attract males.
  • Humates lower PH
  • Peach varieties that work in NM. Garnet Beauty, Reliance, Varitan Rose. (This is a late bloomer and I am sure this is misspelled), Alberta
  • Wine kissed apple is a nice late bloomer
  • Use 1% Neem along with fish emulsion.  On the Neem, you need to heat, add to hot water and soap or it will congeal.
  • Do heading cuts to stimulate growth of lateral branches.  To encourage growth, prune in March/April.  To discourage growth, prune in summer.
  • Plant Nettle and Comfrey on the NE side of the trees.
  • Great Lakes IPM [company] for coddling moth control
  • Paint kaolin clay for insect repellant.  Product called Surround in powder form is available from dealer in Montrose, CO.
  • Use agricultural vinegar to lower ph.  Mark ph level of the water then add vinegar to lower by 1 to determine appropriate amount of vinegar.
  • Good cheap ground cover plants include, wheat, field peas, buckwheat, oats, etc. Flax is also good. 
  • Good late blooming apple varieties include: Winsap, Blue Permain, Claygate Permain, Lodi (best for sauce short shelf life), early gold.
  • November Field Trip--Tooley's Orchard

    Dwight  in front of the grafting greenhouse
    A dozen of us converged on Gordon Tooley's Trees in November for the opportunity to tour his nursery/orchard, and explore his growing experience. You can read a thousand books, but nothing fires interest in growing fruit like witnessing someone else's success.

    Gordon and Margaret grow on about ten acres near Truchas NM at almost 8,000 feet (there goes my last excuse!). The site is beautiful, and worth the trip even if you have zero interest in plants (not the case with our covetous group). The mountains were tipped with the first snows of the season, but the day was perfect, warm and sunny. We started with lunch which always mellows us, and may contribute to the way we stretch a one hour walk into three!

    Gordon does most of his own grafting, and the first year bench grafts go into the ground in nursery rows, all dug by hand, underplanted with clovers, native lupine, native grasses and beneficials. The cardinal rule of holistic orcharding is "no bare soil." Gordon and Margaret plant seed every year, and by returning organic material to the soil, the dirt is loose and moisture retentive. Amazing to see 10 plus acres in New Mexico covered lushly with grasses and desirable natives drawing no more water than the spillover from the irrigated rows of fruit trees.

    Michael Phillips' holistic orcharding books have been influential, and Gordon follows many of the principles of biodynamic growing as well including using fermented sprays of nettle and comfrey on his plants and soil. He has switched from the ubiquitous black plastic pots to growing bags--they have a fibrous lining that prevents circling, and keep roots much healthier. Instead of spraying pesticides, he uses ipm practices--a pheromone laced plastic ring helps keep coddling moth down, interrupting their breeding. Bats, bluebirds, bees, and native beneficials are unpaid but vital workers. Annual applications of humates feeds the soil.

    Gordon has a strong interest in heirloom varieties, and travels the state gathering scionwood for grafting, helping growers revitalize old plantings, and ensuring that new hybrids like the Tijeras Sweet he donated to our auction aren't lost. Some of the heirlooms listed in his catalog for next year are Ashmead's Kernel, Baldwin, Cherry Pearmain, and Winter Red Flesh (the one I brought home) among others.

    The slow food movement has spurred cider making, and Gordon has a number of apples perfect for cider including Brown Snout--and is adding new ones. We were treated to a hard cider tasting with intern Martha sharing tips about the ciders donated by enthusiast, Bill Lyon.

    Gordon also offers apricots, pears, cherries, plums, currant, rhubarb, and elderberry. He has a nice selection of native and adapted trees and shrubs that are well suited to NM growing conditions. The eglantine rose was all but hidden by the red hips! I was really tempted by the hawthorns but space did not permit.

    Gordon also grows bramble fruit, and has just put up a new hoophouse for that purpose. At their altitude, the berries are just hitting full production when freezing begins. The protection of the hoop will allow them to extend their season by some weeks. I have been toying with using one of our empty hoops for the same purpose--definitely more exciting than micro-greens.

    Tooley's sells both wholesale and retail. Their season resumes in April, Friday-Sunday (during the week by appt.) There is more info at the website, tooleystrees.com, and you can request a catalog by calling 505-689-2400.

    We drove back to Cedar Crest, and were welcomed by the smell of homemade soup and bread, ending our meeting as it began, with a meal. Thank you Pat!

    Tuesday, November 12, 2013

    Moon Seeds!



    We were given these moon seeds at the last NMFEx meeting, and I planted them with my grandchildren who were very psyched about the whole thing.

    The original seeds went to the moon over 40 years ago on an Apollo mission with Astronaut Stuart Roosa. The seeds that came home were planted across the country, and our seeds came from those parent trees.

    The kids and I planted the three sycamore seeds in a soda bottle 'greenhouse' (as per directions) and put them in a sunny spot in the greenhouse. We'll let you know how they do.

    Wednesday, September 25, 2013

    Apple and Pear Harvest Field Day

    Anyone heading up to Washington in October might be interested in this event--
     
    *Apple and Pear Harvest Field Day *

    The Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation (WWFRF) presents its Apple
    and Pear Harvest on Saturday, October 12, 2013, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at
    the Washington State University Northwest Washington Research and Extension
    Center (WSU-NWREC), 16650 State Route 536, Mount Vernon, Washington.

    Hosted in cooperation with WSU-NWREC, this year’s event will have talks
    about cider (non-alcoholic), apple diseases, and orchard pest management.
    Cider tasting, and sampling of heirloom apples such as Ashmead’s Kernel and
    Blue Pearmain will be followed by an open orchard event for you to find and
    pick your favorite apples and pears.  The WWFRF Fruit Display Garden
    contains one of the largest and most varied collections of antique apple
    trees in western Washington. Free to members of WWFRF; Non-members: $15
    Single or $30 Family. Go to www.nwfruit.org for more information.

    The Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation (WWFRF) was
    created in 1991 to help fund the Tree Fruit Varietal Research conducted at
    the Washington State Northwest University Research and Extension Center
    (WSU-NWREC). WWFRF volunteers are dedicated to supporting research and
    educating the public on the special fruit growing conditions found in the
    Pacific Northwest region.

    Friday, September 20, 2013

    September Meeting

    The Medford's garden tour was great, almost like a trip back east...

    But first we ate--and drank a lovely glass of homemade grape (it's a fruit group after all). It was kind of a European lunch lasting about three hours! Lots of story telling and laughing. THEN we spent another couple of hours wandering in the yard, and could have spent more time but it was 5:30. Jim and Effie just don't know how to say git!

     What became apparent as we strolled was how much more water Jim has than most East Mountain folks. We peered into an old stone faced well, and the water level was only about 12 feet down (and used to be higher). Multiple springs used to flow through the property, and several are still intermittent. There is a small year round pond complete with six huge carp, and again the water level is lower than it used to be, but bog plants like cattails, willow and horsetail that surround the area testify to the water table. A lower spillover pond is popular with the local bears, and scat and deep prints were unnervingly plentiful. A flock of turkeys are also daily visitors.

    Green grass, split rail fence, an orchard of mature fruit and nut trees, a towering weeping willow--it might almost be Virginia except the mountain backdrop is a lot higher than the Blue Ridge.

    The Medfords have a variety of apple trees, peaches, English and black walnut, butternut, even elderberry. Besides the fruit, they have planted many other trees including honeylocust, and the prettiest redbud I've seen in New Mexico--also the tallest trumpet vine I've seen up here, at least twenty feet up a dead tree. There are roses, iris, lilacs, columbines, patches of snow-on-the-mountain that took me back to my grandmother's garden in Kentucky.

    The property is so verdant and unlike New Mexico, it's being used for a TV pilot. The buildings on the 28 acres will be part of the film too, including the main house, barn, and cabin. A structure that predates WWII (and my favorite part of the tour) is their root cellar, jammed with Effie's canning. They've never lost a jar to freezing which is more than I can say.

    We had a lot of fun, visiting, joking (when pressed for the varieties of apples, Jim said "well, there's red ones and green ones."), at least I think he was joking. Hopefully, our meeting next month will be another good one. Dwight is thinking we'll try to visit Los Alamos, and Martha's garden before the weather turns. We'll see you then...




    Thursday, September 19, 2013

    2013 Salt Island Apple Festival

    Any of you who read Pomona, the NAFEX publication, have heard of the Salt Spring Island Apple Festival. In fact, they donated the beautiful poster to be raffled at our very first meeting. I confess I long to attend their event--maybe next year. Anyway, perhaps some of you will be in the northwest the end of this month so I'm posting this from Harry Burton's email.

     
     
    The Salt Spring Island Apple Festival, Sunday, Sept 29th from 9 to 5 PM.   A CELEBRATION OF THE APPLE DIVERSITY OF SALT SPRING ISLAND, BC
    Visit Apple Heaven while you are still alive.  Salt Spring grows over 350 varieties of apples ORGANICALLY.  We celebrate that at the Apple Festival--A great way to connect with APPLES.

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
    1) All profits are directed back into worthwhile projects, which are shown in this file.  Disbursements 2013 shows where all proceeds from the last Apple Festival (2011) until now have been disbursed.    
    2)  There are over 1000 photos from the 2011 Salt Spring Apple Festival shown on the website 
     We did not have a 2012 Apple Festival due to a caterpillar invasion.
     
    3)  Want some fun?  Here is a  Time Lapse of The Apple Display Set up for the 2010 Salt Spring Island, BC  Apple Festival
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWCIt4Dbhx0 (Preview)  
    APPLE  LUSCIOUS  ORGANIC  ORCHARD
    Growing over 200 connoisseur apple varieties
    Certified Organic by IOPA (#902)
    Harry  Burton
    110 Heidi Place
    Salt Spring Island, BC  
    1)  Website:
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    2) Apple Luscious Video Channel:  
    Facebook Search: harry.burton.1428

    Contact Person for CAPTAIN APPLE.

    The  14th Annual Salt Spring Island Apple Festival
    Theme:   SO MANY APPLES; SO LITTLE TIME, BUT TAKE TIME TO TASTE THE APPLES ALONG THE WAY.
     
    Sunday, Sept 29, 2013
    A chance to visit Apple Heaven while still on earth!

    Growing over 350 apple varieties
    ORGANICALLY.

    1)  Apple Festival Website: saltspringmarket.com/apples/

    2)  Apple Festival PAST HIGHLIGHTS  (NEW):  www.saltspringapplefestival.org
      
    3)  Apple Festival Video Channel:  youtube.com/user/SSIAppleFestival/videos
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    Tuesday, September 17, 2013

    NAFEX Library Coming to New Mexico Fruit Explorers!!!

    We're very excited! Dwight just learned that the NAFEX Board of Directors has agreed to send the NAFEX Library to our New Mexico Fruit Explorers group. Dwight (and probably Pat?) are making arrangements to go to Arkansas to pick up the materials from the current curator.

    The NAFEX library contains hundreds of references about fruit--books, journals, research materials--many out of print and/or rare. The materials were available to members for a small loan fee. The library also held back issues of the NAFEX publication, Pomona. Much of this material is now available online, and the Board was reluctant to continue with the library, but Dwight persuaded them that such a collection of print materials should not be broken up.

    Friday, September 13, 2013

    Rain!!!

    Picking rhubard
    Dwight and Pat have had over 4" of rain this week. Dwight reports the meeting is still on for tomorrow at Jim's (he had an inch). The Medfords are at 29 Casa Loma Drive, just off of N-14 between Tijeras and Cedar Crest.  His phone number is 281-5373 if anyone needs directions. Time will be 12:30.
     
    If you are going north on N-14, start looking for Casa Loma on the left about two roads past the Burger Boy.
     
    We are looking at meeting in Los Alamos in October.  More details will follow.--Dwight

    We've had almost 3 inches of rain in four days--what's growing? Everything!!! Found an interesting recipe for rhubarb wine and since we haven't been eating sweets (all my rhubarb ideas) decided to cut back that explosion and turn it into something liquid. The recipe is English though, so am laboriously converting from the metric. You'd think with all the science I had in college, I'd remember how...Jo

    Saturday, September 7, 2013

    September News

    September meeting--
    September 14 the meeting will be at Jim Medfords, including a tour of their area.  Orchards, vineyard, nut trees and bramble fruit are in an area with springs and water!  It will be well worth coming.  Over the next week give me an RSVP if you know for sure that you can or cannot come.
     
    The Medford's place is on N-14 between Tijeras and Cedar Crest.  I'll post directions and phone numbers next week.bLooking forward to seeing everyone.        Dwight
    p.s.:  The bears have agreed to take the day off!

    Anyone want to host a group of schoolchildren? Email me and I'll send it on.
    I am an orchardist and a teacher up in Penasco and am always so busy that I have been unable to make it out for any of the meetings.  What I am wondering though is if anyone would be interested in hosting a group of about 20 Kindergarten through third grade students at their orchard/farm for half a day this fall, so that our students could learn about what happens on an orchard especially during harvest.   I am not sure about what would be too far for us to travel any offers at this point are very welcome though. 
    Please write me back if you are interested or have questions,
    Sam 

    Update from Lloyd--congratulations!
    Hi Dwight and the Saturday gang; I just wanted the group to know that I
    got married 5 weeks ago and I am retiring at the end of this year /Dec.
    31 and selling my Fig Tree business and my many, many N.M. fig tree
    varieties from collecting these last 10 years historical, heirloom and
    stage coach stop fig trees.  If anyone in the group or  anyone you  think
     might be interested is interested in the details just e-mail me.  I'd
    very much appreciate it if you could pass this on Dwight. Lloyd Kreitzer,
    the fig-man of New Mexico
    www.landofenfigment.com

    Wednesday, August 21, 2013

    The Fig Man is Retiring!

    Just got this post from Lloyd

    Hi Joanne and gang!  I have not attended since the early spring when the weekend farmers markets began.  I want you all to know that I am retiring .....and my fig nursery and business is  therefore up for sale.  I would love to teach the next fig- man or  fig-woman what I have learned  in 13 years about figs, fig propagation, fig varieties and fig funninesses here in New Mexico for several months to the right person.  I will sell by late Winter  or early Spring I believe. Please pass this brand new decision on.... Thank you and I look forward to attending in the late Fall again, Lloyd Kreitzer

    landofenfigment.com

    Monday, August 12, 2013

    August Meeting

    Jim, Dwight, Sue, Aly & Wilbur (l-r) display their goodies


    After weeks of unprecedented rain, club members found a jungle when they visited the East’s (that’s us) for the August meeting. We were lucky to get a beautiful sunny day. Only a few days before the arroyo was impassible with a torrent of water 40 feet wide and at least three feet deep. Unusual for New Mexico!

    As good fruit explorers, we started the meeting with food—cheesy squash casserole, gluten free bread with spiced plum jam, spice cake, fresh melon and lemonade tea. Since members all lost almost all blossom last spring, we’re making do—and missing Pat’s culinary contributions!

     Water is a critical issue here in NM, and most members are interested in water harvesting. We were glad to have finished a couple of new water banking experiments to show attendees. The hugelkultur (www.permies.com) is a raised berm built over logs and planted with windbreak plants. Water rolling down the hill gets ‘banked’ in the curve of the berm. Other water catchment includes 2 cisterns (and multiple small tanks) filled with rainfall from the roof.


     About 30 fruit trees are planted in the next project, a trench filled with a chip, compost, soil mix that catches and stores more water. The trees will all be espaliered creating a living fence around the flower and vegetable gardens. Apples, pears, cherries, peaches, plums and elderberry’s are ready for the wire, and include heirloom varieties like Cox’s Orange Pippin, and Belle de Boskoop. To be planted next year, the apples from our grafting workshops—Strawberry, Macoun and Darcy Spice to name a few.

     The bee bed is another raised bed filled with organic material, and planted with a mix of plants that have long bloom periods and are especially attractive to bees. The hope is that moisture caught in the berm will ensure the blossoms are full of nectar even in dry years like the last few.
    The main flower garden was almost obscured by the sea of weeds that weren’t here two week ago, but the perennials are blooming their heads off. A rose yarrow that was only a few inches tall before the rain is two feet tall and a mass of color. Other outstanding bloomers--caryopteris, salvias, iceplant, winecups, hollyhocks & more.
    Trying a facebook page--you can like New Mexico Fruit Explorers to get posts. Hopefully, members will share what they're doing, we can post quickie schedule changes, etc.
    hhhhhhhhh

    Sunday, April 7, 2013

    The Quest--an article from Dwight


    New Mexico Fruit Explorers, The Quest

                    It’s about a diverse a group of people as one can imagine, different backgrounds, ideologies, professions, experience, but we are gathered here in our living room for a grafting workshop with a common purpose, our individual quest for a perfect apple.   We seek perfection in flavor, not appearance, for perfect appearance can be found in the produce department of any grocery store.
                    Of approximately 10,000 named varieties of apples, possibly fewer than 20 can be found on store shelves.  For commercial growers trying to survive in a market dominated by imported fruit a few traits are necessary.   First growers need uniformity, all the apples in a box should look alike, without blemish.  All the fruit should color before ripening and all of the apples on a tree should be ready to pick at the same time.  Ripe apples are more subject to bruising during handling and have a shorter storage life.  With labor costs in the field, growers need one picking or two at the most in an area.  Any tree with apples of different sizes and maturity won’t provide a profit.
                    “As American as apple pie” is a catchy phrase.  Order a slice in America and ask the waitress what’s in it.  She’ll answer  “apples” and give a funny look back over her shoulder as she wonders  what kind of a customer you are.  Ask your produce man if he has any Newtown Pippin or Esopus Spitzenberg and you can guess his answer, yet  these were the respective favorites of Presidents Washington and Jefferson, both  men who knew their apples well.

                    We have been taught that an apple is an apple.  Well………not really.  In Europe apples are classified according to their purpose.  There are baking apples, sauce apples, cider apples and dessert apples.  Eating an apple out of hand which is not classified as a dessert apple is considered a waste of time.
                    Cider presses are directed by masters with tastes as finely tuned as any vintners.  The blend of apples results in raw apple juice unlike any on our store shelves.  Fermented it becomes cider as varied as any wine selection.  Distill that cider and apple brandy, or apple jack, or Calvados will emerge.
                    In the US we still have thousands of apple varieties, suited for every taste and purpose.  Some store overwinter, almost until other varieties are ready the following year.  Others begin to deteriorate as soon as they are picked, lasting only a few days.  Shapes and sizes vary, some look like they have potato skin.   Beneath the skin they can be white fleshed, yellow fleshed or red fleshed.  There are sweets, bittersharps and every degree between.    Names can be as intriguing as the appearances.    Sops of Wine, Irish Peach, Summer Rambo , Westfield’s Seek No Further  and Winter Banana can conjure up all sorts of images.
                    There are thousands of varieties still in existence in the US, but finding them can be a bit of a challenge.  When the New Mexico Fruit Explorers group gathers the challenge often is not in settling on the best which is available, but finding and identifying the best which has no longer been available because it is so rare.
                    As piles of small branches appear on the table, people gather to sort and express amazement on the scionwood which is available.  Scions (pronounced sigh-on, the “c” is silent) provide the buds from which a new tree will grow.  Rootstock can be considered the foundation of a tree.  From below the graft union it influences the tree size, hardiness, and time required to reach bearing.  Above the union, the scion grows into the tree structure, duplicating the variety of its parent plant.  Because apple seeds  do not reproduce true to the parent, grafting is necessary to provide known results.
                    The mechanics of grafting involve matching the cambium layers of the scion and the rootstock in such a way that they will grow together into one plant.  There are many methods of doing this, developed over centuries of trial and error.  However it is done, it still seems a bit of magic when the new growth appears.
                    At this meeting beginners are guided by experts and the bin of rootstock steadily depletes leaving many choice varieties of scions ungrafted.  Next month more rootstock will arrive and the scene will be duplicated.  The quest for the best tasting apple will continue.

    Monday, March 4, 2013

    Explorers Graft

    Dwight goes over the basics
    About a dozen members of our New Mexico Fruit Explorers group met for our first grafting workshop. A few of us were pretty expert, a few had dabbled and the rest were novices, but everyone came away with something, knowledge as well as some exciting bench grafts.

    Dwight Luna, our host and founder, showed members some of the tools he uses for grafting including a nifty saddle graft cutter that we all got to try out (takes a bit of hand strength). Mostly though we concentrated on cutting whip grafts--not as easy as it looks. We had a variety of cutting edges, but many of us found that as we drew the knife through the wood, the cut inevitably curved instead of giving us a nice straight slice. Patrik demonstrated his pruning knife--beveled only on one edge--it cut smoothly and left an even surface. With practice we were able to get two nice slices, matching the cambiums on the scion and the Bud 9 rootstock for some hopeful grafts. The Bud 9 is a super dwarfing rootstock, and nice for espaliers.
    Keeping the slices lined up while they were fastened was also tricky. Several members tried rubber bands, but most seemed to find the stretchy grafting tape easier to control.

    And what a great selection of scionwood! Members shared scions from apples that included standards like Jonared, Rome, Northern Spy, and heritage apples like Belle de Boskoop, and Cox's Orange Pippin--and then there were some that were unfamiliar to most members like the Strawberry. Dwight has collected wood from old New Mexico trees that are difficult to identify. He shared scions from one he simply called the Ft Sumter apple, from a very old tree. Others were taken from an old remnant orchard in Cedar Crest.

    A good day, and as Dwight said "only a small amount of blood was shed!"


    Sunday, February 24, 2013

    Grafting Workshop


    We're hoping for great weather this weekend because we're having a grafting workshop at our next meeting. Dwight has arranged for us to have 100 Bud 9 rootstocks, heritage apple scionwood, grafting rubbers, parafilm, and budding tape.  Richard DeHaas is also bringing some named scionwood. Members should bring their own band-aids!

    We decided to do bench grafts because it should be easier in the face of our unpredictable weather (snowing today!). Our spring weather can have it snowing in May (it usually does at our altitude). We'll do the grafts, and then pot them up, so we'll be able to offer them more protection while the union matures. The picture above shows the cuts on scionwood and rootstock that need to line up as closely as possible for the two cambium layers of the whip (or splice) graft to join. Takes practice and a very sharp blade. Many grafters do some preemptive taping of fingers before making the cuts.
    (The pictures are from a workshop in 2007 at Gordon Tooleys; he is demonstrating the splice--and tape.)

    Anyone interested in coming can call 286-7677 for more information.