The orchard

We planted over 350 fruit trees and 600 berry plants in spring 2004 on a little over three acres. Both our fruit orchard and pastures became USDA certified organic in August 2006. As such, we don’t use conventional fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides and we are trying a variety of ecological approaches to managing pests, diseases and weeds. We planted diverse cover crops such as grasses, clover and alfalfa as permanent cover for our orchard and berry areas, as well as patches of flowering plants to attract beneficial insects. We use biological control tools like mating disruptors and pheromone traps for the insect pests that have these tools. We scout daily for pests and diseases and apply USDA-National Organic Program allowed pesticides only when pest/disease thresholds dictate the need. We control weeds by hand weeding, cultivating and mowing. Our main soil fertility building practices include use of certified organic compost and cover crops. Because our prairie soils are so inherently fertile, we have not needed to apply any fertilizers to our tree fruits and cane berries.

Our fruit season starts with strawberries in late May, currants and early raspberries in June, gooseberries and jostaberrie in late June-mid July, raspberries, blackberries, Marion berries and boysenberries in July-August and fall raspberries in September and even into October. Our tree fruits include peaches, apples pears, cherries and apricots. Bees are an integral part of our orchard. Emil and Melvin Blobaum, our bee keepers, have been keeping and tending bee hives for over 40 years. They tend our hives and extract our farmstead honey.

We have 25 varieties of tree fruits including:

·      Nine varieties of Apples

·    One variety of Hardy Apricot

·       Seven varieties of Peaches

 ·     Three varieties of Cherries