The harvest this year was the best ever.  I was able to share fruit and have plenty to spare for myself and our family

Still no European pears which is curious since all three trees were loaded with blooms in the spring.  I suspect it was late summer freezes.

Plenty of asian pears, especially Chojuro.

They were quite good, apple like in texture and not grainy.  The fruit was super sweet and very juicy.  They turned quite yellow when ripe which was handy knowing when to harvest them.  I think they tasted of caramel, the same taste that my friend Karen and I recognized the previous year.

Once bird pecks or rot moved in, the yellow jackets and wasps were relentless and made it difficult to pick fruit.  I lost about 4 pears and 30 apples by the end of the season.  Not bad considering how many pears and apples were harvested.

Apple harvest was

pretty amazing!

I had quite few trees with more than 30 apples

• Old Fashioned Limbertwig
• Red Delicious
• Golden Delicious (Razor)
• Summer Banana.

Significant amounts of ten or more apples were found on

• Virginia Beauty
• Liberty

lesser amounts on

• Bevan’s Favorite,
• Pink Lady,
• Hubbardston Non such.

Apples from grafts were

• Pink Pearl
• King David
• Winter Banana
• Ambrosia.
• Goldrush
• Key

 

The sharing project using woven fruit bags and tags from Vistaprint went really well!  Many bags were returned with requests for additional apples throughout the season. I think sharing different varieties was actually the best part of this year.

 

I was asked to share varieties at a neighborhood event, and that was great fun!

The  biggest surprise came when neighbors asked to buy fruit.  I had not expected that request, but I did have enough apples to share 1/4 or 1/2 pecks.  I picked out a vintage cooler that I was going to place in the front yard with bags inside using a help yourself honor system.  I was going to label them sweet, sweet/tart, and variety.  On a hunch, I visited Chris Slaydon in town to make sure that I could go forward with the plan.  To my complete surprise, he said that vegetables or fruit could not be sold on R1 properties.

This required a big change of plans, and that day I shared those picked bags of fruit with neighbors at the local post office.  This photo is about half of what I brought that day.  I did accept donations to help defray the cost of the bags.  I was honestly pretty devastated at the time, because I thought that since selling agricultural products does not require a business license, it would pose no problem.

Chris and I discussed options going forward.  He recommended rezoning to agricultural zone A2, given the contiguous A2 properties on either side of me, and my position on the very end of town, bordered by roads and A2 land.  I am the very last house on the Brownsburg proper.

I am going to go forward with this plan, because I would like the ability to not only share fruit varieties, but also to offer the sale of larger quantities to neighbors and friends who might want more.  There were quite a few who asked me if they could buy my fruit.  This would also enable me to offer fruit at orchard walkthroughs or county activities.  I could never compete with large orchards and I have no interest in doing so.  The money would allow me to continue to share fruit as I did this year.

My interest is in sharing my love of growing fruit and grafting, and that will always drive my future decisions.  That is why I have self designated the orchard a “demonstration orchard.”