ben capozzi

This is very much my goal!

The orchard and garden are still quite young, but I have 50 apple trees from David Vernon at Century Farm Orchards in NC. I told him I wanted the longest season of apples and pears possible. David told me that when they mature, I’ll have apples from June to January. My earliest is, I think, Red June, and my latest is…Mattamuskeet, maybe? I’d have to check. It’s slightly later than Arkansas Black.

I’ve also gone all in on Persimmons, American and Asian varieties. I have plenty of fall varieties, but the latest ones are Tecumseh and Deer Magnet, which promise ripe fruit into January or even March!

My strawberries and cane fruit aren’t established yet, but I’ve planted lots of Blueberries. We are, sadly, just too hot for haskap though I would love them otherwise. Also too hot for seaberry.

I’ve planted lots of Serviceberry.

I think those are all the things I’m growing for season extension, fruit-wise. We have a small market garden and my goal is to have something seasonal and nutritious year round. I also am growing so many things to help cut down on the poultry feed bill.

Oh, and by far, I most look forward to the persimmons!

Hi, all!

QUESTION:
Are autumn olive LEAVES poisonous? Could I dry them to make a tea, or start a wild ferment with them for mead, or flavor kombucha with them?

BACKGROUND:
I recently took cuttings from my two autumn olive shrubs (red and gold berry varieties) and I stripped away lots of leaves in the process. I couldnt just mulch all of the leaves because they're so beautiful with their silver underbelly— they seem to just beg to be used in an elixir, but I cannot find any mention across the interwebs about using the leaves. I like fresh eating the berries and will experiment more with them this fall, but what about the leaves?

Here's a link to Luke Calahan's microgreens business materials:

http://localbusinessplans.com/microgreens/

It's worth the $60, though there are some omissions/typos/incorrect product names in the PDF, but the planting/harvesting schedule and other info is really quite handy. If you're taking Curtis Stone's Profitable Urban Farming course online, you get Luke's stuff included at no additional cost, plus fora to discuss with other folks trying it across the globe.

Alternatively, if you're a TSP member with Jack Spirko, you can get the book for $30.

Hope that's helpful!

~Ben

Got it Cassie! On iOS for iPhone and no problems. Downloaded it to i ooks and opens fine. Hope that helps.

~Ben

How awesome! Thanks!

This thread is excellent! Does anyone know if some thornless varieties are thorny when juvenile?

Background: I bought 4, 4' thornless varieties from a nursery but they are thorny as all get out. They assure me, after some back and forth with customer service, that the trees will stop producing thorns “down the road,” later nailed down to 5-6 years. Does that sound legit? I've included a pic.

Having read about the risk of thorny kids from thornless parents and prodigious suckers I am inclined not to take the risk even if what the nursery says is true. They cannot/will not confirm the cultivar, only saying it's not a patented variety. There's no graft line and I was told they're grown from seedlings.

If I could just get a reliably thornless variety with no pods or otherwise sterile, I'd be all over it. I think these could be perfect trees for the scenario I've got: a fast-growing, nitrogen fixing tree, street side, north edge of property, limbed up quite high with a shallow canopy, maxing out around 20' under power lines. My small fruit tree orchard is just inside the fence, the honey locusts would be just outside the fence. The fruit trees max out around 8'.

Follow up question: anyone know another tree that would fit this bill?

~Ben

William James wrote:Check out Ben Falk, he seems to have the same thing you have.
http://www.wholesystemsdesign.com/resilient-farm-homestead-book/

What he did was connected the top, manure pond with a few down-hill land features. He uses the top pond to "fertigate" lower ponds and swales.
The problem with manure lagoons is that they can be a source of pathogens, but if you're using it to fertilize other areas, then the pathogens are mitigated. Just don't plant lettuce next to the manure pond and you'll be fine.

ps: willows, mulberries, and cottonwood all make a lot of woody mass with the conditions you describe, and they do it fast. If you can captialize on the woody mass (chip, hugelkulture) then that's another way around the problem.

William

William, thanks! One more reason to pick up Ben Falk's book. As soon as I'm finished with Mark Shepard's Restoration Agriculture I'm on it!

~Ben

Andy Reed wrote:I have dairy farmed for 10 years, and yes all that effluent in the lagoon is a fertiliser resource to use, I've grown many veges in that stuff. What concerns me now about them is not the manure but all the dairy shed detergents that accumulate there. I'm sure it's not a big deal, but it always bugs me. I highly doubt there a pesticides in there, or herbicides, knowing farmers they are most likely dumped on the track on the way back from the field, not in the effluent pond.

Either way get a digger in, scrape out the bottom and the sides until you hit clay, but try not to take too much clay. Use that stuff around some trees if you are unsure about it. I guarantee that is a clay lined pond, most likely dug in an area with high clay content, once you remove the top layer it will be as clean as you can get it, and good to go.

Andy, thanks so much! That's awesome info from someone in the biz. I'm sure it's a clay lined pond—in our county the soil leans WAYYYYY toward clay. You can find it anywhere without going down too far at all. Skimming the top layer should be very doable.

Yes! We're a year or two from having a farm but I am stoked for this book, especially to know how to incorporate different species of Livestock Guardians! I'm thinking about specializing in heritage breeds and am enamored with the American Mammoth Jackstock Ass (info here—check out those EARS!!: http://www.livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/amj), but I also love dogs and read that asses and donkeys will kill 'em. Looking forward to picking up the book and learning more in time!