The Choicest of Fruit
Walking down a long row of trees with the chainsaw. We prune the fruit trees this time of year to allow more air to enter the canopy. That increased airflow through the branches reduces the potential for fungal disorders and makes for fewer applications of chemical sprays through the growing season.
A traditional North Fork farm in wintertime.
Photo by Pamela Zahra-Kaminsky.
Freshly-chainsawed fruitwood logs on the orchard floor.
The growing season begins again on some of the coldest days of the year with these baby tomato plants starting out inside the warmth of the greenhouse.
There’s no shortage of fruitwood around here during pruning season.
Tossing firewood into the pile.
By pruning the trees in the winter, we enable more sunlight to enter the tree during the growing season, and the greater sunlight helps produce tastier, sweeter fruit.
After we prune the branches off the fruit trees, we chop up the prunings into bits. This conservation practice helps to conserve moisture during the growing season, incorporates organic material into the soil, and is part of our crop rotation system, in which we grow a different crop on the soil where fruit trees used to be.
Doing some serious crop rotation.
· Season’s greetings and best wishes for the new year to all our customers and friends.
