What’s going on with the Orchard?

It’s not possible... It can’t be done...

When we purchased the old Granville Orchard, it became our first experience with a commercial fruit business.  There were only a few hundred trees left, and the majority were well past their commercially viable productive life. We knew we didn’t want to resell produce grown elsewhere, and we weren’t comfortable using the conventional application of chemicals required to grow most of today’s popular apple varieties.  So we set out on a learning journey to see if it’s possible to grow apples in an environmentally responsible, regenerative way without the use of synthetic chemicals.

To educate ourselves, we started contacting experts across the country. To paraphrase - they all said the same thing. You simply can’t produce apples without chemicals. It just can’t be done.  That thought and belief is surely what has led apples to routinely make the dirty dozen list as one of the most toxic fruits in terms of how much chemical residue there is.

But we never have and we never will spray the insecticides and fungicides that are required to grow apples conventionally. It’s just not going to happen. We’re not going to take a piece of land and kill every insect and every fungus, disrupting the lifecycle of the birds and the amphibians as well as destroying the soil biology and fungi.  If that truly is what it takes to grow apples, we’re not going to grow apples.

The first year without chemicals (to a large degree) proved the experts right. The trees that were left simply did not produce sellable apples. Many of the apples looked more like prunes.  At this point, we weren’t concerned about saving the trees as they weren’t productive without chemicals that we refuse to use. So, we started grazing the orchards to allow the cattle to begin to regenerate the soil and the earth in these areas. They ate the leaves, in some cases stripped the bark, and the few young trees remaining were mostly destroyed. But then, something else happened. After a couple years, the apples being produced were significantly better. Was this happenstance? Luck? What was going on?

We started researching and found our answers in farming books, some close to 200 years old. Although it’s rarely discussed or used today, it turns out that prior to chemicals, grazing animals were used to keep orchards healthy and productive! They didn’t understand the science at that time but now we do. Fungal issues like black rot and fire blight have a lifecycle that can be broken by grazing animals.  These fungi overwinter on fallen leaves, fruit, and branches from the previous growing season. At this time, the trees themselves and the buds which will be next year‘s fruit are predominantly healthy. The following spring, when weather conditions are right, spores are released which rise with the wind and reinfect the trees. Here’s where grazing animals come in. During the dormant season, grazing animals move through the orchards and consume the fallen fruit, leaves, and grasses. These hold fungi which are then rendered harmless through their digestive system. So all that overwintered, once consumed by a grazing animal, is now gone. They truly clean the environment.  They’ll never eliminate 100% of the fungus, but they do make an enormous dent in it.

While the apples on the trees have improved, they’re still not to the standard we would like. The trees are of recently developed varieties that have been bred in conjunction with chemical sprays. Thus, they have not been developed with natural resistance and hardiness in mind.  The improvement they have shown has furthered our belief that it is possible to grow an Orchard using animals as an integrated system if paired with the right heritage varieties that thrived prior to chemicals.  Our education and experimentation continues as we search and trial varieties. Once we have found the system that works and expand it to a sellable scale, we will be sure to let you know. Until then, we will continue learning, working, and steadfast in our belief that we will never produce or sell a product that we’re not 100% confident is good for all of the environment, the animals, and our bodies.