Our Practices
Growing apples is hard work. Apple trees and their fruit are tasty treats for a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, insects, and mammals both large and small. Historically, orchards were some of the worst culprits for the use of damaging pesticides. Thankfully, management systems have evolved a long way. We follow a set of practices known as Integrated Pest Management, where we aim to manage the threats to our apple trees and fruit while maintaining the greatest human, soil, insect, fungi and overall ecosystem health possible. As part of these practices we do a lot of work by hand, which takes days and days of effort, instead of employing some chemical treatments. We also monitor insects in the orchard and data from our weather station to inform computer models which predict when specific pests and diseases are at their most threatening. These are skills that Emily gets to put this into practice out in the woods as a forest health specialist, as well as at home in the orchard. We make intentional decisions to allow a level of damage to our fruit, to reduce the amount of spray treatments we use. We're OK with a few spots on our apples. When interventions are necessary, we target them to the exact pest and the exact time required. We don't spray indiscriminately all season long and we don't use products that kill everything they touch. We choose the products we use very carefully, and will, in all cases, choose those that are safer for bees, non-pest insects, other wildlife, our customers, and ourselves. |
FAQ
Are your apples "Organic?" Nope. Organic practices do not allow the use of compounds made by humans. We use both chemical products which are organic and those that are synthetically produced. Most organic chemicals must be applied in larger quantities and more frequently than non-organic ones, and some are even dangerous to us as applicators. In all cases, we choose the products that are the safest for ourselves, our customers, and our ecosystem. Are your apples "low spray?" Sure. This isn't a formalized certification, but we certainly spray a lot less than most. Can you do "no-spray" apples? We wish we could. But, orchards which go without any spray treatments not only risk the total loss of a crop in any given year, they also risk the death of the trees. Wild trees which produce apples usually have a decent crop every 2 years, have small apples with many blemishes, and may be filled with insect larvae and bacteria that can cause illness. These apples are great for hard cider (the fermentation process effectively decontaminates most of the bad stuff) but not great for fresh eating or fresh cider. Have another question? CONTACT US We don't have anything to hide, and are happy to discuss any aspect of our practices with you. |