Before we planted our elderberry field, we had been experimenting with growing an orchard. What landowner who has owned any hunk of land at least big enough to pitch a tent in hasn’t had vision of fruit trees dancing in their heads? We planted a few trees a decade ago from the local feed store to no luck. We were eight years in and still no fruit, even if the trees were very lovely and lush. So, we decided to get more serious. We rolled up our sleeves, got a little more serious, and fenced off a corner of the very fertile pasture. The manure crew had been hard at work in that section from the time we bought the property.

Thank you, Tommy, and no, that doesn’t come with a raise, nor a corner stall.

Three years ago, we attended a Fruit and Nut Grower’s Association meeting—we’re not farmer nerds at all— to pick up some rootstock. We loaded up on apple, pears, pawpaw, and persimmons. We wanted to make sure the trees we were purchasing had the right rootstock for our growing zone, which is not always the case when you buy from chain stores. We got all fifty of those rootstocks in the ground. Over the span of two years while they were getting the roots established, we lost a few to the goats that we planted too close to the fence line, not realizing just how long their necks could stretch when provided with the proper motivation. The rest fell to the lawnmower on weeks we couldn’t get out to the orchard, and couldn’t see the wee babies through the tall grass.

Other than that, they were hardy and all survived, so we were off to a great start.

We were finally able to graft the pears and apples early, early spring this year. It hurt, cutting the rootstock down that’d finally started to get some height to them, but it was a necessary evil. We had scions from Gala, Pink Lady, Sparkling Pear, and Beauty Pear.

And that rootstock was something else. Everything but the Pink Lady’s—which was a quality of scion problem—succeeded and shot up like rockets. We personally killed our pears because they didn’t have as much green growth as the apples, but we left the bags and burlap off instead of rewrapping them, and then three late cold snaps killed them off. The rootstock has survived, so other than losing a year of growth, they will be ready to try again next year. In the meantime, we’ve got Galas growing like crazy! We had to stake the new growth because they’d more than tripled their size throughout the summer, so it was a fun learning project. And with luck, we will have fruit available in a few short years!