Interview Questions

I came up with a list of questions to ask a few farmers I wanted to interview for this part of my project, focusing on the horticultural management of pears in New England. Here they are...

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1.      Describe what your mission is and what you do on your farm.

2.      Why did you decide to grow pears?

3.      What percentage would you say they make in volume and sales on your farm?

4.      Over the years, how has managing them compare to other fruit trees you grow?

5.      How many trees do you have?

6.      Which cultivars are they?

7.      What characteristics did you look for when selecting the cultivars?

8.      What do your customers look for in pears?

9.      Why do you think they aren’t as widely grown as apples are?

Fun Fact: Best Way to Eat a Pear

It's not that this is the WRONG way... but it's sweetest by the stem. 

My plant science professor, Charlotte, was born in Denmark and told me once that everyone in the U.S. eats pears the wrong way. It didn't occur to me that there was a correct way, but I found a passage in Harold McGee's book On Food and Cooking that said that pears accumulated more sugars at the top near the stem. Remove the stem, and consume.

Apparently, eating pears like apples (going for the widest part first) can reduce our experience of the pear! Another little tip to improve our relationship to the fruit. We can't fully appreciate them unless we understand them!

Resources:

On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee

Pruning, Pt. II

Flagging from the first round of pruning to remind me of what I decided to take off.

Trudging around in almost waist deep snow, I found, either made pruning more difficult or helpful depending on how packed down it was! 

There are several features in this tree's structure that concern me and have proven to make harvest difficult. In the picture below, I circled the three major branches that have dominated the canopy. Notice how they became bowed under the weight of fruit over the years, continuing to grow up and out so that no one could harvest or prune them!

While I've become slightly more confident in my make thoughtful cuts, I still get a little nervous when I make the larger ones. Several books that I've consulted about reviving old fruit trees recommend spreading major cuts over 3 - 5 years, being careful not to remove more than one third of the vegetation per season. Pears need to be handled more carefully in this regard, as they are known for sending out tons of tender growth after major pruning that are very susceptible to fire blight (which I will write about soon, among other common pests and diseases). Ultimately, they said to only to prune if the tree could improve from it.  

I made some big cuts with the saw to open up the top of the canopy, leaving some for next year to prevent shocking the tree into growing too much this coming season.

AFTER picture.

   

Verticial growing branch... no more growth for you!

Great examples of both overly upright and downward growing branches on the same limb! 

I left the flagger on the branch on the left, thinking next year it could be fully removed...

Out of two proud, very straight growing water sprouts coming out of the truck, I selected one with hope for a more balanced tree in the future. I headed it back by a few inches because it was over three feet tall! If the garden crew can pay careful attention, they might be able to train new vertical branches from it to replace the one that got torn down last fall.

Pruning, Pt. I

Time for a deep winter manicure. Note the long, whip-like branch growth characteristic of pear trees.

Last week, I started tackling Sterling's single pear tree behind Simpson. At this time last year, I began teaching myself how to identify problematic growth patterns out of books and YouTube videos. This tree drew my attention the most, as it was wildly beautiful after many years of neglect (growing whichever direction it willed) but had not borne much fruit as a consequence and was beginning to show winter damage. Whether it was the pruning I did or just was a coincidentally good year, it bore over 300 lbs. of pears in September 2013!

Back view.

Trees naturally shed their branches by the activity of strong winds, snow and ice storms, fires, the browsing of animals and insects, and the falling of nearby trees. They can even induce certain parts of themselves to die off with hormones like abscisic acid that may have become inefficient in conducting nutrients for the organism (an example may be a branch that does not enough access to light) or is diseased or water stressed.

So, why do we bother to prune? 

As Lewis Hill says in his book, Pruning Made Easy, we are no longer in the wilderness anymore. There are a lot more people on this planet with limited amounts of land to grow on, so when a tree falls over and dies, we have to wait up to 10 years before a new one can replace it and produce for us. By maximizing the potential of a single tree to produce, we can save space and time by essentially speeding up the natural process of "shedding" branches.

Pruning improves sunlight access among the canopy, increased air flow for disease control, and stimulates a heavier fruit crop that the tree would otherwise not bother to expend the energy on. When left alone, trees are more concerned with producing a smaller number of offspring while the rest of their resources are spent on vegetative growth.

When a fruit tree does well, we are not the only ones who reap the prize. There are the all the soil microorganisms, birds, mammals, and even air and water quality that benefit from a thriving tree. After much discussion about the human role as co-creator of habitats around the world (like a keystone species) , using the knowledge we've gathered about our surroundings to optimize their function in a way that benefits everyone.      

Wound leftover from wind damage in September 2013. Two heavy limbs came down and left an ugly gash, off-balancing the modified central leader shape the tree was originally trained in. Note the dark heartwood.

Closeup of water sprouts. 

Pruning is based off of a few principles that have not changed much since our ancestors first began managing the growth patterns of their crops (though our tools are probably better).

What to look for:
-Crossed or overlapping branches
-Downward or vertical growing branches
-Twigs that are basically just in your way

More guidelines to follow when pruning include:

-Using SHARP TOOLS to make clean cuts- messy cuts do not heal evenly and risk infection. 

-Cutting at a slant to accelerate the healing process and avoid rot, helping to dry and seal off the new "wounds". 

-Cut larger branches in stages to avoid splits and jagged breaks.

In the following pictures, I demonstrate the initial, quick cuts that I could reach from the ground or from in the tree and were small enough to cut with hand pruners. My next post will feature the larger, more strategic cuts that I wanted to make with a bandsaw and pair of loppers.  

Same branches AFTER...

  

South facing lower branches BEFORE...

 

Northeast facing branches BEFORE...

... and AFTER.

Vertical growing branches we don't want to encourage...

More problematic branches that are too out of reach and block sunlight.

Pile of watersprouts. This was everything I could reach from the ground or sitting up in the tree. Just think- it's all growth from last season, carbon taken out of the air and formed into material. Now they're destined for the soil.

Resources:

1) Hill, Lewis. "Pruning Made Easy: a gardener's visual guide to when and how to prune everything, from flowers to trees." Pownal, VT: Storey Pub., 1997. Print.

2) Michael Phillips. "Holistic Orcharding". White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013. Film.
3) Shepard, Mark. "Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers." Austin, Texas: Acres U.S.A., 2013. Print.

Secondary Fermentation

This weekend, I set up shop in my dorm room to rack (or siphon) my two gallon batch of apple-pear wine into two smaller experimental batches and check on its progress. I meant to do this before leaving for spring break at the end of February...

Looking a little oxidized...

I washed and sanitized everything in my dorm bathroom, choosing inefficiency over the hassle of packing my equipment to drive over to another residence hall. Granted, I ended up making my room smell like a speakeasy for a few hours from the wine I spilled on my floor.

I hit my target ABV (alcohol by volume) of about 13 - 14%. After spitting out two mugs worth of yeasty wine while trying to create capillary action on my makeshift tube system, I can attest that it's probably much closer to 14%. Strong stuff!

SG (starting gravity) 1.100

FG (final gravity)      0.990

It's still a young wine, so I wasn't expecting it to taste all that great. I took note of the dark oxidization that has occurred (the apple juice I used was dark to begin with), and the cloudiness (probably from the pectin in the unfiltered pear nectar, which I can deal with later). I threw in some different herbs and spices to create the following two, one-gallon experimental batches:

Pear Orange Spice on the left, Pear Ginger Hawthorne on the right.

~ Pear Ginger-Hawthorn Berry (two tea bags of ginger tea, and 4 TB of dried hawthorn berries)

~ Pear Orange-Spice (two tea bags of black tea, 2 TB of dried orange peel, 2 cinnamon sticks, 8 cloves, 2 star anise)

            

 

I don't expect fermentation to restart, since all available sugars have been consumed by the yeast, but this is the time for the flavorings to infuse and allow the wine to bulk age before bottling in a few weeks. I might grate a few pears and toss them into the wine to see if I can get more pear flavor, and it might be a good idea to back sweeten one or both of them.  

We shall see...

Gifts

I've taken great delight in how many friends and family associate pears with me now, mentioning to me that they did this-and-such dessert with poached pears one night or that they heard something on the radio. Some have begun to keep them on hand for when they know I'm visiting, so we can cut them up to share as a snack.

A few have even given me gifts, which have tickled me at the spontaneous manner they were given.

In December before the school left for winter break, my friend, Kendra, brought me a little clay pendant she made in her pottery class...   

"I sort of made this by accident, but then it reminded me of you so I made it look more pear-like," she said.

Last night, another one of my friends, Jesse, stopped by with a bag of four different varieties of pears he saw at a co-op and said something to the effect, "Well, I know you're really into pears, so I got you one of each."

From left to right: two Bartlett (sorry Jesse, they're the same, except one was riper!), Bosc, and Green D'Anjou.

Thank you to everyone who entertains my enthusiastic ramblings about fruit!

SP II: Physiology and Management Techniques

With the approach of spring, I decided that it was due time to begin exploring and posting on the topics I set aside for Senior Project II. Since last September, I have been conducting nearly equal amounts of research on the biological and economic facets of the European pear as I cooked, baked, painted, and contemplated the abstract.

We're going from this...                                                ...to this!

What does this mean for me? I have a platform to seriously dork out about all of the cool science stuff I've been gathering for the past five months! Like how the European pear can be grafted onto hawthorn rootstock to dwarf the trees AND deter deer (apparently) and that primary compounds responsible for the pear's aroma are hexyl acetate and est- well, you probably get the idea. 

Also, I have an excuse to spend more time outside! This is exciting! I've been a book worm all winter!

Projects that I'll be tackling in SP II include practicing my pruning skills, learning how to graft, and interviewing a few different farmers I met within this past year about their experiences growing pears in New England. My presentation is loosely scheduled for mid-April, and hopefully I will have completed most of these by then and have plenty of pictures to share with my audience.

I suppose I'll have to excavate my half-carved spoon out of the snow bank by the wood shop soon, eh?

Resources
1) "Two Pear Palette Knife Abstract" by Laurie Pace
2)"Doyenne du Comice" from the book The Pears of New York

The Pear in Poetry

"Appreciating poetry is probably like appreciating anything else. It means having the generosity to let a thing be what it is, the patience to know it, a sense of the mystery in all living things, and a joy in new experience.”

-M.C. Richards

I figured it was time to return back to something more abstract than the invigorating science of fermentation. I mostly skimmed the surface in my post on the pear as a symbol, so it seemed appropriate to share some word art that captures how this fruit has penetrated our culture and the way we think about the world. 

Here are a few of my favorite poems I came across, forwarded to me by professors and friends. :

Study of Two Pears by Wallace Stevens

1

Opusculum paedagogum.

The pears are not viols,

Nudes or bottles.

They resemble nothing else.

I thought I'd be humorous and start off with one that speaks of pears as meaningless, plain ol' fruit- none of this abstract nonsense comparing it genitals or instruments. I appreciate the break from overly-intellectual thinking every so often and allowing things and people to just be as they are.  

~~~

The Groundfall Pear by Jane Hirschfield

It is the one he chooses,

Yellow, plump, a little bruised

On one side from falling.

That place he takes first.

By far my favorite, I see two different ways of interpreting this short poem. To me, it could either be very sensual and romantic, finding beauty within imperfection... on the other hand, it could even be considered predatory, going after one's most vulnerable spot.    

~~~

Pears by John Lee Clark

The sun's finger and thumb 

will rub those stems

without kindling them,

choosing to caress

their plump bodies warm.

My pears will not melt

as would scented candles

lit in the aging twilight,

but they will still shine

my kind of light.

Then I will know

how to bite into pears

in the kindest way 

and how to accept

their sweet forgiveness.

~~~

Pears by Linda Pastan

Some say
it was a pear
Eve ate.
Why else the shape
of the womb,
or of the cello
Whose single song is grief
for the parent tree?
Why else the fruit itself
tawny and sweet
which your lover
over breakfast
lets go your pear-
shaped breast
to reach for?

~~~

The Pear by Ruth Stone

There hangs this bellied pear, let no rake doubt,

Meat for the tongue and febrile to the skin,

Wasting for the mildew and the rot,

A tallow rump slow rounded, a pelt thin

And for the quickest bite; so, orchard bred,

Heaviest downward from the shaking stem.

Whose fingers curve around the ripened head

Lust to split so fine a diadem.

There is the picker, stretches for the knife,

There are the ravening who claw the fruit,

More, those adjuring wax that lasts a life,

And foxes, freak for cunning, after loot.

For that sweet suck the hornet whines his wits,

But husbandman will dry her for the pits.

Resources:

1) Study of Two Pears by Wallace Stevens
2) The Groundfall Pear by Jane Hirschfield
3) Pears by John Lee Clark
4) Pears by Linda Pastan
5) The Pear by Ruth Stone