Farmer Interview: Tom Parlow of Walden Heights Nursery

I wanted to interview a farmer who was familiar with pears that I could have theoretically driven a reasonable distance to meet, and Walden Heights Nursery was one of the first I could think of. Two summers ago, I went on a field trip there with my organic crop production class to experience a nursery and farm that was making the effort to develop and acclimate fruit trees, shrubs, and canes that were suited for our growing area.

This concept has been a fixation for me ever since, and may very well be the kind of path I choose for myself whenever I feel ready to consider graduate school or start a business (or both?).

After playing phone tag for about week with Laura Parlow, Tom's wife, I was grateful that even though this is the busiest time of the year for them - pruning, grafting trees, preparing and sending out orders - he was willing to make time to talk to me. I'd originally said I wouldn't take more than 15 minutes to interview him, but we ended up talking for over an hour.

He provided a much different perspective on pears than what I've come across in my research or from what I've heard from other growers. From what I remembered on the field trip and reading through documents posted on the nursery's website, he has taken on the farmer-researcher role to observe, experiment, and replicate the kind of results that suit his mission. I was very pleased to listen to him talk about the two varieties they developed on their own. "We run out of pears every year," he said, no matter how many more they try to graft to keep up with the interest of their customers. "There wasn't much interest in them until about 20 years ago."

I asked him what characteristics make them so popular, why he liked them, what he found was challenging. Tom admitted that while "the texture of pears is hard to beat, they probably aren't as popular in the heirloom industry as apples due to the more limited flavor profiles." He and his family loved canning them in particular, and mentioned trying their hand at making wine but "pears get so mushy that they clog the mesh nets" and sometimes need to have apples or even rice hulls added to bulk the pulp up.

Wow! What a great perspective.

It was also interesting to hear him debunk some of the universal facts that the books and extension papers repeated over and over, about pollination problems, fire blight and other diseases, the long wait for maturity. When I asked about these things, he said that he has not experienced these issues - that pears take about as long as apples do to reach bearing age, around 4 - 5 years, none of that "pears for your heirs nonsense" he said. He believes that with properly selected varieties, you can largely avoid most of the disease problems. He also said he thought the fruit were less susceptible to insects since they are so hard and are picked unripe.

There was much more we talked about, but my notes got messier and messier the more excited I got in our conversation. I hope to speak with him more in the future, and travel back for another visit at the farm.

Resources:
1) Walden Heights Nursery Homepage