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

Natural Dyeing

Ooh! I'm excited to finally have the time to experiment with fiber arts in the realm of my senior project. Natural dyeing was one of my top favorite topics in the fiber arts class I took in spring 2012, among the wool processing, spinning, and knitting that I fell deeply in love with.

I had to reserve this experiment until after I'd finished pruning the pear tree behind Simpson, so I could gather bark and twigs that otherwise will get composted. There is also a box of dried foliage that I collected on impulse last fall, even before I knew that I was going to do my senior project on everything-about-pears.

Potential colors from pear leaves (top four color blocks) and pear bark (bottom four blocks).

Most people have probably used acid-wash dyes like Kool-Aid or Rit to make tie-dyed shirts, which usually produce reliable, dependable colors. Natural dyes behave quite differently and requires an attitude that welcomes or  tolerates unpredictability. Variations in which part of the plants you use at what time of the year and even the mineral content of your water can vary the results.

Depending on the dyestuff being used, fiber will require some pre-treatment to open up the fiber molecules to accept and hold onto color. Liquid solutions of metallic salts, known as mordants, are a solution of metallic salts like ferrous oxide (iron), copper sulfate, or alum.

Three skeins of yarn, three different mordants to prepare them for the dyebath! I actually ended up using only the untreated wool and the alum-mordanted wool.

The Wild Color book gave instructions to cold soak enough bark to equal half the weight of the amount of wool used (0.5: 1), or an equal weight of foliage to wool (1:1). The author also mentioned that due to the presence of tannins in the bark, I should be careful about how much heat I use to extract the dye for fear or creating an acidic vat that might felt my yarn. I thought, okay, no problem!

Alchemy -transforming one thing into another! Notice how the alum mordant (on the far left) produces no color change in the fiber, while the ferrous oxide characteristically turned the yarn a rusty color and the copper sulfate.  

I had originally hoped to make a strong enough dyebath to submerge four differently treated skeins of wool yarn in to see how the mordants would affect the colors... unfortunately, nothing seemed to come out as I had hoped, and my camera died on me so I didn't catch any pictures of the dye vats.  

Alum mordanted wool on the left, untreated wool on the right. 

I had  to make some compromises. I weighed each skein of yarn, and whittled enough bark for the given dyestuff to wool ratio, but the color of the dye was dark and tea colored (tannins anybody?) and gave a surprising weak take after several days of cold soaking and being simmered on very low heat. Almost no color! Instead of four skeins of yarn, I cut back to just the untreated natural yarn and the alum-mordanted yarn.

Then I tried the foliage dye, to see if it would do anything different. It, too, produced a dark tea colored dyebath that gave very little color after soaking for three days.

 The takeaway? Shades of beige are often the default color. Perhaps a zen mind capable of nonattachment is partly necessary for the natural dyer.

I considered the age of the materials I used to make the dyebath - dried leaves from many months beforehand, and the peeled bark of freshly pruned branches. Perhaps fresh leaves and older barks give a better color?

The experiment deserves another set of trials, but alas, I have running out of time as the semester winds down. I'm not entirely disappointed, as one student who said to me, "They look like pear colors."

They'll make a nice hat or set of mittens!

Resources:
1) Dean, Jenny. Wild Color. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1999. Print.

The Magic and Science of Grafting

On Saturday, April 5th I drove out to the Old Stone House Museum in Brownington, Vermont where I had the opportunity to attend Michael Phillips' annual class on grafting and pruning. For $50, I got to learn how to graft apple seedlings from a renowned ecological orchard grower, ask him questions face to face, and watch him work with a loving and sure hand on very old, very neglected crab apples.

I was the youngest attendee there, surrounded by DIY type folk (and some of their elderly parents) who were interested in learning how to save money and become more self-sufficient, as well as propagating the old, unidentified fruit trees they treat like family members on their property.

Grafting, in essence, is the union of a plant that we want the fruiting charactertistics of (the scion) with the rootstock of another plant that has disease resistance or hardiness.

The union heals and grows together due to the nature of totipotency, where every cell in the plant organism has the blueprints to clone itself into an entirely new individual, and differentiate cell tissues into their particular roles. The origin of this fusion is made possible by lining up the cambiums of the cuttings, which is the region that new growth takes place in the stem.

Example of whip-and-tongue grafting.
Courtesy www.fruitforum.wordpress.com.

The ancient Chinese and Roman cultures discovered this "magic" nearly 4,000 years ago, using string, wax, or manure to bind the graft together. Theorphrastus of Eeresos refered to this and other popular management methods that were used to "punish the trees" and make them bear earlier.

Nowadays, people use rubber grafting bands and tar tree wound dressing to get the job done. The method I was introduced to here is known as whip and tongue grafting, so I won't get into the other types as I have only read about them.

Grafting knife and tree wound tar.

Key elements to making a successful graft include:

• Selecting similarly sized rootstock and scions 
• Clean, flat cuts that match up nearly perfectly
• Make 45 degree angled cuts about 1.5" long, for good contact
• Bind the scion onto the rootstock in the direction it originally grew on the tree!
• Let all of the little wood pieces fall on the ground so they don't get mixed up on the table
• Binding tightly, and generously dab with tar 
• LABEL as soon as you're done! 

I worked with a specialized grafting knife that had a single bevel, and had to get over cutting towards myself as we were all told NOT to do as kids. It's really the best way, I've found, to control the angle of the cuts. I didn't sustain my first injury until after I'd performed about 15 grafts and happened to be teaching my plant science class the how-to, and cut a decent flap of skin on my left index finger. It's healed up nicely now.

All grafts should be stored in a consistently cool, dry area for about a week to allow the union to heal, and then can be transferred to a nursery area in the garden where they can be watered and trained for the first two years of its life. After that, they can be transplanted to their final destination!

Okay... I had to put up these pictures of previous on-tree grafting that Michael Phillips did! Cool stuff!

Resources:
1) Old Stone House Museum - Adult Education Classes
2) Holistic orcharding. Dir. Michael Phillips. Perf. Michael Phillips. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013. DVD.
3) The Pear in History, Literature, Popular Culture, and Art by Jules Janick

A Botanical Illustration

I suppose it may seem a little backwards to get to this part now, but honestly it seemed appropriate to reopen a new growing season (albeit slow and cold) to speak about the characteristics that define Pyrus communis. The winter and early spring season present the opportunity for reflection and in-house experimentation, but it's time we move outside...

The European pear is a member of the Rose Family (Rosaceae) and therefore a close cousin to the apple, quince, hawthorn, and even the mountain ash. There are 20 species in Pyrus, many of which grow wild in the south central Europe, Russia, and western Asia.

As a temperature fruit, they can be grown in plant hardiness zones 4 - 9, where the trees are provided with at least 800 - 1000 hours of temperatures below 45F but not frequently further than -20F.

Pears are one of the first fruit trees to bloom in the spring, one to three weeks earlier than apples - putting the fruit crop at the risk of frost damage, depending on the conditions of the springtime.

They do best in well drained loamy soils between the pH range of 6 - 7 (slightly acidic to neutral), but can tolerate heavier clay soils than apples can.  

In Vermont, we're typically Zones 4 and 5. For a better look at this map, go to ARS USDA website.

European pears will grow up to 50+ feet tall. The long, vertically reaching branches could be described as "Octopus-like", as Tom Parlow of Walden Heights Nursery said to me. Furrowed greyish bark of an older tree; they are smooth when young. Shiny, simple, alternate dark green leaves; often finely serrated.

Picture courtesy www.discoverlife.org.

Picture courtesy www.dendro.cnre.vt.edu.

Courtesy 1ms.net.

The flowers are perfect... perfect, as in containing both male and female parts on the same flower!

There are between 15 - 20 stamens and 2 - 5 carpels, with their ovaries in an inferior position.The flowers look very similarly to apple blossoms, though they often smell bad or have no perceived fragrance. Typically white or tinged pink.

Courtesy from a botanical print on www.etsy.com.

The fruit is known as a pome -  which is an accessory fruit that is not classically an enlarged ovary that surrounds the seeds. Instead, the edible portion we love is the enlarged stem that once connected the flower to the branch. The actual ovary wall is the paper skin encasing the seeds.

Resources:
1) Hedrick, U. P., and G. H. Howe. The pears of New York. Albany: J.B. Lyon Co. printers, 1921. Print.
2) Weaver, Sue. "Heirloom Pears." Hobby Farms. I-5 Publishing, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

Senior Project Presentation

Guess what's happening this Saturday on April 19th? I get to present on my senior project presentation! And you know what that means? I get to talk about pears and all of the wonderful social and natural history that surrounds them! I even purchased four varieties to put out as samples for people to try...  

Family, friends, and community members are welcome to come see my senior project presentation "A Cross Disciplined Approach to the Pear". It begins at 9:30am in room 3 of the Simpson building here at Sterling College. I'll be setting up a display with all of the finished and unfinished projects I've been trying to document on this blog. 

Everyone is also welcome to attend the other senior project and senior applied research project presentations on Friday April 18th from 6:30pm - 9:30pm, and those on Saturday morning starting at 9:00am.

They'll be perfectly ripe by the time Saturday morning gets here...

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