"Winter Pruning" by Devon Riley

The winter weather returned to our Glen with daytime temps hovering around freezing, making pruning our apple trees a very chilling experience for the crew. But, this cold weather does afford us the chance to get as many trees trimmed as possible before springtime comes bringing new buds followed by April blossoms. Our loyal orchard crew members who work all year long doing everything from planting and pruning trees to picking, packing and cidering the apples from those trees seem to enjoy the winter season even if it requires some cold-hardiness and gloved hands. Now is the time we all enjoy quiet in our area as we get lots of projects done and prepare for the new production year.

Part of that preparation began today as we marked the arrival of our first bare root apple trees that we’ll be planting in some new orchards as well as using to replace older trees and filling holes in other existing orchards. It’s always exciting to start our growing season in this way, as we mark the beginning of life for a young apple tree. They come to us from the nurseries where they are grafted and grown in soft soil for up to 2 years before being dug-up and transferred to us for transplanting into a permanent home in one of our many orchards. This year, we will be adding a large block of Pink Lady, Fuji and Honeycrisp trees to our collection as well as expanding our heirloom orchards with experimental additions of other unique varieties. In the last two years we have planted over 40 varieties new to the ranch and we believe new, or at least long forgotten, in Oak Glen. In coming years the scale of production and uniqueness of our fruit should be enjoyed by all who venture up the hill. 

From the Desk of

Devon Riley