MOFGA grafting workshop

This Saturday I went to MOFGA headquarters in Unity, ME to learn how to graft fruit trees. The class was taught by a couple of professional orchardists, names Delton and Bennett (didn’t get last names), and covered bench grafting, inlay grafting, and summer bud grafting.

Honeybees!

Just in time for apple blossom, there are honeybees on the North End again. My mom and grandfather used to keep them when I was a little kid, but had trouble losing them through the cold, damp winters. After they gave it up, we would still get visits from honeybees belonging to Tessim Zorach across Robinhood Cove, but then he passed on and we’ve been short of pollinators ever since. I was doing some research and read that the new foam bee boxes make a big difference in overwintering ability, so I gave her a beginner foam beehive setup for christmas. She ordered some bees (Italian) and hived them last week. It was cold most of the weekend but we could hear them buzzing around inside and when we poked in we could see them massing at the top feeder. They came out briefly with the sun on Sunday afternoon, and apparently with the warm weather this week they have been very active in the flowering deciduous trees. If we get good weather hopefully they will make a good showing and we’ll harvest some honey come fall.

Go and tell him to clear me one acre of land

Between the rock ledges and the muddy sea strand

Setherwood, sale, rosemary and thyme…

The dismal weather forecast for the weekend was belied by the national satellite image, which showed nothing of great significance bearing down on it.  AC was on duty at BMC all weekend, so I took a chance and planned on a weekend of orchard work.  Here is what the orchard looked like at the end of Sunday:

it’s cider season somewhere!

Just got a comment from NZ from a guy looking to set up a garbage disposal cidermill – I hadn’t thought about it before due to northern hemisphere chauvinism, but there are really two cider seasons per year.  That really brightens my day…

New project Downeast

This may prove inspired in retrospect, or may turn out to be early signs of madness.  30some acres, a few old apple trees, lots of mature timber, and (drumroll) possible hydro potential.  So far: fixed leaking siding, ditched alongside washed out driveway, established vegetable garden, temporary install of PV.