Pruning Time!

Neil learns to prune his first apple tree

Eighteen down and 124 more to go!

Sure, let's add just one more thing to our plates this year! Why not?

Up until now we have been renting out our small orchard of 127 apple trees and 15 pear trees. We decided that this year, we will work the orchard ourselves. Believe it or not, March is the time to prune fruit trees in our area. We began pruning today and really could have used snowshoes to do it! Sadly, we've found that we've had a little bit of rabbit damage. They love the tasty bark and can just reach the lowest branches when the snow depth rises. We pruned 18 trees in an hour. Not too bad. Now we've got 124 trees to go and about another 7 hours of pruning.

If I take it easy, this can act as therapy for my shoulder injury that was re injured a couple days ago when the dogs pulled the hook and the sled lunged forward before the quick release caught. Well, not a problem unless I was gripping the sled with my right hand when they pulled it causing my arm and shoulder to pull before my grip released. And I was.

Oh, well. It was a beautiful afternoon to spend some time out in the orchard. If you're local, keep us in mind this fall if you're interested in some MN Grown Apples and Pears! For apples we've got Sweet 16, Witos (Russian Apple), Zestar, Victory, Sugar King and YES(!) we have Honey Crisp. Our pear trees are Patent, Gourmet and Lucious. You'll never find anything as good as these pears in the stores. They just melt in your mouth!