Land of Plenty–Establishing or Reclaiming an Orchard, by D.V.

Like many preppers we are preparing for food shortages.  Gardening is a mainstay and takes knowledge and lots of work on a regular basis.  Harvesting wild foods requires specialized knowledge.  But orchards and vineyards are a mainstay for a long term homestead that had plenty of land.  For the purpose of this article, an orchard will refer to all reproducing fruits (cane, bushes, vines and trees) although there are technical names (orchard, vineyard or patch).  For our forefathers the planting of the orchard was a priority after a shelter and water source.  The practical reason behind this is that orchards can produce fruit regularly without a huge amount of effort and it takes three to five years for them to become productive.  While orchards need to be tended, once an orchard is established it does not have to be constantly maintained.  Apples in particular are a source of natural pectin which can be used to can other fruits. Fortunately, we can still reap the harvest that our forebearers have planted.  The life expectancy of an apple tree is about one hundred years although there have been documented cases of apple trees living past two hundred and still producing. 

Two years ago we purchased a small farm.  This farm has a half dozen apple trees and several rows of grape vines that stretch a hundred and fifty feet or so.    The farm is in total disrepair (which is how we could afford it) and the orchard looks as if it has not been touched in decades.  Full sized non-fruit trees are interspersed between the hand-full of apple trees.   In order to return the orchard into a more productive state; I’ve been reading about pruning and managing trees as the non-fruit bearers are cut for firewood.  The best I’ve found is Successful Berry Growing: How to Plant, Prune, Pick and Preserve Bush and Vine Fruits by Gene Logsdon and the books How To Prune Almost Everything and How to Prune Almost Anything — both by John Philip Baumgardt.  It is worthwhile to have a good baseline before you go in and start hacking.  I’ve read many other books but these are the few I return to again for tips.  Google search is also great and there are plenty of excellent videos (such as reminders on chainsaw safety) as well.

One of our primary goals is to restore the orchard.  Orchards require planning as trees are not cheap, unmovable and take a while to produce and thus there is a considerable up front investment in time and money in starting an orchard.  One of the web pages that I liked is Planning an Orchard.   For us the orchard was already in existence and therefore we knew that it was the proper soil condition and location.  Our plan revolved around clearing away the new unwanted growth, include new and different varieties of trees and plants and increase the production and protect the current established trees.   In addition to standard orchard concerns our plans includes elements of long term survival (seasonal production and quantity); personal favorites (my wife enjoyed gooseberries growing up and therefore it is important to have the same in our new orchard);  barter (fresh or canned fruit will make an ideal barter item) and additionally we are looking at unique varieties that will grow in our area (Michigan) including such unusual trees as paw-paws (which is considered the Midwestern Banana); Medlar and Asian pear.   We believe that having something different will have a bit more trade value as apples and cherries are fairly common around us and people will always want something special and different as a treat.  As part of this plan, the unusual varieties of trees are lower on the proverbial totem pole to more common fruits but we have also identified what can grow in our area and what we ultimately would like in our orchard.  By having this plan, if we stumble across a good sale (we found a currant bush for $1.50 at an end of season sale) we can affordably include these items into our orchard.

As the grapevines are towards the front of the orchard, we decided to reclaim them first.  There are lots of ways to build a grapevine trellis.  Our goal was to make it more durable so that we would not have to rebuild it in the next decade (or longer hopefully).   In my search, I found trellises made in every conceivable method and material.  An older gentlemen nearby constructed his trellis out of left over plumbing supplies back in the fifties and it was still strong.  I considered the same, but it was cost prohibitive.  I also considered using PVC instead, but felt it could not handle the weight load of the vines.  Therefore I settled on steel fencing post with steel rubber coated wire for durability.  It was easy to work with, was durable and went up relatively well.  While putting up the fencing, we trimmed back a good portion of the vines and removed all the fruit in order to encourage growth next year.  We cleared away a good 100 feet of vines and trellised it all so next year we should have a great harvest.  We did nothing to any of the other rows which are a mess and growing wild.  As part of my plans, I anticipated to have the entire orchard reclaimed in a single year.  This is roughly a seven by seven acre piece of land.  Ultimately, at the end of the season I removed several trees, cleared away roughly three acres, reclaimed a single row of vineyards, started a half dozen blueberry bushes, planted one new apple tree and a currant bush (that was on sale) as well as established a small raspberry patch.   Reclaiming is just as time-consuming as creating an orchard from scratch.  As indicated earlier, a considerable up front time investment.  But we can also share due to the existence of our current trees the value of mature trees.

This fall, as I was cleaning up an area, I noticed there were ripe grapes on the vines that we hadn’t touched.  So I grabbed my kids and a couple of plastic shopping bags and went grape picking.  We were surprised at the amount of fruit that you can get from vines and trees that are not tended.  We ended up with over 50 lbs of grapes and a bushel and a half of apples.  Now these are not the nice pretty apples that you will find in the grocery store although there were a few that looked just fine.  Apples that are not tended and sprayed with chemicals look a bit ugly, but when you cut them open, the flesh was clean and tasty. I went back to the farm and grabbed my wheel barrow and several empty five gallon buckets.  None of the grapes we picked this season came off the vine we recently trimmed so we anticipate that we will have quite the harvest once we have all the vines trellised and anticipate around 100 pounds of grapes.  Also, it was early in the season and there are plenty of apples still ripening on the tree.  Interestingly all of our neighbors have told us the trees and vines didn’t produce so either they did not look closely or have been secretly picking the apples and grapes.  As I indicated earlier, this orchard was neglected for years and if there is a TEOTWAWKI situation, forgotten and neglected orchards can still provide an abundant harvest.  Apple trees are especially easy to recognize and I have found trees in the middle of a wood that has evidently grown up around them.  But you also see them sitting on the edges of fields or in lots, neglected and forgotten.  Please remember to respect private property.  Most people, if asked, are happy to share their fruit if they do not plan to harvest.  Some may plant the fruit trees for the purpose of attracting wild animals and game (to provide for better hunting); therefore do not assume they are unaware of the trees. 

Now we had to figure out what to do with our unfound bounty.  The most rational situation was to can our goods.  My wife and I had not canned before and this was a great learning experience.  The Ball Blue Book of Preserving is a good overall canning book.  There are other canning books and typically there are canning recipes in everyday cook books.  But I based my recipes off the book noted and used the others for comparisons.  You will also need the canning jars and lids, but a canning kit (with a jar funnel, tongs, jar holder, etc.) is a huge time saver and relatively inexpensive.   Finally, a large stock pot is required for the boiling method.  As preppers we have been stocking up on food.  We have several hundred pounds of sugar and frankly we were not sure how we were going to use it.  Believe me, sugar is used up quickly when making traditional jams, jellies and sauces.   Sugar helps the pectin set.  Another good thing to stock now while available is pectin.  Pectin can be made from scratch and there is a good recipe on Mother Earth News.  This recipe is printed out and put inside our recipe book.  Still pectin stores well and will save extra steps for canning your harvest and it makes sense to have a good supply set in. Next year we will experiment with homemade pectin and check recipes so we are not dependent on store purchased goods.  But we want enough on hand to have an easier transition.  Canning lids are not supposed to be reused either and therefore they should be stocked up on as well.  You can also use paraffin wax (which is how my grandmother canned) as an alternative method to sealing a can and this is easier to stock and will last a long time.

So with a few trees and some overgrown grapevines that have not been tended in years, we ended up with seven quarts of applesauce, two quarts of apple butter, and eleven quarts of jelly.   We had a couple of apple pies and ate quite a few apples and during the process had a bad batch of jelly that we ended up composting.  If we were in better practice and in a survival mode, I believe we could have gotten more out of the fruit, but we enjoyed the process, tasting along the way to learn and yes we made a few mistakes.   Next year we plan to extend our process to syrup and wine making as well as apple pie in a can and hopefully make raspberry and blueberry jellies as well.