Organic upick fruit, berries and edible plant nursery, scionwood, grafted trees. Near Seattle in Snohomish, PYO apples, blueberries, grapes, berries, currants, more
Author: Skipley Farm, Gil
I am a plantsman, grower, farmer, teacher and speaker. Trained in Horticulture which is all about growing useful plants from food to fiber, flowers and trees. Though college education is a launching ground, my enthusiasm and passion lie in the field of growing food organically.
Were reliquishing 160 5 year old plants out into the community. Potted, productive( we make pies from nursery plants, yes they,re producing). In comes new inventory: baby 4 inch plantlets we sell at $3.85 under 100. 100-500 $2.45.Blueberries grow! Peat, Bark. A little sand, water, a handful of cottonseed meal, you are on your way!
shoo away the birds(net-and we sell net) and you’ve got crop; consider soil, fertility. 10 years growth? Antioxidants with delight? I mean munchable deligjt… why not… expect 20 pounds per plant. These big plants go for $40 to $60 green, growing, we accept bitcoin, mc, visa, amx.the idea is. creating security.
Sugar is in berries, sugar. Please stay safe. Sugar IS a drug, addicted? Relieve yourself in love, delight. Lip service.
yep, talk. Basic as that
You, meet that extension agent, the one down the road growing, growing, growing. That neighbor, pea patch, kind enthusiast. God-like delivery. It is God-like relationship. Break out. Touch the earth like never before.
Read up…, I mean, where do we trust? Wendell Berry. Masanobu Fukuoka, Sego Jackson, Mark Musick. Heros all. A neighbor..
Can you imagine a walled garden?The story ‘The Secret Garden’ shed light on the peace, sanctuary and romance within the confines of such a glorious planting – where one can communicate with the wildlings. As a child this story stirred a wonder within me.
50 years hence, I recreate this paradise feigned for in my mind, on vellum again and again setting the scene to the three dimensional canvas of the earth, mirroring natural systems, constructing the eden sought. Elementary is shelter, food, security, rest, fire, water, and friendship to share the gift of creation.
This Saturday at 10AM Skipley Farm will reveal the world of garden design for abundance and a place to set the bench for contemplation, verse and story with music and dance the result. Enroll in a paradigm of antiquity when gardens provided victoriously. The fruits in this cornucopia are tried, true and real, our painting is here. Ten thousand have plucked from our vines immersed in this succulence. We wish this upon your own parcel, field or allotment.
Bring plans of plot, measurements, soil, photos, all you know to tease the rudiments of intelligent design because we will!
I live this time in reflection. Misty dampish, 40’s air. Reading, writing, consumed with defining purpose. Plant Gil, plant! – I recall my good friend saying repeatedly. I deliberate within design parameters. I deliberate for the rare 5 days needed to shovel a hole without the earth suction planting my tool instead. 100 new apple varieties to map, and plant. Planning the orchard with test fruit is deliberate/designed for> alphabetical, numerical, ripening period, disease prone, tree size, use (cider, fresh, pie), rootstock type…hmmm. It is particularly daunting. I like having to deliberate. Answers keep surfacing. Reflecting on orchard design. If there was only a dozen varieties, no problem. The orchard with 4000 varieties (e.g. Botner) is understandably challenged. In that case I’d be alphabetical… only if planted all at once! because adding more trees later presents a new problem? How? assigned numbers; lettered rows; leaving gaps for the final collection? hmm. Still in pause-mode.
Share a review. Read the reviews. The ever-changing farm. Here’s the negative: no small-wheeled strollers, a worm in EVERY apple, old trucks, tractors, implements, farm materials, empty (or full) bottle of whiskey, bare back young men in the nursery, barbed wire in the farmyard, small-backyard-like, temperamental farmers. So beware. Oh, and traffic, it’s becoming too popular. So pass this on. Inordinary is us.
The positive. We will need to become exclusive, with membership or tickets. Our diversity, quality, flavors are off the charts.
Orchards vary in their management of “drops” or “windfall”. Most orchard apples fall from high up so when they drop, they bruise by hitting bare ground, ground cleared and killed by herbicides, primarily ‘Roundup’/Glyphosate. Problem #1-bruised apples with residual glyphosate. When apples fall they often ‘dent’ where the skin is intact without tearing. Ok …but only if they don’t contact animal poop (thats not been composted for 3 months) down on that ground where E-coli becomes a problem. Patulin and E-coli have been on the Radar of all orchardists due to a few instances of poop, rot and fruit. The e-coli comes from contact with fresh feces including Rodents, Cow, horse, chicken, goat, human, you name it. Eating poop is not recommended for humans (although I here cow dung is loaded with B12). Insect frass/poop is not framed as E-coli contaminated.
Food safety news about field contamination of apples reiterate from one research group in Illinois on the footsteps of a cow dung infused Apple farm that caused 10 people to get sick. The scare is on for a decade now. There is more chance of contracting E-coli from a hand picked apple, especially by a child, with fingers previously …. here’s why:
Orchards with small, low trees, with no farm animals pooping in the fields, with rodents like rabbits and mice not piling their poop under the trees, on top of the plants where apples may drop, the risk of apples being contaminated drops off dramatically. Falling short heights into and onto soft grass or onto the perfect plant guild that nestles and surrounds the fruit with the chill and dew of evening air, ripening the apple over days, sometimes weeks in the most perfect environment… E-coli contaminated fruit drops to one in a million.
No problem if falling into clean plants and soft grass.
Now bruised apples with a tear open to the flesh inside most certainly will be visited by the spores of 2 or 3 fungi that can cause a potent toxin, Patulin, also cited as a homeopathic- found to fight cancer as well as potentially cause cancer. The photo above is a blue mold that causes the potent Patulin.
Would you or you child eat this? An indiscriminate orchardist could rake it up for cider pressing.
It take several days for this mold to establish. You can see it. Unbroken apples sometimes achieve mold production at the end of their edible life and sometimes in cold storage ahead of their lifespan where conditions of moisture and temperature can create spore germination-fungicides are used to intervene here.
If you want the perfect crisp Apple, you will find it in the grass, nestled, out of direct sun, still cool at the end of the day, breathing with the fluctuating night-day temperature shift, kissed with evening dew at dew-point, moist cool air, drying by day but still cool. No fungus! Look for mouse or rabbit poop, should you find it don’t eat it. There is a slim chance a fruit is nestled in a pile of poop. You the apple you-picker, orchardist, can see this. Like Apple cores in the field pick these up, toss them to the field shoulder or put them in a trash bucket. Germs are everywhere!
“Summer Apples” come and go in a flash, ripening by the hour! For the Summer apples there is that perfect moment with maximum aroma, juice, crispness, making the first apples of the season an experience not to miss. Every apple will be a little different in ripeness and how it presents itself. You will notice our white trees this year. This is Kaolin Clay. It’s edible and the bugs don’t like the powder. It works! It also helps keep the fruit from scorching as well as increases photosynthesis! We have small bags for your own personal tree at the farm.
