Heavy snowfall the last week of January and frigid temperatures in February put a halt to our annual pruning for several weeks. We were just getting somewhat “caught up” with things again but now we are experiencing a week of early spring rains. So once again things are on “hold.” We’re not really on a strict time schedule. We just need to finish before the trees start to run sap and come out of their winter dormancy. Our plan, however, is to have pruning completed and the aisleways of the orchard cleared of prunings and brush by the end of March.
A sure sign that Spring is just around the corner is the arrival of seed and nursery catalogs in the mail. Paging through the catalogs gets a person anxious to work the soil and plant garden seeds, flowers and trees. Besides the catalog mailings there are educational sessions scheduled for growers to renew their chemical applicator licenses. Growers are required to apply for and maintain licenses for application of chemicals to their crops and fields. There are measures in place by the Offices of the State Chemists to provide transparency and good oversight to ensure safe growing practices. Consumers can be assured that growers are making every effort to provide food products that are safe for their consumption.
Like all farming operations orchard work is both physically and mentally demanding. Orchard operations require manual laborers, “real bodies,” who have a high level of physical endurance. Working in an orchard isn’t sedentary or predictable. It requires critical thinking, solving real problems and taking responsibility when things break down. Believe me, things DO break down and nine out of ten times, things break at the most ill opportune times.
Orchard work is hard but satisfying if you have desire, a love for your land and a willingness to be a good steward of your land. People need food. The question isn’t if orchards need more technology to provide food security but rather it’s a question of who in the future is going to be willing to think, move, lift, bend, fix and endure the rigors of being a grower.