Park Day Block Party at Flint and Magnolia Parks

This year, the Fruit and Nut Club has been trying to take a more celebratory approach to the park season and are trying to focus more on education, food and sharing the park experience. So far we have come to 3 parks and we're having a great time!

Please join us at Flint and Magnolia Park this Sunday March 16th at 10 AM till 2 PM

We will be getting into all sorts of fun, grilling, pruning, talking about the trees, mulching and hanging out. Please feel free to bring kids, come move some mulch, or just hang around and see what's going on.

If you're not sure what to expect, check out what else we've done this year:

From Greg: To start the season of park-parties off, we met on February 1st at the George Washington Carver Edible Park. Turnout was good, and we were able to split into several groups. We had a pruning demo from Andrew Goodheart, pruned (and marked for summer pruning) a number of apples and hazels and more, and cleared out the understory (except for pawpaws!) in the pawpaw/persimmon region. We also made some big cuts to open the canopy around the cornelian cherries, cut out some maples and locusts to give some more light to some struggling pears, and constructed a magnificent brush-wall, after clearing the hillside by the heartnut tree. We also, it must be said, consumed a number of delicious grilled hot dogs and an urn of High Five coffeehouse's finest, among other delights, and had a convivial good time in the city's oldest public edible park.

 


West Asheville Park: February 16th:

From Ramin: We brushed the snow aside to level a walking path along the hillside and moved thirsty elderberries from the dry hillside to the riparian zone below.  And, did you know you can gather nuts from a small bush?  Apparently the added chinquapins offer just that.  Walnuts took flight with the help of a 4-wood.  That's how you take urban agriculture sky high...


                                                                                                                                             


Montford Recreation Center: March 1st.

From Justin: The Montford Rec work day was another success for the Fruit Nuts! About 20 of us over the course of day mulched trees and put in mini-hugle beds, planted some pollintator supporting herbs, hung signs, did some light pruning, swapped elderberry cuttings, and feasted on hotdogs and kraut. Mark your calendars for the last 'front end fluff' of the season on March 16th in the park at the corner of Flint and Magnolia.

   

Big Thanks to Allie Iacocca (getting it together) and Geoffrey Steen (host) for pulling off such a fun and inspiring Fruit Nut party!
Pot Luck Dinner!

It's been a long "off season" for us fruit nuts, and it's easy to think that in all the hustle and bustle of summer that folks have forgotten about us. Now that we've had our first event, I know it's not true! At least 15 Fruit-o-haul-licks came, and we spent a long night talking about all the projects we've been getting into over the summer and fantasizing about what trouble we might get into this winter. We enjoyed these successes, despite the fact that the Buncombe County Fruit and Nut Club was beyond it's territory, in the mysterious hills of Madison County.

There was good energy buzzing around getting a planting and earthworks effort done in the near future, including from some new-to-the-club locals near the intended location. Folks crafted, cracked black walnuts and pecans, shared about different grafting tools and connected over some delicious food. I hope I don't overreach myself here, but I think I'd have to give the food prize to Allie, for showing up big with a delicious persimmon and pumpkin pie.

We even met someone, who previously unknown to the club, took it upon himself to plant a few blueberries where anyone in Asheville might feast on them for years to come. We say "cheers to you good fellow, and now - be among your fruity kin!"

National Fruit conference coming to Asheville, NC Aug 8-11

Nafex meeting in Asheville, NC August 8^th-11, 2013 Registration (includes food)- 60.00

This year’s theme- “Honoring our elders” or rather… “Wanting to know what the old farts have to say for themselves”

 

“From the vast chaos of comingling species, forms have been created and segregated which will produce great and unexpected changes in fruit and flower culture.”

                                              -Luther Burbank- New Creations in Fruits and Flowers 1893

What Luther Burbank found true and one of the secrets to his enormous success I find still holds true whether we are talking about varieties of fruit or folks. I accepted the role as coordinator of the Nafex meeting this year not only for the fame and fortune I expect to succeed it, but because I was given the license to introduce a little “chaos” to the meeting. It is my passion to help revitalize Nafex by introducing some hybrid vigor by attracting new and younger members. This is a call out for support from you elders to be open minded in this endeavor and hope that something of my intentions will stir ancient callings in your heart that will implore to you the imperativeness of this offer.

I have been to several Nafex and NNGA meetings and what I took from those encounters was a surge of not only more confidence in managing my fruit and nut trees, but new ideas, and most important new friends. These benefits I received from meetings didn’t happen in the auditorium dozing off at power point presentations, or in a bus to look at some University demonstrational farm. No sir, they came from the hallway doughnut exchange. So here in Asheville, the Buncombe Fruit Nut Club has volunteered to organize this year’s meeting. The educational format will be simple with 1.5 hour time slots spent in the hallway hanging out eating doughnuts. Then we break for 15 minutes to the auditorium where we can catch a cat nap to some academic’s powerpoint presentation. Then back out to the hallway to do what we traveled so far to do- share and talk about what we love with amateurs like ourselves and hear what the old farts have to say for themselves.

Though that is part joke and part seriousness, that is the format and spirit with which we would like to direct. This meeting will be more like an old camp revival with lots of opportunity for people to sit in smaller circles and share ideas and build connections hopefully with a good mix of elders and youngsters distributed throughout each- the best of the old mixed with the best of the new. There will not be any prearranged talks by “experts” and we will not be spending money on buses to go somewhere. (As a matter of fact I would rather we take our bus and tour money and put it towards saving the Nafex Library!) Most of your registration fee will go towards the excellence of the food provided. We take food seriously in Asheville and the food at this meeting, I assure you, will be of the first rate kind procured from local farmers. We hope that eating together home style will further optimize the cultivation of relationships at this event. The educational program, which will be a full two days, and the heart of the meeting will be set up the first morning with something called “open space”. This model of democratic self governance brings together a group of people, and in an amazingly short amount of time, creates a structure of break out groups where a variety of ideas can best be shared. It has work very well for our Permaculture conferences for the last 20 years with over 120 attendees.

Open Space and how it works- First off, everyone is welcome and encouraged to contribute. All the people who would like to present, share an overview of their topic in front of the entire group in less than a minute. After all the ideas have been submitted we see which ones can be combined. Then people vote on which ones they want to participate in. Ones that aren’t popular either melt into another topic or are removed. The schedule is set and then we break into our “hallway groups” changing every 1.5 hours. We have tentatively made Saturday afternoon full group panel discussions with panelists and topics to be determined by Saturday morning. One nice thing about the flexibility of the smaller groups of open space is if you have presented in the past you can bring back that subject and people who have already heard it can go somewhere else or you can find a related group and add your special forte to it.

The theme this year will be “Honoring the elders”. It has been my impression that the experienced based amateurs that make up the heart and soul of Nafex don’t understand how important and relative their work is. Yes, unbenounced to my fellow Nafex colleagues is a swelling demographic of young, motivated, intelligent, health conscious people looking to grow fruit for the love of it, Permaculture, food security, economic benefit, redevelopment of the commons and community building through shared gardens, etc... You, members of Nafex, who have been exploring those regions of marginal fruits for decades, hold the experience that this upswelling movement is now taking an interest in… would so benefit from… and ideally carry forth in the work. The objective of this “Honoring of the Elders” is to hybridize these young, experience-starved folks with you, the older, experienced members of Nafex. It’s not a guarantee, but hopefully these young folks will experience forthright the relevancy of having access to the club and its base of knowledge and themselves become members. It’s called succession. It’s what trees do. The old, fallen, nurse tree with the young sapling drawing off the nutrients is the pattern we are trying to replicate.

To register for this event go to Nafex.org or direct link is http://www.nafex.org/2013NAFEX_meeting_reg.pdf 

Nuts and bolts-

Asheville is a small city we like to call the “Paris of the south”. It is an enormous tourist draw due to its location in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs right through town and 5000’ mountain wilderness is a mere 40 minute scenic drive away. At 2300’ Asheville’s climate tends to be more moderate in the summer than the low lands. Because of this, Corneleous Vanderbuilt built his chateau here and the Biltmore Estate is still the largest private residential house in America open for tours along with its extensive gardens. While building this house he attracted a multitude of artists and many settled here creating a huge artist colony that has surged in the last 20 years. This, in turn, has attracted restaurants, theatres, music venues and last year we were voted #1 beer town in America for our plethora of microbreweries. Asheville/Hendersonville airport serves this area being 20 minutes away from downtown Asheville. Greenville, SC has a larger international airport about 75 minutes away.

We hope you can make it,

Bill Whipple- Buncombe Fruit Nut Club

whipplebill@hotmail.com

Furious fructose fiends fan out out for fruit fluffing foray

Furious fructose fiends fan out out for fruit fluffing foray

It was on a delightful April sunday morning that the BFNC set out to do what they do so well throughout Asheville town- Praise the load!

At the church of the Holy Riparian Backstop in a low laying storm drain located at the arm pit of Hall Fletcher Elementary school did the deacon of delicious fruit, Gabbi, speak praises of the load from a top her cardboard box soon to be turned to mulch. She regaled the congregation in the ways of rebirth , renewal, regeneration as we spread compost, soil ammendments, cardboard and wood chips over a desolate corner of the playing fields laid to waste by sewer workers. This the second phase of the recreation of the garden of eden.

"What!" you may ask, "there were no trees planted?". "Blasphemy!" You further expell, agast. "What are these so called, BFNC'ers, who extoll the planting of fruit trees on the holiest of spring mornings idling away spreading the load but not planting trees doing? How can I be a part of such frivolity, foolishness, and frolic? Like spring struck sprites in spontaneous sport-

Why!?" 

Gabbi might say in words of elloquence so natural as though it flows from a metal pipe draining water away from drought stricken barren urban landscapes. "You see, we will do it in the Fall when its easier for trees to transplant and we can only plant as much as what the club can  take care of for the next 10 years and we dont have enough members to plant more trees. Planting trees is like having a baby... (I dont think this part is from her experience) so much fun and satisfying , but it is only the beginning. Dont plant trees, or have babies for that matter, if you wont continue to take care of them. Hopefully they will grow up heathy and then take care of you, she may add" 

The congregation adjurned inspired by the hands on healing they did from soil preparation and fungal enhancemnet, to erosion control of soil ripped gullies. A most interesting technique was inaugurated by the said slack members of the BFNC, where in, an elederberry that thwarted the the cities massive track hoe from completely annialating the orginal planting, like a chinese individual thwarting the tanks in Tienamen square, China, was now called upon to thwart the erosion of our schools. Ditches were dug on contour across the the gullies of eroding free thought and the development of the purpose of an individual's soul gift contribution to this world, and the elderberry trunk, roots and all, was laid in the ditch with the bourgening leaves pointing up all along the ditch backed by a small dead log, and compost laid ontop of this main stem with the leaves still above soil level. As we all know how well elderberries layer, a mat of roots will spread and stabilize the soil the nutrients meanwhile catching water furthering the regeneration of the barren slope. Regeneration will revive and return the riparion region righteously.

This event inaccurately reinacted by T. Bone Backslide

5/7/13

Montford Rec Center Front End Fluff

 On Sunday, February 24th about 20 fruit nuts gathered at the Montford Rec Center to give the edibles there some love and attention.   In no time at all the Frond End Fluffing, laughing and playing began.   

 There was a good showing of Junior Members at the event.  We grilled up some super tasty Hickory Nut Gap hotdogs for lunch.  There are now more than thirty edibles planted at the site. From 15 year old plums to freshly planted paw paw's.  If you are in the neighborhood stop and by and check out your edible park!

West Asheville Park Party

We couldn't have had a nicer day to celebrate the fourth year of the edible planting in the West Asheville Park.  The original trees put on a tremendous amount of growth last year and are looking fine.  

Greet and Meet

Fruit nuts loving the trees

Three European hybrid Hazelnuts looking fine

The Hazelnuts had there first crop last season with the potential for a great harvest this year.  The Mulberry is now about 15 feet tall and has a huge amount of fruiting wood, just have to beat the birds to the berries.  The two American Persimmons and two Paw Paw's that were planted last year received extra attention and now have big "eye brows" (or berms) to help water to infiltrate the root zone and promote growth.  All plants were treated to a good weeding, scoops of mineral amendments, a generous heap of compost, and a layer of mulch.  

Elder's hanging with the Elderberries

Lunch and some cornhole

We took a break for lunch, played some cornhole and were treated to a talk about Native Edibles.  The majority of the plants here are native which is a testament to their success.  Natives are more resilient because they are locally adapted to the soil and climate of a particular bio-region.  Ramin then told the group about the signs being made by first graders at Francine Delaney New School just down the road.  They will be installed by club members and the students on March 1st at 1pm.  Tomas then gave a demonstration on how to properly split locust rounds into stakes, which will be used to hold the new signs.  

Tomas splitting  locust stakes for signs that were made by first graders at Francine Delaney

Fig Magnolia Park front end fluff

Sunday, January 27th proved to be an amazing day for the fruit trees, nut trees, berry bushes and fruiting vines located at the Fig Magnolia Park in Montford.   These plants received amazing TLC from the community.  A group of 25 fruit nuts spent the day freeing the root zones of all the plants of the dreaded bermuda triangle grass, amending them with "magic fairy dust" aka mineral amendments, applying a generous ring of compost, adding a fat layer of wood chips on top and finally giving them some pruning love.  All in all the trees thanked us with promises of a very productive year to come.

Diospyros virginiana,American Persimmon
var. John Rick 

Learning the Non-Patented "Front end Fluff"
 method of tree care.

Fluffing the Illinois Everbearing Mulberry,

Morus alba x rubra

roller-blader checking out the nut display

All present had the pleasure of laughing, playing, and getting to know each other a little better.  We learned about the value of building community while building the soil around the plantings.  We shared knowledge on how to organically maintain the health and vitality of edibles in the urban landscape. 

Hot Dogs in the foreground, jr. fruitnuts and Scott in the background

This is the stuff the fruit and nut club is made of, people.  Come on out and see for yourself this coming Saturday, February 9th at the West Asheville Park.  

All star Jr. Fruitnut's

Muscadine Grapes, Blueberries and Hardy Kiwi's!

Serviceberries looking great

North Asheville Tree Care Skill Share

A few weeks ago, on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon, a group of 20 Fruit Nuts gathered at the Montford Recreation Center with one thing in mind......wheelbarrow race!  So after we got that out of our systems we began a fun filled day of learning and implementing the front end fluffing the mature edible planting at the center.  We built burms around the base of all the trees to catch rain water and direct it toward the root zone.  We followed that with a dose of magic fairy dust aka organic slow release nutrients that we forked into the ground around the trees to get it to the roots.  The trees also received a generous helping of the infamous "Eli Sludge" (anaerobically digested goat manure) and compost from Crowell Farms.  We then placed a layer of cardboard down to hold back any grass or weeds that were thinking about trying to take nutrients away from our trees.  On top of the cardboard we placed a generous helping of leaves that we gathered from around the site, followed by a heaping pile of every trees favorite thing MULCH!!

Compost Delivery!

Thank you to Asheville Greenworks and their group of volunteers for helping to load, deliver, and unload compost donated by Danny's Dumpster!

 On Sunday, February 26th a group of 20+ Fruit Nutz arrived at the West Asheville Park to maintain the Edible Planting on the hillside just beyond the outfield of the baseball diamond.  We were greeted by healthy trees, a warm breeze and shining sun.  What a beautiful day to move some mulch!!

There is a wonderful diversity of fruit and nuts at the site including; hazelnuts, mulberry, peach, paw paw, elderberry, strawberries and a smattering of pollinators plants tucked into the beds.  There are some freshly painted signs made by students at Rainbow Mountain that look absolutely fantastic.  If you have yet to see this site, get on over and check it out!


We played a number of games throughout the day including; move the mulch, pull the weeds, transplant the strawberries, and or course HAYRIDING!!!!  If you have yet to experience hay riding, it is a climate change activity that can be done in place or sleigh riding.  All you will need is a piece of cardboard, a grassy hillside, and a friend to push you.

After the fun and games it was time for a little teaching session on water, a prevailing topic at this site.  The Club is in the process of working with the city to gain approval to implement a rain garden and swale that will capture and divert the water that is currently rushing down Morris St and eroding the hillside that leads into the park.   Sherry Ingram taught the group about the importance of capturing rain water and allowing it to percolate into the soil and provide much needed moisture to plants and trees.  Urban areas tend to use storm drains to divert water directly into streams and rivers which can cause  many problems such as flooding and pollution of waterways.  Bill Whipple then presented his plan on how to implement the rain garden and swale.  Dylan Ryals-Hamilton then taught the group how to use an A-Frame Level (Permometer) to find the contour of the land and flag out the projected path of the swale.

After getting our learn on we had to get right back to what this group is becoming famous for, having a good time.  So with cardboard in hand we hiked to the top of the hill for another round of hay riding.  What a day!  After we gathered up our tools and wished the plants farewell we headed over to Ramin's house for an after event potluck and scion swap.  Another wildly succesful Fruit Nut's Event for the record books.

We even had some press coverage for this one!  To see the article in the Mountain express follow the link:

http://mountainx.com/article/40739/Volunteers-working-with-Asheville-city-staff-on-runoff-in-park#

Elderberry Swap, Potluck and Tree Care Skill Share

Just a reminder that this Saturday is the First Fruit and Nut Club event of the year!  We will be meeting at the Montford Rec Center on Saturday, January 28th at 11:00 a.m.  Come prepared to learn the ins and outs of caring for fruit and nut trees this time of year.  Bring a sack lunch, gloves, pruners, a pitchfork, shovel and wheelbarrow if you have them.  If you can make it please RSVP to Tom Knaust at tknaust@gmail.com.  

There will be an after event Potluck dinner at my house at 15 Conestee Place starting at 6:30 P.M.  At the potluck we will be doing an Elderberry Stake Swap.  The idea is that we will all bring different varieties of elderberry and swap them.  Then go home and drive them into the ground where they will root and grow, increasing the diversity of elderberries in the places we live.  To harvest "stakes" simply cut 18inch or longer sections of elderberry.  Be sure to make an angled cut on the "bottom" of the cutting so we know which end to drive into the ground.  I hope to see you all on Saturday!

Meeting Minutes 1/18/12

Fruit Nutz, 
We had a great meeting on the 18th with 27 attendees.  We collected the 
$10.00 membership fee for 2012 and had 18 people sign up, generating 
$180.00 for projects and materials.  We touched on our accomplishments 
of 2011 and moved right into projects and events for 2012, setting 
dates for three upcoming events.  After a short break we raffled off 
door prizes of strawberry and raspberry plants, honey, seeds, homemade 
almond milk and the infamous maidens medicinal elderberry syrup.  We 
were then graced with two short presentations; one on the wonders of 
elderberry's and another describing the front-end-fluff.  Overall it 
was a very productive and promising sap rising meeting. 

The events that we put on the calendar are:
1. North Asheville Tree Care Skill Share Saturday, January, 28th
2. Stephens Lee Pruning day and Scion Swap Saturday, February 4th
3. West Asheville Park Primping Saturday, February 25th 

So mark your calendars and get ready for a good time!  More Details on
the these events to come. 

If you would like to become a member of the Buncombe Fruit and Nut
Club (which is not mandatory, but will help pay for events, projects
and field trips)  please bring $10.00 check or cash to one of the
upcoming events.  If yo would like to be added to our mailing list to please 

e-mail Tom Knaust- tknaust@gmail.com.

Hall Fletcher park update

For those of you who are following this story I met with the principal of Hall Fletcher, Gordon Grant, Monday morning. We walked the site and he was extremely appologetic. It doesnt bring back our loss, but I appreciated his concern and intent to make projects like ours safer. Here is the follow up letter I wrote that he asked me to send to him. I hope this is an invitation for you fruit nutters to get involved with the club again. We have a lot we can do if we so choose. (Karen, i think getting some press on this is a great idea. Do you have any interest in following up on that? We have graphic photos. "Parks and wrecks" is notorious for damaging trees. A letter to the mayor? letter to the editor Mountain x?)

Gordon,Thank you again for your time and concern. This helps alleviate the frustration and disheartened feelings in the wake of the city digging up and throwing away the plantings at the Hall Fletcher school while working on the storm drains. I figure we lost close to $400.00 of money we raised as community memebers for the original plant material and mulch. This doesn’t include three years of care and anticipation of fruiting that most likely would have begun this spring. Events like this, and the perennial girdling of young plantings by careless weed eaters by the school's, as well as parks and recs, grounds keepers are very familiar to us. This discourages people from volunteering. I try to tell them what they do will make a difference, but it is always one step forward and two steps back. We dont get paid for our efforts. The only reward we get is the possibility of making our community a little better for us and our kids.

Looking forward, I will talk to the people in my club (some who are in the Hall Fletcher community) and see what interest there is in revitalizing that planting. I have ideas, and the club has some resources, but I know many of them will be discouraged and angry. I will tell them of our meeting and hopefully they will see this as an opportunity and move on. If that goes well the second phase will be purchasing some native riparian meadow flower seed mix for the basin and discuss what we have in the budget to spare for plantings. Thank you for agreeing to leave the basin free from fescue and a 6 foot wide corridor around the top for plantings. I will keep you posted on the sentiments of the club. Please feel free to forward this to the people who supervise these projects as it is in their care that we trust. If they don’t know of the damage suffered, than we can never change the situation. Regards,Bill WhippleNeighbor and community supporter of the Hall Fletcher school

1.) I will talk to the Buncombe fruit nuts club and see what interest there is.

2.)Order native seed mix from Ernst seeds (paid by club)

3.)Redesign plantings and begin soil preparation

4.)(If possible) Gordon uses his influence to procure some well composted leaf mould and mulch from the city. A truck load of each dumped at the site would be optimal.

5.)Encourage a class, or classes to get involved (perhaps adopt a plant). Teachers can use this as an opportunity to incorporate into their curriculum essential skills needed in the future. Skills such as soil care and its restoration, riparian ecology, appropriate planting for ecosystems and microclimates, nutrition, wildlife, art for signs, etc …

City helps with weeding at the Hall Fletcher edible park

Fruitcakes and nutrolls,

Thought you may want to see the "progress" at Hall fletcher Park we observed yesterday. I find out tomorrow whether the plant material was saved and put aside or what. There was a meader persimmon, an aronia, 2 grafted paw paws, several hazels, and a couple of select elderberries. One elderberry held its ground as did a hazel. A memorial service for the park will be held on the field trip this weekend.

Bill 

North Asheville Tree Care Party

Ira shoveling "Eli Sludge"

 On Wednesday, March 30th a good looking crew of six North Asheville Urban Farmers and friends started their day sinking shovels into a 55 gallon drum of some good s@#t.  They then were off to the Flint Magnolia Park in North Asheville to spread that anaerobically digested goat manure on the three year old edible planting of  11 native trees, shrubs and vines.  

Service Berries in Bloom

 Upon initial inspection these trees were in dire need of some good ole' fashioned sheet mulch loving, and that was exactly what they received.  We hoed weeds away from the bases and then layered AZOMITE, leaves that were collected from around the park, cardboard from across the street and topped it off with some single ground mulch.  We also added tree guards to the bases of all the trees to prevent the deadly Jacobsons Disease.

Service Berry in need of some loving.

Mulched out and protected Service Berries.

Pecan with a serious case of Jacobsons disease.

After finishing at Flint Magnolia we were off to the Montford Rec Center to care for the vast array of Edibles that have been put in over the last 15(?) years.  There are some very established Oriental Persimmon, Apple, Pear, and Plum trees along with Fig, Elaeagnus, Elderberry, Blueberry, Chinese Date, Cornelian Cherry, Paw Paw and a few mystery trees that I have to check in with Bill on.  If you have not checked out this Gem of a public space it is a must.  It is a pretty harsh site so the trees were shaking their limbs with joy upon witness of Fruit Nuts bearing hoes, amendments, and wheelbarrows brimming with Organic Matter.

Montford Rec Center. 

 

The crew.

A big shout out to all who lent a hand on this amazing 90%-chance-of-rain-without-a-drop day.  Camaraderie and laughter were at an all time high and the air was thick with community building and education.

Fruit Nuts Visit to Imladris Farm

On Saturday March 19th, 25+ members (and a few potential members) of the Buncombe County Fruit Nuts spent a
fun and educational afternoon at Imladris Farm in Fairview.  This is a seventh generation farm, located in the Spring Mountain community of Fairview, was  established by the Marlowe family a looong time ago. Walter Harrill (one of them Marlowes), his wife, Wendy, and their son, Andy, owners of this beautiful place, hosted us. Walter gave us a wonderful two-hour tour of his operation.

The highlights of the tour included:

Inside the rabbit barn.

Observing an extensive field of Carolina Raspberries, and hearing Walter’s system for both maximizing the harvest, minimizing labor and keeping the ever-present perennial weeds at bay. Sawdust mulching, weed wacking and goats are involved. A smaller field of Chester blackberries were viewed and blueberries were discussed briefly. We entered a small and ancient barn currently used to house goats in winter. Walter explained how the cycle of straw bedding + goat droppings + chicken aeration + ground moisture makes this barn both a shelter and a wonderful compost factory.   A newly built structure housing lots of big rabbits was neat to see. The rabbits are a food and income source (sales to local restaurants and tailgate markets) and great fertilizer makers (their shit don’t smell, baby!)

Pile of raspberry canes we collected.

Making Bio-char.

The hands-on portion of the day involved gathering hundreds of pruned, spent, raspberry canes into a huge pile.  (Wow what a crew of 25 people can accomplish when working together for 30 minutes!) Then, in a highly scientific manner, we stuffed as many canes as possible into a 55 gallon metal drum and set them on fire. Whoosh! By closing the drum at precisely the right moment and letting the canes smolder for a predetermined length of time, biochar was produced. Marshmallows were not involved, nor was the local fire department. Check out this very informative video of Goodhearts friend John Rodgers making bio-char with a homemade unit here.  Niki found this informative website on biochar too.

The highlight of the day was a wonderful meal prepared by Wendy Harrill that included   rabbit stew, excellent green salads, herbal teas, homemade blueberry ice cream (a new product) and delicious blueberry/apple fruit leather. Thank you Wendy! We were also able to purchase frozen rabbit meat, fresh eggs and a variety of jams and preserves.  After dinner we gathered for a brief BFNC meeting.

Some of the items discussed were:
Tom K. has plans to add a blog onto the existing BFN Club Webpage(?) so members can hold discussions and show images there. He is also negotiating a Fruit/Nut visit to the Long Branch Environmental Education Center, possibly next month.

Andrew GB. Who has been keeping track of the temperature and bloom date of his fruit producing plants for a looong time now, said that although this early warm spell is causing plants to awaken a bit prematurely, we’re not too badly ahead of ourselves. Keep your fingers crossed, go out and talk to your plants and soil about slowing down. (And maybe dig the frost cloth out of the shed just in case?) Andrew is also considering a Fruit/Nut visit to his property in the coming months. Stay tuned.

Bill W is all het-up about quinces. He has a plan to get his quinces to pollinate better this year, and it may involve YOU. If you have quinces in bloom and can spare 5 to 10 cuttings of branches in bloom, bring them to the Earthfare parking lot (the parking area at the top of the ramp/driveway leading into the Earthfare lot). Meet there at 7pm on
Wednesday, March 23rd. Bill’s bees will do the rest, cross-pollinating with your quince blossoms and his and perhaps a good crop of fruit will be the result.

After this meeting the sane and reasonable Nuts left and those that remained got up to all kinds of mischief. Musical instruments and Mason jars of clear liquids were involved, but that’s all I know. In short, if you weren’t there you missed a hell of a great day!NikiB