Fruit, Honey, and Syrup
The family orchard was once a staple of virtually all homesteads. Like most other features of the woodland homestead, these orchards were planted to serve a variety of purposes: the good fruit was eaten or made into cider, and the wormy drops provided animal fodder. In this chapter we’ll consider the options for developing your own homestead orchard, whether it consists of 3 trees or 300. And if you’re lucky enough to discover old fruit trees on your property, we’ll discuss methods for resurrecting these forgotten, but certainly not fruitless, relics. We’ll also take a look at opportunities for the integration of other crops like honey and maple syrup. But first, let’s spend a little time understanding the anatomy of an orchard.
An orchard need not be an endless expanse of large trees in perfect, long rows. Orchards, and the trees that make them up, come in a variety of shapes and sizes to match the land and the needs of the homestead. As with a garden, establishing an orchard requires you as head homesteader to match both the soil and the species (or variety) in a way that offers the greatest opportunity for success.
If we could design the ideal orchard site, it would be a gently sloping hillside protected by forest edge with well-drained loamy soil and a pH in the neighborhood of 6.5. You may, of course, find that your homestead is on a site that falls short of that ideal. (My unimproved soil, for example, is much sandier and has a pH about 2 points lower than the ideal 6.5.) However, don’t despair: fruit trees and orchards can be found from Sonora to Siberia. It’s just a matter of taking advantage of your homestead’s strengths and avoiding microclimates that are truly unsuitable.
By consulting a map of hardiness or growing zones, you’ll get a good idea of what is or isn’t possible in your general area. However, a given tree’s geographic knowledge extends only as far as its roots; in other words, your particular site may be more or less suitable than what the map suggests. Once you’ve identified the fruit trees that could theoretically grow in your area, based on their hardiness rating, take a closer look at the microclimate where you’d like to plant your trees.
You’ll want to begin your site evaluation by examining prevailing winds and opportunities to reduce extreme wind. A living fence, for example, offers an effective means of buffering wind without creating destructive downdrafts generally associated with solid windbreaks. Conifers are often used effectively as shelterbelts to protect vulnerable buds from cold winter winds.
Elevation is likely to be the microclimate variable over which you have the most control when establishing a new homestead orchard. Low-elevation sites, particularly those that are in bowl or kettle landforms, are more likely to experience frost than high-elevation sites and should therefore be avoided. Hillsides are generally preferable. If you can’t avoid a frosty site, consider selecting varieties that flower later.
While chapter 1 offers a more in-depth discussion of soil properties, it is worth examining several soil characteristics that are of particular importance on the homestead orchard.
Drainage. Root health is largely a function of well-drained soils that are able to carry and deliver water and nutrients but don’t leave the roots waterlogged. Clay soils retain moisture, which is great for helping trees through dry spells but can result in waterlogged roots. Even if the saturated roots don’t kill the tree directly, they may stress it, allowing fungal diseases such as phytophthora root rot to establish, which can lead to mortality. If a well-drained site doesn’t exist, planting on mounds may be an option. You may also choose to select fruit trees that can handle wet feet better, such as quince and pear.
Biodiversity. Until the mid-1800s, it was largely assumed that soil was nonliving and primarily served as a substrate to keep trees upright and anchored. It was early European foresters who eventually noticed the effects of compaction, erosion, and other factors that have profound effects on tree health, which eventually led to a more biological view of soils. Today, foresters and farmers alike are well acquainted with the idea of a “soil food web.” Thanks to photosynthesis and a powerful vascular pumping system, the soil food web cycles nutrients from deep within the soil. Aiding plants in their search for food are fungi and bacteria that naturally cycle nutrients through both biological action and physical movement.
Perhaps the most amazing members of the soil food web are mycorrhizal fungi. These root-colonizing fungi are microscopic but can increase by 100 times the roots’ ability to acquire nutrients in the soil. They also increase the absorptive capacity of the rhizosphere (the zone surrounding the roots, where important nutrient exchanges occur) 10-fold. If you were to examine mycorrhizal fungi under the microscope, you’d see long, threadlike hairs (hyphae) that serve as a network of connecting roots that transfer macro- and micronutrients, increase surface area, and protect roots from parasitic fungi.
Mycorrhizal fungi can even improve the physical structure of soils; when hyphae grow between clay platelets, for example, they help form larger aggregates. A healthy mycorrhizal community can be enhanced through soil amendments or root dips, which are a mycorrhizal inoculant that can be applied to roots during transplanting, or worked into the seedbed. However, one of the easiest and most important means of promoting healthy soil, including a large community of mycorrhizal fungi, is to avoid site compaction from both livestock and machinery.
While volumes have been written about both mulching and soil amendments, there are several basic tenets that can help your trees to not only survive but thrive. If you’re establishing a new orchard, you’ll have the option of improving either the immediate rhizosphere or the soil over your entire orchard area. Given a choice, improving the entire area is preferable since the roots of your trees will eventually extend well beyond the holes where they’re planted. By beginning with a soil test (see chapter 1), you’ll be able to see which nutrients your soil is lacking.
If you’re able to amend the soil for your proposed orchard area prior to the establishment of trees, consider sowing a crop of “green manure” (a cover crop that is plowed under and incorporated into the soil) the year before planting your trees. Green manure plants have the ability to draw up nutrients from deep within the soil or, in the case of some cover crops, extract nitrogen from the air and “fix” it (that is, convert the nitrogen to a usable form) for your orchard trees. One of the benefits of integrating animals with your homestead orchard is that they provide valuable fertilizer that can be composted or, in the case of soiled animal bedding, applied directly to the base of the tree as mulch, delivering a slow dose of nutrients and improving water retention.
You’re also likely have a supply of wood chips from other forest improvement activities. These wood chips can play an important role as mulch material for saprophytic fungi, which aid in decomposition, and also serve as a food source for mycorrhizal fungi.
The best wood chips for mulching plants are those made from small-diameter trees and branches.
If you’re beginning your orchard from scratch, you’ll need to decide what type of fruit you’d like to grow. While apples are undoubtedly the most ubiquitous fruit trees, you may want to consider the apple’s pome cousin, the pear, or stone fruits such as cherries or plums. (See Choosing Pome or Stone.) Apples are the most numerous fruits in terms of varieties, with 2,500 varieties grown in the United States and 7,500 grown worldwide. These varieties not only deliver different fruit qualities but also represent a wide range of growing conditions, from USDA Zones 2 to 9. Other fruits, like apricots, struggle to grow below Zone 4. The table on the opposite page outlines common apple varieties as well as their uses and attributes.
Your selection of fruit trees isn’t limited to just species and variety; you’ll also want to select your trees based on size, which is determined by the rootstock. In addition to space, other considerations linked to rootstock are preferred soil type, hardiness, disease susceptibility, and anchorage. Rootstock is generally categorized as standard, semidwarf, or dwarf. Referencing rootstock can look a bit like alphabet-and-number soup, with initials indicating the research station where the stock was developed. The most common rootstock categories, from standard to dwarf, are: MM.111; MM.106; M.7; M.26; M.9; Mark; and M.27.
Nurseries match rootstock with a scion (a live shoot cut from your desired variety) through grafting. Sometimes you’ll have a choice of various rootstocks for your desired species; other times the grower has determined that a particular rootstock is best suited to that scion, so you may not have a choice. The size of the tree is an important consideration in the context of the size and arrangement of your homestead orchard. Those with ample land often opt for large standard-size trees, which offer the benefits of shade and higher crowns but often require harvesting apples from ladder height come maturity. Considering these factors before you plant is the key to developing your dream orchard.
In 1871, Sereno Edwards Todd, author of the seminal orchard manual The Apple Culturist, declared, “There is no more valuable fertilizer for apple trees on most soils than bones.” Indeed, bones are among the most soluble form of organic phosphorus, essential for root development.
I believe that anything that provides only one use on the homestead is second class; bones are no exception. After using them as soup stock, you can turn them into bonemeal fertilizer. Use a heavy-duty blender to pulverize small bones, such as chicken and rabbit bones. For larger bones, make sure they’re thoroughly dried and place them in an old pillowcase or grain sack. Tie the sack shut and place it on a wooden splitting block, then use a hammer or mallet to pulverize them. Be creative in your methods: hand-crank clothes dryers, car jacks, and cars driving over sandwiched bones (along with the traditional mortar and pestle) will all get the job done.
The finer the grains, the more soluble the phosphorus. When the Amish make bonemeal, they pulverize the bones according to the site on which the fertilizer will be used. For acid soils, they opt for coarse-ground bones, since the low pH environment will continue to break down the calcium-rich bonemeal. Sweeter or more alkaline soils use a finer bonemeal.
As you walk your homestead woodlot, you’ll likely find areas where mature trees have fallen, leaving behind large, sunny gaps. In addition to fallen tree sites, these gaps also occur on old log landings and long-forgotten pastures. Assuming acceptable site conditions (drainage, slope, access), these forest openings can be ideal locations for establishing your own multipurpose forest micro-orchard.
With a bit of careful planning, you’ll be able to integrate several homestead objectives in the same area. In other words, you can grow apples beside firewood, and firewood beside animal fodder and fenceposts. The ultimate success of this multipurpose model, however, is based on understanding a few key agroecological concepts.
Orchard trees are classified as either pomes or stones. Pomes include fleshy fruits like apples and pears and have a central core with five seed capsules, each containing up to 10 seeds. Stone fruits include cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, and plums. The common characteristic of these is a single, central pit or stone.
The gap must be large enough to allow light to reach your orchard trees, as well as any shade-intolerant and mid-tolerant plants you’re growing alongside your fruit trees. Natural forest succession will attempt to reclaim the site as soon as a gap is created. This means you’ll need to maintain the gap by removing trees at the periphery to allow sufficient light.
Depending on the size of the surrounding trees, you may be able to maintain sufficient light levels through judicious pruning. Region, aspect (the direction a slope faces), surrounding tree cover (conifer or deciduous), and successional stage (pioneer or climax) will all determine the minimum gap size needed to meet the solar requirements of your micro-orchard. However, as a general rule, 11⁄2 to 2 times the height of surrounding trees is generally sufficient.
You’ll also need to “weed” any undesirable trees that attempt to establish in your proposed micro-orchard. If you provide adequate protection for orchard trees using a sturdy fence, you may be able to control competition through grazing. Other options include mowing with a scythe or a brush hog. As you remove larger debris (logs, saplings, even rocks), consider using them to construct a crude fence around your orchard.
In addition to competing plants, you’ll also have to deal with competing wildlife. Although establishing an orchard within a forest setting offers a variety of benefits, it also carries the challenge of keeping wild animals from snacking on your crop trees. Fencing to protect both the base of the tree (young bark is a nutrient-dense snack for voles and rabbits) and the top is essential until your orchard is fully established.
When establishing a forest micro-orchard, you have fewer options for amending the soil, since plowing and disking among trees and stumps isn’t practical in a forest setting. The surrounding trees, along with the humus layer in your forest micro-orchard, will tell you a lot about your soil. A dense mat of needles surrounded by conifers is a good indication that the site has a low pH that isn’t ideal for fruit trees. If you allow the surrounding conifers to encroach, they will continue to perpetuate poor, acidic soil. Your options are either to remove these surrounding trees and amend the soil throughout the orchard or to aggressively apply lime, potash, or other pH boosters within the root zone of your orchard trees. If you choose the latter, realize that amending the soil repeatedly is necessary. Trees need a consistent supply of nutrients for healthy growth.
If, in contrast, your surrounding forest is made up of trees, such as sugar maple, that demand highly fertile, alkaline soils, you’ll likely be able to establish your orchard without soil amendment. In fact, the surrounding leaf litter blowing into your orchard, along with the carbon inputs from decaying wood, will help promote a healthy forest micro-orchard.
To produce lots of fruit, orchard trees need ample sunlight. The success of a forest micro-orchard is often dependent on maintaining sufficient gap size over time.
The physical structure of your micro-orchard is an important consideration to ensure that light is being used at different levels within the canopy. If, for example, your surrounding forest is made up of tall trees with high crowns, you’d want to select smaller orchard trees that are able to capture and use diffused light in the midstory and understory. Another challenge of tall surrounding trees is that they cast longer shadows, thereby shading your fruit trees. One way to address the issue of shade is to create a structural transition zone where trees are thinned so that those bordering your forest micro-orchard are smallest, gradually increasing in size as you move from the orchard center.
The best complementary crops in a forest micro-orchard are those that can be produced without competing with orchard trees for sunlight or nutrient availability.
Developing understory forage is among the most compatible of uses. This can be either woody animal forage collected using the shredding techniques discussed in chapter 4, or grasses and forbs. If your orchard trees are properly protected, you may choose to allow your animals to do the labor of harvesting. In late fall, consider allowing your animals to sweep your orchard floor clean of windfall fruit. Not only is this free forage, but it’s also a helpful way to control fruit-borne insects and diseases.
Coppiced firewood is another complementary crop in the forest micro-orchard. Growing trees for coppice wood works well in conjunction with cultivating taller, standard-size fruit trees. I generally harvest these coppice trees just as they reach the crown height of the neighboring fruit trees. Any “slash,” or remaining branches left after harvesting the coppice firewood, is cut up and left behind to decompose within the forest micro-orchard.
My favorite complementary crops to orchard trees are sugar maples, used for making maple syrup. If you’re fortunate enough to live in a region of the country where maples grow, they make great forest micro-orchard companions, whether dispersed throughout the orchard or planted in a row along the fenceline. While maples are known for casting deep shade, you can thin them strategically so that both your orchard and maple trees have sufficient light. One benefit of combining orchard and sugarbush is that management activities like pruning can be carried out simultaneously. The open structure of the hybrid orchard-sugarbush also provides access for harvesting both fruit and sap.
If your forest micro-orchard is laid out in rows, you may want to consider using the Swiss sandwich method, in which low row crops such as beans, potatoes, or oats are grown between orchard rows. In Switzerland the width of the rows between trees was originally based on the width of the horse-drawn cultivators and seeders that were pulled between the rows. Grasses, flowers, and forbs are allowed to grow in a 3- to 5-foot swath on each side of the tree with the row crops occupying the sunny, center alley. Animals were then allowed to graze and to glean drops after the row crops and fruit had been harvested in late fall.
The stumps left from clearing around crop trees can be used as squash-growing containers. Construct a mound of rich humus over the stump, and insert your seeds.
“Ecotones” are areas of transition between two distinct ecosystems. Examples include the area between the barnyard and garden, and the intersection of pasture, fence, and forest. Often, these are some of the most underused areas of the woodland homestead. Ecotone orchards make the most of these areas by taking advantage of growing space that might not ordinarily be used. As in any orchard arrangement, you’ll want to consider space. In some cases an ecotone orchard may double as a shelterbelt or even a living fence.
The most common ecotone orchard arrangements are located along pasture edges. If sufficient space is available, you may want to opt for standard-size fruit trees, which are able to handle this environmentally competitive zone. For these larger trees, 25-foot spacing is ideal. When you first plant these trees, the distance between them will seem monumental, especially if you’re planting one-year-old whips. However, as the trees grow, you’ll be glad you opted for the wide spacing since the crowns have a propensity to sprawl outward. For semidwarf trees, 18-foot spacing is ideal, and dwarf trees can be planted on 10- to 15-foot spacing, depending on specific rootstock.
Several indicator species of mycorrhizal fungi can be found on the orchard floor; these include puffballs, the famously fun fungi that kids love to explode, and morel mushrooms, which cooks and foragers adore. Also, organic orchards commonly have abundant morel mushroom populations that make for healthy soil and healthy meals!
The success of all the forest micro-orchards presented thus far will be based on capturing light and nutrients from different areas of the forest, thereby maximizing efficiency. Most often, your forest micro-orchard will have two or three layers, each representing a different crop, though it is possible to occupy virtually every level of the forest with careful planning and the right plant species. Forest gardening expert Robert Hart took this polyculture to an extreme by carefully selecting species that are adapted to increasing levels of shade in the understory. The result is a seven-layer orchard that’s an edible forest landscape.
Hart intercropped edible polyculture landscape with the following layers (see illustration below):
Creating an edible forest landscape requires an understanding of relative shade tolerance among species, nutrient requirements, and interspecies ecological relationships.
Foresters, horticulturalists, pomologists, and nurserymen all seem to offer different advice on the “proper” way to plant fruit trees. Opinions vary on the best time to plant, which soil amendments to use, and even how to water newly planted trees. The instructions I give here are based on the methods I’ve used to plant and transplant trees with a good track record of success, even under less-than-ideal site conditions.
Whether planting trees as part of an ecotone orchard, a multipurpose forest micro-orchard, or simply as a single tree, you’ll need to decide how mature a tree you’re going to plant. For most folks this is as much an economic question as anything else. Those looking for an instant orchard can purchase mature fruit trees and plant them using a tractor-mounted planting spade that keeps the rootball intact. The cost for this can range from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on size and location. However, for the cost of a single mature tree, you could purchase enough young bare-root trees to plant an entire orchard. It’s for this reason that many people recommend establishing your orchard as the very first homestead project.
Most folks will be starting with much younger trees, and these are usually sold either bare-root or in containers. Bare-root trees are grown at nurseries and lifted from the soil during dormancy. These trees are usually only one or two years old, meaning that in most cases you’ll be waiting four to six years to harvest your first fruits, depending on species/variety. Your second option is to buy containerized trees, which may be older and closer to fruit-bearing age but are also more expensive. In general, younger trees are easier to transplant and show a much higher survival rate after being planted, compared to larger specimens of the same variety. So it follows that smaller trees would generally show better survival rates. However, this depends upon the quality of the tree’s root system. A dense, fibrous root system survives transplanting better than a less-branched, less-fibrous root system does. For this reason, some nurseries root-prune field-grown trees a year before transplanting, as a way to improve the odds of survival for larger trees.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
— Chinese Proverb
When new or aspiring homesteaders tell me about their dreams to “live off the land,” I often tell them that the first thing they should do when they acquire property is plant fruit trees. It takes several years to establish a woodland orchard, and the most economical way to start one is by planting small, inexpensive bare-root trees. The most inexpensive of all bare-root trees are one-year-old “whips”— a young tree with no branches or lateral snoots. These are often sold at subsidized prices by state nurseries or soil and water conservation districts. Your other option is to purchase two- or three-year-old bare-root trees that are more established but also significantly more expensive than the whips.
If you’ve ordered your bare-root trees by mail, they’ll arrive with the roots wrapped in wet newspaper or straw to keep them from drying out. If you’re unable to plant your trees as soon as they arrive, that’s okay; you’ll just need to make sure that the roots remain moist. Ideally, it’s best to plant on a damp, overcast day that’s not too windy, since roots can dry out quickly during planting.
Begin by digging your hole. It should be approximately twice the width of the roots of your tree when the roots are spread side to side. The depth of the hole should extend a couple of inches below the root depth. If the size of the hole seems extravagant, consider that you’re trying to create conditions that will allow your tree to not only survive today but also thrive tomorrow. As one homesteader put it, “Dig a 5-dollar hole for a 50-cent tree.”
Make sure your planting hole is wider and deeper than the tree’s roots; this will allow for rapid, unencumbered root growth.
To give your tree additional stability, consider staking. It’s important that the stake is inserted into the hole prior to planting the tree. Inserting the stake after the tree has been planted may damage the roots. The stake should be pounded into the hole on the side from which prevailing winds blow. The tree should be staked at a 45-degree angle, and the stake should be placed well outside the root zone. An alternative staking method is the double-post approach that uses vertical stakes, each located well outside the immediate root zone. The tree is then connected to the stakes using sections of inner tube from an old tire.
It was once thought that the hole should be amended with lots of fertilizer to give the tree extra nutrients. One problem with this approach is that the tree can suffer a nutrient deficiency once the nutrients are used up. Another line of thought argues that if all the nutrients are contained in the planting hole, the tree has little incentive to establish deep and wide anchoring roots, and instead never leaves the “comfort zone.” A better way to address this question is in the context of your existing soils. If your soil has good texture (loam) and good structure (low compaction) and acceptable levels of organic matter, then it’s not necessary to add any fertilizer or amendment. On the other hand, if you have poor or sandy soils (which don’t retain nutrients very well) it may be worth adding a soil amendment such as organic compost. If you do this, be aware that added compost often results in the creation of a void as it settles. Avoid this issue by backfilling carefully and mix with the parent material that you removed from the planting hole.
Take your time in backfilling the hole. Make sure that the roots are spread outward and downward, both to maximize nutrient uptake and to anchor the tree. Roots that curl up, known as J roots, almost always result in tree mortality since roots are intended to grow and draw nutrients upward. To avoid this, hold the tree with one hand as you backfill, making sure that the graft union is 3 to 4 inches above ground level. You can also make a slight mound at the bottom of the planting hole to encourage the roots to spread out.
As you add soil back to the hole, make sure that the roots of the tree remain horizontal; pretend you’re making root sandwiches, with the lateral roots smoothly rolling off the sides of the taproot. With each successive layer, you can pat the soil down until the hole is filled. Once the hole has been filled, pack the soil around the base of the tree with your hands to work out the air pockets. Now that it’s compacted, you’ll notice a slight depression, which is okay. Water the tree slowly (10 gallons is usually sufficient); this will allow the soil to work its way down and fill in any air pockets. As a final step, dress the area around the base with a top layer of soil, making it level with the surrounding ground.
You may opt to mulch around the tree with ramial wood chips, soiled animal bedding, straw, or grass clippings, all of which will add nutrients as they decompose and prevent other plants from establishing and “stealing” nutrients from your fruit trees. It’s also essential that the tree be watered immediately after planting and regularly for several weeks thereafter, depending on your climate. As a general rule, the larger the transplanted tree, the more water it will require, both in quantity and duration. A 4-inch DBH tree, for example, may require daily watering for a month, while a 2-inch sapling might only require daily watering for two weeks. Frequent watering is important, because it can discourage health issues such as slow establishment, canopy dieback, and bark splits.
The process for planting containerized, or pot-grown, trees is essentially the same as for bare-rooted stock, with a couple of notable exceptions. Since the tree has become acclimated to the soil in the container, it’s important to create a gradual transition to the new parent soil on the orchard site. By using your fingers to loosen any bound roots and soil, mix the surrounding soil in your planting hole. The more gradual this transition is from containerized potting soil to the site’s soil, the better. As a general rule, the width of your hole should extend 18 inches beyond the containerized edge.
Once the tree is planted, staked, and mulched, it’s easy to assume the work is done. However, in my experience, more immature fruit trees fall victim to improper protection from animals than to improper planting. Protecting trees need not be a daunting prospect. A simple rabbit or vole guard can be made out of hardware cloth and wire ties. The guard should not only wrap around the entire tree and extend to a height above the snowline, but also be pinned to the ground using a short metal stake to prevent rodents from burrowing underneath. If you live in an area with significant deer populations, or if you’ll be grazing livestock near your young trees, consider building a secondary fence around the vole guard. Just make sure it’s tall enough and strong enough to withstand a curious animal’s penchant for young, fresh shoots!
Perhaps your proposed ecotone orchard is along an old fenceline, but you don’t have much space to expand outward? If this is the case, consider employing an ancient orcharding method developed by the Romans and perfected by the French. Known as espalier (derived from the French word épaule, meaning shoulder), this artful method allows us to grow fruit trees in a two-dimensional area — perfect for the woodland homestead with limited space. By developing a lateral structure to the tree, you allow the fruit to receive full sunlight and stay at an easily harvestable height.
Training fruit trees to grow in espaliered form takes advantage of existing fence lines and other underutilized spaces.
Your espalier orchard begins by selecting quality whips on dwarf stock. Apples, plums, and pears are most suitable for espalier systems, though cherries can be trained to grow in a fan, serpentine, or tiered pattern. Importantly, the varieties you select need to be “spur-bearing,” meaning that their fruits form close to the branches, as opposed to at the tips of vertical shoots. Apple varieties best suited for espalier include Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Liberty, Redcourt, and Holiday. Since most fruit trees aren’t self-pollinating, you’ll need at least two of them in order to produce fruit.
If you’re planting along an existing rail fence, you can either train your tree to use the existing rails or attach a series of horizontal training wires to serve as the lateral support system (at 12-inch intervals). It is important to establish this structure prior to planting your trees, to avoid damaging the roots. Trees should be planted 12 to 15 feet apart, using the method described here.
Once the dormant tree is planted you’ll make your first training cut, a 45-degree angle just above the second wire, which should be 2 to 21⁄2 feet above the ground and just above a healthy bud. Attach the tree loosely with twist ties to the bottom and second wires. This completes the process until the growing season begins.
Throughout the first growing season, train the lateral branches to grow along the wires or rails. When they reach the next post or neighboring espalier tree, head off the tips. As the lateral branches grow, so will the terminal leader, which will need to be pruned back periodically. You’ll want to prune it in such a way that you retain a pair of buds that can grow laterally on the next wire.
By the third year, your espalier system should be sufficiently established. At this point you’ll be able to focus your energy on pruning erratic growth and promoting fruit spurs. Vigorous trees may bear fruit in year three, but it may take as many as six years depending on individual tree vigor and microclimate. If your trees produce small or immature fruit, it may be due to low light conditions. To address this, you may need to remove taller, surrounding trees. Remember, as an orchardist, it’s your job to manage competition for both light and growing space.
For me, homesteading is about the resurrection of knowledge, tools, and land. When I purchased my land, I asked if there were any fruit trees on the property. The real estate agent told me the land had been the site of an old homestead a century prior, and that all homesteads had a few apple trees, but that I shouldn’t get too excited because they were probably dead by now, assuming I could even find them. While the agent was correct in guessing that the property had a few fruit trees, he was wrong about their health. Fruit trees, and particularly apples, are among the most resilient of trees, almost always capable of resurrection.
All of the apple trees I located on my homestead were growing in the understory of an overstocked mixed forest. Fruit trees respond to the extreme shade of such a situation by slowing their growth rate and ceasing fruit production. The trees are able to maintain this conservative existence for decades, waiting for you to appear one day with saw and shears.
The resurrection of old fruit trees comes with a bit of a caveat. When you stumble upon an old fruit tree in your woodlot, you won’t know the tree’s origin or variety, and the quantity and quality of fruit it will produce won’t be apparent for several years. Still, if your goal is to make cider, sauce, or jam rather than to eat sweet, blemish-free apples straight from the tree, this isn’t so much an issue.
Restoring a woodland orchard, even if it’s just a couple of trees, begins by clearing the area around your trees. Since the trees have likely been under shade for many years, I believe it’s best to slowly introduce the tree to increasing levels of sunlight. In year one, I removed all trees taller than my fruit tree within a 20-foot radius. I expanded the area another 10 feet in years two and three, creating a 50-foot radial gap after three years. This three-year gap expansion coincides with the amount of time it takes to restore most abandoned fruit trees to productive, fruit-bearing condition.
When clearing the area around your fruit trees, remember that your goal is just to give your tree access to sunlight. This may mean that you’ll be able to grow coppice fodder/firewood or other shorter “products” around your fruit tree without inhibiting growth.
In addition to the tools and techniques for clearing discussed in chapter 2, you will need several specialized tools for efficient pruning. These include pruning shears, bypass loppers, and a pruning saw. As with most other tools, price point varies greatly. Investing in quality tools not only makes the work more enjoyable (pruning with sharp shears is akin to carving butter) but also makes for higher-quality work. Dull loppers, for example, can crush branches instead of slicing them, thereby injuring the tree. Quality tools also mean faster work, which leaves you more time to admire your orchard — glass of cider in hand, of course.
As a general rule, use pruning shears to cut branches up to the thickness of your pinkie finger, or about 5⁄8 inch. For live branches between 5⁄8 and 7⁄8 inch, use a sharp pair of bypass loppers, which work essentially like big scissors. For dead branches, you can use anvil loppers, which work like a knife and cutting board, or as I prefer, a handheld pruning saw. Handheld pruning saws can have either a fixed blade or a fold, the latter of which is handy when you’re climbing on a ladder. With all of these tools, your goal should be to produce clean cuts that allow the tree to heal quickly.
Admittedly, pruning and caring for fruit trees can become a bit of an obsession. You’ll find yourself studying the form of each branch, trying to encourage growth in some areas and discourage growth in other areas. The following tips and tricks can help.
A common question regarding pruning is, How much of the crown can I remove at one time? As a general rule, you can take out up to one-third of the crown when pruning or thinning. Attempting to remove any more than this in a single season will cause undue stress to the tree, and more water sprouts the following season. As for crown density, remember that your goal is to get light to all the branches so that fruit buds can bear fruit. The old adage is that you should be able to toss your hat through the crown of an adequately pruned fruit tree.
Branches that are too close together or that are growing at an upward angle instead of the ideal 70- to 90-degree outward angle can be trained by using branch weights. One simple way to make a branch weight is to superglue a fruit-size rock to a clothespin and hang it on branch that you’d like to train lower. A variation of this is to tie a string to a clothespin and stake the string in the ground with the appropriate tension to create the desired branch angle.
On young trees, you may discover that a desirable branch could benefit from a wider crotch as a means of producing a widely layered scaffold form. Old paint sticks or broken shakes work well for constructing crotch spreaders; just make sure that the notch in each end is appropriately sized and placed to prevent the spreader from coming out on a windy day. Other methods of training branches include tying a stone to a string and hanging it from the branch (stone size will dictate how low the branch hangs) and tying off branches to a protective cage (a “tree fortress”) below.
Once the tree has been given a growing season to adjust to increased light conditions, you can take the following steps to restore it.
While pruning, you may also identify some buds that you want to encourage and others that you want to discourage. “Notching” is making a cut to a branch above a bud; this encourages the tree to send nutrients to the bud as a response to the injury. The result is the establishing of a vigorous new leader the following growing season. This method is particularly useful if you’re trying to encourage a bud in a specific location, such as with espaliers. Similar to notching is “nicking,” which is removing wood just below the bud to discourage growth. The result in this case is a “bleeding” of nutrients that weakens the bud. Both notching and nicking should be used only on apple and pear trees, since stone fruits are generally more susceptible to bacterial cankers from open wounds.
For both nicking and notching, use a sharp knife and extend the cut just past the cambium, which is the layer of active cell growth under the bark. Be sure to clean your knife with a dilute bleach solution between trees to prevent the spread of bacteria and fungi.
Although not a common practice, notching and nicking are an effective means of discouraging and encouraging bud growth. Nicking discourages growth by preventing sap from reaching the bud; notching encourages a hormonal response that sends sap toward the bud you’re trying to promote.
Managing pests in a woodland orchard can be a challenge, but it can also be an opportunity. The shade provided by fruit trees makes your orchard an ideal location to practice mob-grazing chickens throughout the summer. Not only will you lower the pest count in your orchard, but you’ll also be supplementing your chickens’ diet while simultaneously fertilizing your orchard. A chicken tractor, or mobile coop, helps ensure even and concentrated grazing (see below).
Using a chicken tractor to control orchard pests is an organic alternative to conventional pesticides. The tractor should be moved at least once per day, preferably twice.
In terms of protecting your actual fruit, physical barriers are often a practical solution. While labor intensive, bagging individual fruits means you can avoid using chemical pesticides and still have a beautiful, blemish-free harvest. Among the predators you’ll be stopping are apple maggots, stink bugs, and various moths; you’ll also be able to reduce bird and squirrel damage.
Bags. You’ll want to bag during the fruitlet stage, before pests have the opportunity to wreak havoc. Traditionally, cotton sacks (and later, paper bags) were used to protect fruit, but you can also use plastic sandwich-size bags with slider locks, though you’ll need to punch a few holes in each bag or snip off the lower corners to allow the leaflets to transpire. Paper bags can be loosely tied on with strings, while plastic bags can be held in place with the slider locks. As you bag your fruitlets, use this as an opportunity to thin the crop, focusing on removing small or already blemished fruits.
Kaolin clay spray. Another option for protecting your fruit crop is to use a kaolin clay spray. This dilute clay mixture is a great way to deter pests such as the apple sawfly and plum curculio. Pests quickly discover that the clay clogs their pores; the inhospitable environment also makes it impossible for the insects to reproduce. Although early orchardists experimented with potters’ clay, the clay particles were too large to stick to pest orifices and thus did not clog them. Commercially available clays have been sifted through an extra-fine filter to ensure effectiveness. Finally, realize that a single application of kaolin spray is insufficient. Most clay products will require three applications, since you’ll want to target pests at various life stages.
Tree fortresses. If your orchard experiences significant deer pressure, consider building individual tree fortresses. These fortresses can be made from pole-size wood that’s left over from thinning your orchard. To build the tree fortress, alternate stacking logs (as if you’re building a log cabin), and screw each course of logs together to add stability. The fortress should be high enough that deer can’t reach over the top to browse. You may want to add a secondary fence of monofilament fishing line at the top of the fortress to deter deer. Fishing line is surprisingly effective as a secondary psychological barrier: the deer feel the pressure of the line but can’t see it.
You may have noticed that behind the myriad practices discussed in this book is a philosophy that no plant, animal, or plot of land serves a single purpose. Instead, the focus is on creating synergistic systems in which multiple benefits stem from a single component. Perhaps nowhere is this so clearly exemplified as in the case of homestead beekeeping. Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are the ultimate multipurpose producers, a friend to the forest, orchard, garden, and homesteader. In fact, bees are responsible for pollinating about one-third of our food supply, ranging from apples to watermelon and beans.
Unfortunately, our venerable homestead companion has in recent years fallen prey to a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD). While experts debate the exact causes of CCD, it’s likely that several compounding factors have contributed to the decline. These factors include loss of forage plants, insecticide use, and an influx of the varroa mite. By establishing your own homestead hive, you’ll not only be doing your part to help keep honeybees alive, you’ll also be rewarded with increased fruit and vegetable production, beeswax, propolis (used by the Greeks to treat burns and wounds), and, of course, honey.
A successful hive is dependent on a queen, drones, and worker bees. The job of the queen is to grow the colony by laying eggs, often as many as 2,500 per day. The small worker bees (all females) are the marathon athletes of the hive, visiting 50 to 100 flowers on each trip and only living about six weeks. Larger than the worker bees are the drones, who don’t have a stinger and don’t produce honey but do tend to the hive and mate.
The initial equipment investment is several hundred dollars, but the cost of maintaining a hive over the long term is minimal. If you’re a frugal homesteader, you may be tempted to buy used beekeeping equipment; however, in doing so, you’re taking a major risk. Diseases such as American foulbrood can perpetuate on old equipment for quite some time and can devastate your colony as well as neighboring colonies. You’re better off investing in new equipment. One way to save money on new equipment is to buy a hive kit, as opposed to preassembled boxes, and assemble it yourself with basic tools.
For the beginning beekeeper, the most common way to acquire bees is to purchase a 3-pound “package,” which will contain about 10,000 bees plus a queen. Your second option is to purchase a nucleus colony (commonly called a “nuc”), which is a partially established colony. Other options include buying a complete, ready-to-go colony from an existing beekeeper or collecting a wild swarm. In addition to the excitement of finding and capturing a swarm of wild honeybees, you’ll have the added benefit of hardier bees that are better adapted to your particular environment. If you decide to pursue a wild swarm, make sure you have an experienced mentor with you for the collection and hive introduction phase.
In your first season of beekeeping, you’ll want to be conservative in the amount of honey you remove from the hive. In most cases, you’ll only remove one to four combs. The following spring, however, you’ll likely be able to remove three to seven combs (though climate, colony vigor, and various environmental stresses may affect your harvest).
Attracting native cavity bees is an important part of encouraging biodiversity of pollinators. Select dead or dying logs and stumps in areas that are unlikely to be disturbed, are protected from wind, and have good southern exposure. Use a 3⁄8-inch drill to bore a series of holes 1⁄2 inch apart in a grid format. Each hole should be about 5 inches deep, and at least 8 inches above the ground. Encourage colonization by spraying the holes with a 1:1 mixture of sugar and water.
Create homes for native bees by drilling holes into stumps and snags.
If you’d like to capture the pollination benefits of bees, but aren’t all that interested in the honey, consider creating habitat that will encourage native bee populations on your homestead. One easy method is to take an old, partially intact hay bale, place it in your orchard during late summer, and allow it to decompose a bit over winter. In the spring you’ll have a warm microenvironment that’s ideal for a queen and her harem in search of a new home.
In addition to honeybees, there are over 4,000 native cavity bees in the United States. They don’t produce copious amounts of honey and tend to live in less-organized colonies, but they are just as important to pollination as honeybees are. You can encourage their presence around your woodland homestead by creating habitat. One of the easiest ways to do this is to take advantage of stumps and snags around the homestead. See Attracting Native Bees, for more information.
Few other activities on the woodland homestead are as rewarding as harvesting apples. The fall harvest stands as a testament to a productive summer, and as the winter larder fills with crates of apples and jugs of sweet cider.
For me, the fall apple harvest and the subsequent cider days are as much about cultivating community as they are about celebrating our self-reliance in putting up food and drink. While my woodland orchard provides me with enough apples to last until spring, and about 30 gallons of cider (most of which I freeze by stocking them in the woodshed), my neighbors and I press as many as 200 gallons of cider within a 3-square-mile community.
This neighborhood feat always involves creative bartering: the apple-tree-poor folks offer the promise of finished cider, jelly, and applesauce to the apple-tree-rich folks in exchange for harvesting rights. I’m happy to support this neighborhood tradition by lending my well-used antique cider press. In return, not only do I get the pleasure of knowing that local resources are being wisely used, and that an important rural tradition has continued another year, but I’m also lucky enough to get the leftover apple pomace. Conveniently, this sweet and seasonally abundant fodder, along with a touch of grain, is usually enough to sustain my hogs until their butcher date. Not a bad deal!
Fruit ripens at different rates, depending on its location on the tree. In the early days of fall, you’ll find small and often blemished fruits below your tree. Early cidermakers referred to these as the “sheep’s share” and allowed flocks to consume the drops. Apparently, these early cidermakers knew a thing or two, as research confirms that these early drops are most likely to be the wormiest of the season. From a pest management perspective, grazing sheep in these areas is a good way to control apple maggots before they complete their lifecycle.
The use of drops for cidermaking is largely a question of tradition and personal preference, though the sooner you can collect them, the better. If you do collect drops, particularly in areas where livestock have grazed, it’s important to pasteurize any cider made from them. Pasteurization can be achieved by heating the cider to 165°F, and then rapidly cooling it to minimize enzyme loss.
When I pick apples, I usually carry two sacks, one for the large, blemish-free fruits that will be kept in the root cellar, and a second for the small, blemished ones that will be used for cidermaking. Since I’m picking apples that have never been in contact with the ground (the greatest risk of ground contact being E. coli from animals), I opt not to pasteurize. While certainly safer than using drops, even this drop-free cider comes with a bit of risk. It’s also important to note that while freezing cider will kill some microorganisms, it will not kill E. coli. In short, if you think there’s even a slight chance your apples may be contaminated, take the time to pasteurize.
One of the chief virtues of apples is that they keep particularly well. In a vented root cellar you can easily keep quality apples for six months. Even blemished apples can be kept for a couple of months without degrading in quality. Later, thicker-skinned, firmer fruit keeps better than early, thin-skinned, soft fruit. As a general rule, mid-30°F temperatures and 90 percent humidity are ideal for long-term storage.
If you have a small apple harvest, you may opt to take the time to wrap the apples individually in newsprint and place them in an open wooden box. This prevents one bad apple from spoiling the lot. Additionally, the wrapping helps contain ethylene gas, which apples (and pears) naturally release but which can expedite ripening and eventually rotting. If you’re putting up a larger quantity of apples, the newsprint approach may not be practical. In that case, it’s best to carefully sort the apples, removing any soft or bruised ones for more immediate use. I use wooden crates that are stored a foot or so above the root cellar floor. Wire storage baskets tend to result in bruised fruit that spoils easily. Finally, make sure that your apples are stored in a separate room from other fruits and vegetables, since apples naturally release ethylene, a gas that accelerates the ripening process.
Pears can be stored under the same conditions as apples, but will keep only one to three months in storage. Stone fruit is generally best kept by either drying or canning or freezing, due to its soft flesh and perishability. If you opt to freeze stone fruits, remove the skins and pits first.
Most cidermakers admit to making at least one accidental batch of cider vinegar. This is usually a result of excess oxygen in the fermenting container, which triggers a switch from anaerobic fermentation to aerobic respiration. If a batch of your cider turns to vinegar, don’t despair; make switchel. Switchel is a traditional homestead drink that was popular during haying season as a thirst quencher. To make your own switchel, mix four cups of cold water, 1⁄2 cup of cider vinegar, 1⁄4 cup maple syrup, and one teaspoon of ground ginger. Stir and enjoy.
I had the great fortune of growing up behind an apple orchard. My venture into cidermaking began at age seven, when I hauled 5 gallons of apples from the neighbor’s orchard and commenced to build my own apple press.
The design was admittedly crude, but it worked. I chopped the apples with my trusty hatchet and wrapped them in a section of cheesecloth that I “borrowed” from my mother’s pantry. I then carefully placed the wrapped apple chunks between two boards placed on the threshold stoop of my childhood playhouse cabin. With chunks of scrap wood, I built a precarious tower of lumber that reached to within 6 inches of the top of the door frame and inserted a scissor jack that I “borrowed” from the trunk of my father’s car. As I cranked the jack, golden cider ran out the sides into a tin cup below. I was hooked. My cidermaking has evolved a bit since those early days, but the principle remains the same: grind, press, bottle, enjoy.
“It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them all into cider.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Bruce and Nancy Kilgore’s homestead, known as Ravenwood, is an artistic and functional expression of what’s possible on a woodland homestead. The Kilgores’ house is an innovative blend of cordwood construction, post-and-beam construction, and passive solar design. The walls of the home are made of cedar, which was collected from the slash piles left after logging jobs in the area. The roof trusses are made of massive 22-inch white pine timbers that support a living roof that doubles as crop space.
The Kilgores resurrected the woodland apple trees not only for the fruit but also for the bees. Bruce notes that after he introduced bees to his woodland orchard, the size and quantity of apples increased significantly. In addition to producing apples and honey, Bruce also has a 200-tap sugarbush on his property, which he taps along with trees on his neighbors’ land as part of a syrup cooperative.
Known for his thoughtful integration of systems, Bruce offers some sage advice to those looking to create symbiotic and efficient systems for the wooded homestead. First, he suggests that before you eliminate one ecosystem component, you should consider what impacts it has along the way. For someone looking to produce fruit, honey, and syrup on the same land, this is going to mean retaining as many early successional species (basswood, aspen, and birch) as possible, because they are, in most cases, the first to flower in the spring, providing an important food source to bees. He also notes that all of his wood from tending the sugarbush becomes fuel wood for firing the evaporator.
Finally, Bruce and Nancy advocate for working with your neighbors and bartering homestead goods along the way. This may mean trading syrup for meat, or honey for labor. The idea is, as Bruce describes, a network in which neighbors lend one another their goods, time, and knowledge as currency in the woodland homestead economy. Taking the advice of the legendary Helen and Scott Nearing, the Kilgores practiced a “pay as you go” philosophy, building in stages, using cash and sweat equity. When asked about the advantages of that approach, Bruce Kilgore grins, saying, “There’s not a bank or mortgage company in this world that knows my homestead exists.”
Before you begin, make sure you have the following supplies on hand:
Planning your cidermaking in advance is important to ensure that your apples have enough time to sweat. “Sweating” simply refers to aging your apples for a week or two in a cool place, which softens them up for easier grinding and increases the sugar content. If your harvest is small, you may sweat your apples by leaving them in your collecting buckets. For larger harvests, it’s best to pile the apples on a wooden floor and loosely cover them with a tarp. An alternate method is the “cold sweat,” in which apples are intentionally left outside (usually in the back of a pickup truck, uncovered) on an evening when the temperature is expected to drop below freezing. This flash-freezing is a great way to age your apples in a hurry, but you must press them the next day.
A large water tub next to your grinder is ideal for washing apples as you pass them into the grinder. Some grinders are separate from the actual press; others are mounted above the pressing basket. If you’re making a particularly small batch of cider, you can grind the apples in a food processor. Regardless of your grinding method, make sure that you press the pomace immediately after milling, to avoid attracting wasps and vinegar flies that can contaminate your cider.
Old-timers often refer to pressing as “wringing.” By exerting pressure on a tub of ground fruit, you’re extracting juice from the ruptured fruit cells. Sometimes folks will use cheesecloth to hold the milled pulp. If your pomace is in large chunks and/or the staves of your pressing tub are close together, you may not need to use cheesecloth. Nonetheless, you’ll want to let the juice (technically referred to as “must”) pass through a strainer before flowing into your bucket. In terms of collection buckets, never use galvanized, copper, iron, or aluminum containers since the must will react with the metal, making a most unpleasant cider. Instead, make sure you’re collecting in either a stainless-steel or plastic container. As you wring, or press, the cider, you’ll reach a point at which the must tapers off, indicating that you’ve extracted all the juice. Be sure to cover the juice right away; otherwise, it will attract insects in short order.
A double-tub cider press offers the advantage of pressing one batch while the next is ground. Be sure to save the pomace to feed to your livestock.
Different apple varieties yield ciders with different qualities: some are tart; others are sweet or astringent. While blending can be done during the grinding process, you’re better able to control the taste of the final product by blending the cider (by crop and/or variety) after pressing, but before bottling or fermenting. If you intend to consume the cider fresh (not hard), your blend will be based entirely on taste preference. If, however, your goal is to make hard cider, blending and testing will be an important part of controlling the alcohol level of the finished cider.
Listening to Al Robertson describe his 60-acre freehold in Vermont, it’s clear that his pruning shears and chainsaw are his paintbrushes. While he was trained as a civil engineer, Al has spent the last 30 years establishing a woodland orchard and tending his forest. In 1985, Al cleared an immature forest to establish his woodland orchard — populated by 30-plus varieties of heirloom apples, which he blends to make award-winning hard cider. The diversity of both varieties and microclimate means that the apples ripen at different times and that Al’s able to spread his cidermaking over a longer, less-hectic season. When asked what advice he’d offer to novice cidermakers, Al stresses the importance of sanitation, mixing different varieties, and taking the time with friends to enjoy the cider.
When not making cider, Al can be found in his certified tree farm, practicing a German forestry method known as Dauerwald, which aims to create a multi-aged, multilevel forest where trees are harvested either individually or in small groups. Al notes that the success of this system is due in part to an extensive road network throughout his woods that allows for easy access. For other woodland homesteaders, Al recommends taking the time to design and build good roads so that you can maximize the use and enjoyment of your entire property.
Sweet cider changes to hard cider when the sugar in the juice converts into alcohol and carbon dioxide through the growth of specific yeasts under controlled conditions. Like winemaking or beer brewing, the process can vary greatly in terms of sophistication; most cidermakers produce their first batches using a single-step fermentation process in which the yeast (either added or natural from the skins of the apples) is allowed to “eat” until all of the available sugar has been converted to alcohol, thereby slowing and eventually stopping the fermentation process. As you refine both your techniques and your cider palate, you may also look to experiment with secondary malolactic fermentation, which gives cider a smoother finish. To learn more about making hard cider, find a copy of Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider by Lew Nichols and Annie Proulx. (see Resources.)
Regardless of whether you’re making sweet or hard cider, make sure your bottles are sterilized prior to bottling. For sweet cider, you may want to consider using clean plastic jugs, which can be frozen until you’re ready to enjoy your cider. Just remember, don’t fill the jugs more than three-fourths of the way, to allow for expansion while freezing.
Within a few days of pitching the yeast, you’ll notice bubbles emerging from the airlock in the bung on your carboy. Allow your cider to ferment in a dark space with the temperature between 45–65°F.
On sites with relatively alkaline soils, neighboring fruit trees, and ample wildlife, it’s not uncommon to find naturally established wild apple trees that produce small, blemished, and often bitter apples. While these wild apples may lack palatability as snacks, consider pruning up the wild trees as part of a homestead cider orchard. If the cider’s particularly tart, you can sweeten it by adding honey or blending in sweeter varieties.
If you spend a bit of time around homestead sugarbushes, it will soon be apparent that sugaring is about far more than making syrup; sugaring is a culture, a hopeful sign of spring, and a reminder that nature’s bounty is just below the bark. And if you think that syrup making isn’t an option for you because you don’t have sugar maple trees on your property, think again. Birch and even walnut can be tapped to make delicious syrup, albeit with a bit of work.
Although we think of sugaring as an early-spring activity, the tree actually begins sap production in the fall. At that time of year, trees slow their growth and begin storing excess starches throughout their sapwood. In the case of sugar maples, this starch is overwintered until the wood temperature warms to about 40°F, at which point enzymes in the sapwood convert the starches to sugar. This sugar then moves through the tree as sap to feed newly emerging buds. When a tap hole is bored into the tree, the carrying vessels are severed, allowing the sap to flow out.
The early Algonquians are thought to have been the first sugarmakers. They used stone tools to carve V-shaped notches into maple trees and collected the oozing sap in birch containers. After collecting the sap, they made it sweeter by continually adding hot rocks to evaporate the water, thereby increasing the sugar content and ultimately yielding syrup.
This process of concentrating sugar through evaporation is still the underlying principle of modern sugaring, though both the techniques and the equipment have been greatly refined. At the homestead level, you’ll be able to get a taste of sugaring, even if you just have a couple of tappable trees, a few buckets, and a campfire with a wide, shallow pan propped over it. Larger-scale operations with many more taps often set up networks of tubing to collect sap into a central tank and boil it off using commercially made evaporators with drop flues, automatic draw-off values, and reverse osmosis concentration systems.
The Rule of 86 is a basic equation that you can use to determine the number of gallons of sap needed to make a gallon of syrup based on different Brix sugar values. So, for sap that has a 2% sugar content: 86/2 = 43 gallons of sap are needed to make one gallon of syrup. Another way to think of this is that you’ll have to evaporate 42 gallons of water to make one gallon of syrup.
In the old days, maple camps were erected in forests naturally endowed with a preponderance of maple trees. Often, the men working in these maple camps were loggers and farmers who were looking for work during a time of the year commonly known as mud season, a time the ground was too soft for either farming or logging. While some of these camps were elaborate establishments complete with evaporators and bunk houses, others were crude establishments consisting of nothing more than a lean-to with an open fire and a large cast-iron cauldron for boiling sap.
In establishing your own maple camp, you’ll be faced with the same question of how elaborate or simple your setup will be. I’d encourage starting small, which allows you to try out different systems and confirm your own affinity for sugaring before making major investments. The simplest setup is a propane turkey fryer, though if you have wood available, I’d strongly encourage going that route instead. My first sugaring rig consisted of two rows of cinder blocks set about 2 feet apart, with a large, deep commercial cake pan straddling the cinder blocks and a roaring fire below. The open ends allowed wood to be fed from both sides, and a metal coffee can with a pinhole punched in the bottom edge served as a sap preheater that was balanced on the corner of the pan. Preheating the sap, and allowing it to slowly dribble in, means that the pan doesn’t lose its boil, thereby slowing down the evaporating process.
Over the course of a couple seasons, you may choose to build a sugar shack with a roof, a “proper” evaporator, holding tanks, and even a few comfy chairs. If you go this route, you may be lucky enough to be able to use the material from thinning the sugarbush to build your sugar shack. In this case, access to a portable sawmill will make the whole process much more efficient. What’s even better, after milling your lumber, you’ll be left with a pile of slabs that makes for great sugaring wood to burn in your evaporator.
While the sugar maple is king of the maple world, other tree species are suitable for tapping as well. Some of these species, such as the birches, are complementary to sugar maples because their tapping season begins just as the sugar maples are finishing up. Other species, like red maple, have been given a bad rap for their lower sugar content, but can produce syrup equally delicious to maple. This chart lists some other tree species that bring the fun of sugaring to regions of the country that rarely get to enjoy the smell of boiling sap on a cold day.
If you’re considering tapping any of these lesser-used species, there are several important points to keep in mind. Lower sugar content means more boiling. For those species with less than 1 percent sugar, you’d want to use reverse osmosis to reduce the boiling time. If you’re looking for the sweet flavor but don’t feel compelled to make syrup, consider a short boil just to make the sweetness more pronounced and serve it as refreshing beverage. Another option is to let your sap partially freeze and remove the ice from the top; the denser sugar water will sink to the bottom.
It’s also important to understand a bit about the physiology of the trees you’re tapping. Sap from maple and walnut trees relies on a freeze-thaw cycle to produce pressure in the tree. This pressure is what allows the sap to flow from the tap. Birches are different; they rely on root pressure to move the sap once the soil warms to 45 to 50°F. This means that just as the maple or walnut season is coming to an end, the birch season is just beginning.
If you’re getting ready to tap your trees for the first time, you probably have quite a few questions. Among the most common questions I’m asked is, “Does tapping hurt the tree?” The short answer is “No, so long as it’s done properly.” The key, of course, is defining properly.
First, think of tapping a tree as being analogous to giving blood; you want to make sure the donor is healthy, and don’t want to take too much. Look for a tree with a large, full crown and no decay. To ensure that you don’t stress the tree by taking too much sap, consult the Tapping Guidelines. If you suspect a tree may be stressed, consider reducing the number of taps, or giving it a rest for the season.
It’s important to avoid damaging the tree by carefully following the tapping directions below. Equally important is pulling the taps as soon as the sap stops running. This will allow the tree to begin closing the wound, which is normally a 2- to 4-year process.
Sugaring season usually begins in late February or early March, as the days get longer and temperatures push above freezing during the daytime, but return to below freezing at night. Some sugarmakers always start on the same calendar day while others roll the dice based on a long-range forecast. Tap too early, and your tap holes will dry up (think of it as the tree cauterizing a wound) before the end of the season; tap too late and you risk missing a big run of quality early sap. If it’s your first time sugaring, watch for others to hang their buckets and follow suit. Having your sugaring equipment ready and a plan in place is key to fast and efficient tapping once the sap begins to run.
Old hotel pans propped on a cinder block arch makes for an inexpensive evaporator. As the sap evaporates, move it from the rear pan to the front pan, and add new sap to the rear pan.
A standard tap, or spile, is made for a 7⁄16-inch-diameter hole. These metal taps can be found at hardware stores, barn sales, and antique stores. Newer, smaller-diameter plastic taps are available as well (5⁄16 inch and 19⁄64 inch). The advantage of the smaller taps is that the tapping wound can heal faster than with a standard tap. If you opt for a small-diameter tap, only drill in about 11⁄2 inches; for a standard tap, you’ll want to drill in 2 inches. You can mark your drill bit with paint or electrical tape so that you drill to a consistent depth. Drill your hole with a sharp bit at a slight upward angle, so that the sap can flow out. Ideally, you’ll want to be at least 6 inches left or right of a previous tap hole and 24 inches directly over or under a former tap hole.
Visit a commercial sugaring business and you’re likely to hear the operator extolling the virtues of their reverse osmosis or “R.O.” system. This is a filtration system that takes raw sap and forces it through a semipermeable membrane that separates out some of the water, resulting in sap that’s close to 10 percent sugar. However, R.O. units are expensive, with even small hobby-size units costing several thousand dollars.
The reason these systems are so valued by surgarmakers is that raw sap is usually around 2 percent sugar (in the case of most maples), but finished syrup is approximately 66 percent sugar. This 64 percent increase in sugar is both energy and time consuming for the producer.
Use a hammer or mallet to tap the spout into the tree. You want it to be snug, but not so tight that it splits the wood. As you’re hammering the tap in, you’ll notice a change in sound as it tightens up; use this as your cue that it’s properly secure. Tapping on a warm day, just as the sap is beginning to run, will minimize the chance of the wood splitting and also allow you to make sure your taps are seated snugly and don’t leak.
If you’re using buckets to collect the sap, hang a bucket on the hook and attach a cover to keep out precipitation and debris. An alternative to the bucket is a translucent sap bag, which is not only cost effective but also allows you to see from a distance how much sap you have collected. One of the disadvantages of buckets is that you can’t see how full they are until you walk up to the tree and remove the cover. In a large sugarbush, remembering which buckets you’ve already attended to can be a challenge. Some sugarmakers paint half the lid, replacing it in the opposite direction so they know from afar that the bucket has already been collected that day.
If you’re using plastic tubing, make sure that your drop lines (smaller diameter lines that connect the tap to the main line) are long enough that you’re able to tap in “fresh” wood. Also, take the time to walk your line to check for damage from either rodents or falling limbs.
When tapping with a cordless drill, be sure to pack extra batteries and a sharp bit for making clean tap holes.
The amount of sap you collect during sugaring season will vary greatly from day to day and year to year. Temperature (it needs to be above freezing for the sap to run), barometric pressure, and sunlight all influence the sap run. Some days you’re likely to collect several gallons of sap, other days it won’t run at all. In time you’ll also begin to notice how different areas of your sugarbush and individual trees respond. Don’t be surprised if you begin to describe individual trees as being “early,” “stubborn,” “sweet,” or “dependable.” (Who said trees don't have personalities?)
In any event, it’s important to collect and boil your sap as soon as possible. One good way to keep your sap cool and discourage bacterial growth until you boil is to bury your storage tank in a snow bank. You can then store your sap for weekend boiling parties without having to boil daily or worrying about the sap going rancid. If you don’t have an evaporator, you can still make quality syrup over an open fire. The larger the evaporator pan, the faster you’ll be able to make syrup. Boiling off the sap in commercial baking pans and old turkey roasters is a good way to get started. Make sure you have plenty of firewood, since boiling off 42 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup can take an entire day.
The transition from sap to syrup occurs when your sugar content is 66 to 67 percent. The best way to measure this is by using a hydrometer. You can also make perfectly good syrup using a candy thermometer; however, it requires a bit of calibration based on elevation and barometric pressure. On boiling day, note the temperature at which the sap begins to boil (it should be 212°F +/- a few degrees, depending on elevation); you’ll then want to add 7.1°F to that boiling point to arrive at the proper temperature for finished syrup.
Making syrup from start to finish in the kitchen is generally not advisable, though finishing up on the stovetop is a good way to prevent scorching since stovetop temperatures are easier to control. As the sap boils, it will foam up. Adding a dollop of butter or a drip of canola oil will calm things down. A small mesh hand strainer is useful for picking out debris and foam during the boiling process as well.
If you’d like to upgrade your sugaring hobby from cinder blocks and hotel pans, consider a 2'×4' evaporator capable of handling sap from up to 125 taps.
When your syrup is finished, you’ll want to can or bottle it hot in sterilized containers. Syrup that’s allowed to cool before canning or bottling can spoil, but it can also be reheated to 180°F. Some folks allow the syrup to cool overnight before bottling to allow the sugar sand (solidified minerals) to settle out. Other folks use coffee filters or, better yet, a felt cone to filter the hot syrup.
In addition to your back aching from hauling sap, there are a few indicators that sugaring season is over. As temperatures rise, bacteria will begin to grow in the sap, making it milky in appearance. Early fly hatches, drawn in huge numbers to your buckets or sap storage area, are another indicator that the season is ending. Once the sugaring season has come to an end, you’ll want to make sure you take the time to thoroughly clean all your equipment, using a solution that’s 1 part bleach, 20 parts water. Remember, any residual sap makes for an ideal environment for bacteria. Taking time to clean your equipment this spring will yield better-quality syrup next season.
After a six-week season of hauling sap and feeding the evaporator, you’ll no doubt be ready to enjoy your harvest. Take time to invite all those who lent a hand during the season and host your own maple breakfast.
“A sap-run is the sweet good-by of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost.”
— John Burroughs, Signs and Seasons, 1886
In this section I’ll discuss how the maintaining a sugarbush can be combined with other homestead goals. I’ll assume that you have sugar maple (Acer saccharum) trees, but remember that a wide range of species can be tapped in the spring so long as you have cold nights (below freezing) and warm days (above freezing).
Your sugarbush may consist of anything from a few maples along your fenceline to an elaborate tubing layout that you can grow into with time. The discussion here is targeted to a larger homestead sugarbush since it allows us to discuss a wider range of management options, but many of the concepts are applicable, regardless of sugarbush size.
If you’re fortunate enough to have a woodland homestead that has multiple sugarbush site locations (indicated by an abundance of crop trees), the following guide will help you through the planning process. Begin by setting up your sugaring operation based on one important question: How will you gather the sap? This is a question as much of labor as of the lay of the land. If your long-term ambitions include more than 100 taps, you may want to opt for a layout that allows for a plastic tubing system with a central collection tank. If you opt for a more manual system, using a tractor or horses and buckets, you will need a road or trail network.
If you opt for a tubing system, study your land to see if you’re able to use gravity to move the sap to your collection tank. Ideally, your sugarbush will be on an eastern or southern slope, which offers the best compromise between growing conditions and good sap production. If you’re using buckets, flatter ground is generally preferable.
Sugar maples prefer deep, well-drained, moderately coarse-textured soils. On less-fertile sites, you’ll often find sugar maple intermixed with red maple, basswood, ash, or even white pine. If your property doesn’t host many sugar maple trees, consider tapping the alternative species (see here).
You’ll recall from chapter 1 that “stand structure” refers to the size, arrangement, age, and species of trees in your forest. Your goal is to optimize growing conditions for your maple trees so that they’re able to develop wide, vigorous crowns capable of producing more sap. Additionally, there will be variability in the sugar content of sap from tree to tree, though the normal range is usually between 1.5 and 4 percent. Studies also indicate that increasing the amount of direct sunlight a crown receives increases sap sweetness.
Given the virtues of creating sites with little intraspecies competition, it would be easy to assume that a monoculture of sugar maples is the perfect sugarbush. Certainly from a production and convenience standpoint this is ideal, but a monoculture also represents trade-offs that should be carefully considered. If you think of your forest as an investment, and apply a bit of investment theory, you’ll quickly conclude that eliminating all “non-maples” is a risky proposition.
The risks of developing a monoculture include maple-specific defoliators, increased vulnerability to vascular disease, gradual adverse changes in nutrient relationships, and reduced resiliency. These risks tend to be greatest on sites that are not “ideal” sugar maple sites, where the removal of associated species may cause stress from logging damage, or changes in light conditions that affect the remaining trees. In the interest of sustaining the sugarbush for future generations, we’ll focus on “uneven-aged management” — maintaining crop trees of different ages — in order to ensure a steady supply of tappable trees. In addition to considering forest structure and health, other trade-offs to consider on the homestead sugarbush include retaining alternative tappable species, keeping trees for firewood production, or growing minor forest products.
Since a good sugarbush can and should provide multiple crops, it’s important to explore all the possibilities for your own homestead. In some cases, sugaring may be the minor use of your land, with firewood or forage production dominating. There’s no right or wrong combination; the goal is to find the combination that is best suited to your needs and the production possibilities of your land. That said, I would encourage you to develop flexible plans that allow for shifts based on changing needs.
As we’ve discussed, the homestead sugarbush need not be a monoculture of maples; instead it can be a multiuse forest that suits a variety of homestead goals. With a bit of planning, you’ll be able to maximize your range of goods and products. As a starting point, I’d recommend making a master list of all the products you hope to produce on your homestead; this long-range planning will play an important role in deciding what stays and what goes in the homestead woodlot.
To illustrate this point, suppose that in addition to producing maple syrup you’d also like to raise honeybees. One key element to raising honeybees is providing a variety of trees with early flowers that provide pollen when it’s most needed for survival. Among the best early-flowering trees for bees are basswood, aspen, and dogwood. If you were managing your sugarbush as a monoculture, you would have likely removed these trees as a means of reducing competition. However, entertaining these two goals side-by-side demonstrates how striking a balance among goals will require both a willingness to accept trade-offs and a contemplative mind that’s able to appreciate the challenges associated with multiuse management. To that end, consider the following guidelines as just that, guidelines, when tending your sugarbush.
While many sugarbush operators will tell you to aim for a specific basal area (40 to 60 square feet per acre is common), you may find it more useful to focus on individual crop trees, especially if you’re working with a small or highly variable multiuse sugarbush. Crop trees are released by cutting adjacent trees that crowd, or have the potential to crowd, your crop tree. As a general rule, crowns of adjacent trees that are in direct contact with your crop tree are cut, whereas shrub species and other plants that don’t interfere with either the growth of the crop tree, or collection of sap, should be retained for biodiversity. When conducting a crop tree release for the first time, it’s best to release the crown slowly, clearing just one or two sides per year; this will help reduce stress and allow the crop tree to adjust to new light conditions. In addition to spacing and maintaining a clear crown, you’ll also want to consider other factors that contribute to the selection of crop trees and the overall health and productivity of your sugarbush.
At times, managing your homestead sugarbush will require you to act as a tree doctor, diagnosing tree diseases and maladies. You will want to be able to determine whether a disease will result in mortality or is simply a cosmetic or temporary health issue. Various illustrated field guides are available to help you through the tree disease diagnosis process (see Resources). This said, if during your crop tree release you’re faced with the question of removing a competing tree but aren’t sure which one to take, consider the following factors: favor large crowns over smaller crowns, favor straight trees over “leaners,” and favor the tree that represents better access and/or more optimal spacing with neighboring trees. In the event that both trees seem equally “good,” consider using a refractometer to compare the sugar content of the trees in question. While sugar content will vary from year to year, the relative sweetness among trees is rather consistent.
While wildlife can sometimes be a nuisance in the sugarbush, as any sugarmaker who has had to deal with rodents chewing sap lines can attest to, it can also be an important component for both nonconsumptive uses (like aesthetics and biodiversity) and consumptive uses (like hunting). Hunters appreciate the relatively open forest structure of sugarbushes, which allow for clear shots, while birders appreciate the open canopy structure for observing birds. Removing thinned trees for firewood is practical, but also consider girdling some as a way to provide habitat for cavity nesters like woodpeckers.
Since your trees should be at least 10 inches DBH before being tapped, it can be tempting to create a sugarbush with just big trees, removing all the smaller trees and undergrowth. While this approach will create a parklike setting with wonderful access, it’s important to consider what will replace the trees you cut, long after the big trees have been “tapped out.” Promoting a new age class of crop trees is important and will allow you to establish a sugarbush that benefits future generations of sugarmakers.
*The wide sugar-content range presented for each species is influenced by both the growing site and the genetics of individual trees. These should be considered general guidelines. To measure the exact sugar content of your trees, you can use a refractometer, which your local Cooperative Extension office may provide for testing purposes.
Dr. Michael Farrell is director of Cornell University’s maple research field station in Lake Placid, New York, where he taps more than 5,000 trees. The field station is both a commercial-scale production facility and an important research hub that tackles maple-related issues from forest health to the economics of sugaring.
From the moment you meet Michael, one thing is clear: he wants nothing more than to make the sugaring experience accessible to as many people as possible. To that end, Michael has emerged as a leader and advocate for alternative species tapping, a practice that expands syrup making beyond the geographic range of sugar maple, thereby making sap and syrup production possible in every state but Hawaii (though he’s quick to point out that Hawaiian palm sap could be collected, too).
In addition to promoting alternative species for tapping, Michael is quick to name off a whole host of other goods that people can incorporate into their sugaring operation, including wild edibles, medicinal plants, florals, and his particular favorite, taphole maple lumber.
Taphole maple is a good example of just one more unique product that can be harvested from your homestead sugarbush. Traditionally, tapped trees were regarded as only suitable for firewood because of the stains and holes associated with tapping. However, just as bird’s-eye and curly maple are increasingly sought after for their unique qualities, so is taphole maple. As Michael explains, the added value isn’t just about the beautiful multicolor wood but also about nostalgia, knowing that each board contains the history and indelible mark of a sugarmaker’s tap.
“Taphole maple is a good example of just one more unique product that can be harvested from your homestead sugarbush.”
