Growing Tree Crops For Farm and Market: A Workshop

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Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Tuesday evening August 31 to Friday morning, September 3

This workshop is intended for anyone wishing to start or care for a fruit orchard on a home or commercial scale. Join orchardists Harry Burton, Bob Duncan, and Michael Ableman to learn about site selection, fruit varieties, orchard establishment, soil fertility, grafting, pruning, pest and disease control, harvest, post harvest, and marketing of fruit. From Apples to Quince, a range of tree crops that can be grown in this region will be covered. The workshop includes a field trip to Burton�s wild orchard on Salt Spring Island and to Bob Duncan�s Mediterranean and sub- tropical orchard in North Saanich.

For 12 years, Harry Burton has run Apple Luscious Organic Orchard on Salt Spring Island. Harry�s unique orchard grows over 200 of the best tasting, rare, heritage and connoisseur apple varieties, including over 23 tasty red-flesh apple varieties (the biggest collection in Canada), as well as other tree fruits. Burton�s approach to orcharding is based on permaculture theory, species diversity and soil health. Harry is a well-known fixture on Salt Spring Island, he is the founder the island�s Apple Festival, and he has over 25 years of teaching experience.

Bob Duncan has over 35 years experience growing tree fruits on south Vancouver Island. He currently operates a demonstration orchard near Sidney, British Columbia, where he specializes in temperate, Mediterranean, and subtropical fruit trees. His orchard includes over 400 varieties of tree fruits including over 200 varieties of heritage, connoisseur and hard to find apples as well as pears, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries, quince, medlar, kiwis, citrus, feijoa, figs, pomegranates, loquats, persimmons, olives, jujubes, avocados, passionfruit, pawpaw, and white sapote. Bob�s orchard has become a well known teaching tool to demonstrate various training systems and cultural techniques.

Michael Ableman began his farming career 37 years ago managing Sunburst Farms� 60 acre apple, pear, and peach orchard, one of North America�s earliest commercially run organic orchards. Ableman went on to develop a propagation nursery that provided over 200,000 avocado and citrus trees per year for the commercial plantings at the Tajiguas Ranch in southern California. Ableman developed and managed Fairview Gardens for 25 years, which produced 100 different fruit and vegetable products including, peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, citrus, avocados, figs, persimmons, pomegranate, and cherymmoya. Ableman has extensive experience on the commercial side of organic fruit growing both on the production end and in creative strategies for marketing a range of tree crops.

register online at: http://www.foxglovefarmbc.ca/