11Mar 07
Let the earth bring forth…the fruit tree!
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“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. Genesis 1:11″
Over the past month Daniel and I have taken 3 different classes on planning, raising, pruning, caring for, and grafting apple trees, pear trees, peach trees and others. Vintage Virginia Apple Farm just south of Charlottesville, VA host these classes once a year for beginning and even experienced orchardists.
Our goal was to begin an orchard on our land in Culpeper, VA. While we still have much to learn since experience is usually the best instructor, Mr. Tom Burford and the Shelton Family did a fabulous job answering questions, offering hindsight experience, and invaluable tid bits during these apple classes. One look at their 130 acre farm was enough to inspire anyone to begin growing apple trees. They currently have over 200 different varieties. By the way, would any one like to venture a guess as to roughly how many different known varieties of apple trees there are in the world?
With the Shelton’s inspiration and some voracious apple appetites in our household, the decision was made to commence our own orchard. Our dear farmer friend, Mr. Mocarski, provided the usage of his tractor and auger for us to dig 31 holes. Over the past 10 days the
whole Wilkes Team enthusiastically chipped in with digging, assembling wire fencing, and gathering mulch. An unexpected visit from our good friends, the Klawas, added all the more to the productivity.
What adventures, unexpecteds, and achievements lay ahead in our orchard? Only time will tell! But for now 25 apple trees (20 different varieties), 4 peach trees (Georgia Belle & Indian Blood Cling), and 2 pear trees (all from Vintage Virginia Apple Farm) are currently beginning life in Culpeper!
Wow that picture at the end ties everything together. There was a lot of hard effort in planting the apple trees. In a few years while we’re eating our apples, we can look back and think of the great family time we had
Wow! Go Wilkesteam! One day soon we’ll have fun going apple picking with you all and enjoy the fruits of your hard labors. By the way, I agree with Kenan that the last picture is exceptionally sharp. I hope it isn’t copyrighted because I just set it as my desktop background.
There has got to be hundreds of different varieties of apple trees around the world. I could be way off, but let me venture to guess 500.
Yes! Joshua, that apple course was a blast: learning how to prune, graft and plant apple trees. Alright, my ventured guess will be 2000 different apple varieties.
It feels so good to have begun using our 90 acres for agriculture. Thanks Joshua for spear heading such a great undertaking. In answer to your above question. I beleive it would be 1000.
I think there is about 1500.
Well, when I first read your post I thought 400 would surely be on the high side. But compared to everyone else’s guesses, maybe not. I’ll stick with something small, like 400. Make that 499, since Robert guessed 500, so that Ill be the closest if it is anything less.
Great guesses everyone. Daniel, you were the closest at 2000. The United States raises approx. 2500 different varieties of apples. However, small and commercial orchardists worldwide raise a whopping 7500 different types of apples. Now there’s some creativity and diversity! Imagine the apple pies and apple sauce that could be created with such variety. Yum, yum!
Wow! I heard the exciting news and saw your post, but taking the time to write a comment has been entirely out of the question these past two weeks. We’ll have a lot to talke about! Prov. 20:18