Yes, We Have No Bananas, But We’re Working on Pawpaws, Apples, Elderberries, Persimmons, and Nuts!

When we get surveys back from CSA members in the fall, a lot of them ask, “how can we get more fruit?” Apparently the famed Schenk pear tree is not quite enough to satisfy share members’ craving for locally grown fruit.

Well, thanks to Enright Eco-Village and CSA member Suellyn Shupe, in collaboration with Imago and the Civic Garden Center, there are plans underway to add orchard gardens in areas around the greenhouse and the Terry Street Community Garden that are not being used to raise vegetables.

Plans call for planting native fruit-bearing shrubs, fruit trees, and nut trees, and in a few years CSA members may be enjoying pawpaws, American persimmons, elderberries, hazelnuts, peaches, plums, and black currents. The CSA is an integral part of the Orchard Project; Charles will be the orchardist and CSA members will have the opportunity, along with the staff, to learn from Charles about the planting, care, and maintenance of the fruit and nut trees. And members are invited to participate in the preparations being made to plant the native species this April.

There is a three-year plan to guide the Orchard Project, with the following objectives:
1. To increase the availability of locally grown food and make locally grown fruit and nuts available starting with the 2014 growing season.
2. To experiment with a diversity of native and naturalized perennial food sources, to increase awareness of these sustainable food sources, and to begin to restore the health of the woodland habitat in the Imago preserve.
3. To prepare the areas, establish the trees, and carry out ongoing maintenance such as trellising, mulching, fertilizing, pest control, and pruning.
4. To collaborate with Imago to educate CSA members and community volunteers about planting, care, and maintenance of the tree crops in both the garden and the woodland setting.

Work has already begun on the project; two Saturdays ago, volunteers thinned the woods surrounding the rain garden at Imago to accommodate a pawpaw grove, with space for the persimmon trees.

Saturday, April 7, is the next planned workday, when preparations for the fruit trees will be completed and elderberry trees will be planted. Enright Ridge CSA members: you can record work hours for the 2012 season if you come out to help from 9:00 am to noon on Saturday, April 7 at Imago.