@Plough 7/ Growing a New Creation involves properly coming to ground with it. One of the superpowers of tree crops, as such? They play a core role wedding us intimately to the Earth and one another, in the graced embrace of a profoundly convivial form of essence, permanency and delight.
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A long, beautiful day spent transplanting, mulching, watering, labeling and mapping a mix of 150 grafted European and Asian pears into secure land on Lopez Island with Jim Berkemeier. This, my first major establishment of material in the San Juan Islands, represents a highly-targeted selection reflecting almost a decade of experience moving among over 1,000 pear cultivars and the people who steward them. May they bless these islands. Today, I learn that Raven, a Waldron Island heirloom apple picked up by Chris Homanics, and in my scion stash, is unknown to the foremost botanist/geneticist and heirloom fruit geek of the Kwiaht Center for the Historical Ecology of the Salish Sea. Cause for celebration. The turn feels as a kind blessing. Placing these grafted pears into Lopez has been a rich and complex adventure involving the hands-on support of a great many wonderful folks. This is so very much a team effort. Thank you, everyone!
ASN’s large, extensive plantings of ‘future heirlooms’ cover CA, WA and OR. We also support the establishment of small but significant pockets of diversity at the homestead level. Today, our volunteers were busy in Elmira, OR. #agrariansharingnetwork youtu.be/WMzKLL6RCO8
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