What if there was a way you could save money and at the same time provide family entertainment as well as adding to your family’s food supply. Four years ago we started planting our own small orchard that includes peach, apple and cherry trees. We knew that it would take a few years before the trees would produce, but we were lucky to already have a few mature apple trees already on the property to provide fresh fruit until the new tree’s were ready to produce. We have been able to enjoy savings at the grocery store, lots of family fun, and many delicious treats.
We purchased our tree’s from Stark Bro’s in Louisiana MO. Since we were purchasing more than 30 tree’s we were able to open a wholesale account and buy them at a deeply discounted rate. I remember when they first arrived, it was like opening a Christmas present. We were so excited to get our trees so our little orchard could grow toward a future of home grown fruit. What is great about growing fruit is you can put it in rougher spots on the farm that are not ideal for growing vegetables or crops. Apples will grow good on sloped ground as they will on flat ground, if not maybe a little better on the slopes because excess moisture will not pond. Even just a bare 1/2 acre can be home to up to 50 trees pretty easy.
No conversation about apples is going to be complete without a mention of America Apple Pie. We’ve tried many apple pie recipes and I have never really found one I didn’t like but here is one of my favorites from County Living Magazine that we really like alot and have made over and over. The most important part to me is the family aspect of growing apples. We get to pick them together, process them together, and eat them together. Making apple pie with a little helper in the kitchen is fun but keeping Ty from eating the apples before they get into the pie was an impossibility this year. His favorite, sticking his hands into the bowl of apples and mixing them up with the spices. No different than you can find frozen pies in the store we make a bunch of pies and freeze them for later use. To me, few things say fall then to walk in the house from a crisp autumn day to the smell of an apple pie baking in the oven. Best of all it’s good family fun, it’s cheap, and apples are nutritious.
Apple pie might be one of the most recognizable use of apples but there are many other uses. There are fresh apples, they keep well and there are many ways to preserve them. Apple sauce is another favorite at our house, I know where the apples came from and I know what went into them. Like many moms today, I am concerned with my children’s sugar intake. Our kids love apple sauce but many commercial made apple sauce contains added sugar. By making homemade food I am able control the ingredients that go in. Apples are great in salads, work in many different crafts or home decoratives, make a nice treat for the neighbors, leftovers provide food for livestock, birds and wildlife and the list goes on and on. Here are a few uses of apples that you may never have heard of including a remedy for migraine headaches.
You may also find an upside in growing your own fruit if you spend a few weekends at local farmers markets to sell some of your fruit, or potentially filling contracts with local markets for some of your produce. Locally grown foods are becoming more and more important to some consumers today and you can help fill that gap. Get started on your orchard today no matter how big or small you’ll find many benefits in growing your own fruit.