The Grounded Orchardist

The crop had set and was looking really good across the board. Nearly all Apples, Pears, Cherries, Quince and Apricots were set to have a really good year. Unfortunately the Plums, Mirabelles, Damsons, Peaches and Apricots in the main orchard all suffered too much frost damage…not to worry, its a chance to really get the trees back into shape allowing us to fleece them better next year.

I was on a training course at work and it all went dark, then came the rains, then my colleagues saying those awful words “oooh hail” and gosh did it hail. I just put my head in my hands. I mean you have a glimmer of hope that maybe you got away with it but you know for sure you didn’t. Its a little difficult to concentrate when you know the work you’ve put in has been pummeled. Also people think you’re just being dramatic….hail on your fruit crops can’t be that bad! The next day, after a couple of hours I braved going to look and assess the damage. It was worse than I thought and had literally blanketed our entire crop.

You would think after 8.5 years of fruit growing and having farmed top fruit on a very hail prone farm I would be used to it. Nope, it’s still gutting. In seconds your entire crop is decimated for that growing year. Your plans have to change. Its also very demoralising looking after terrible looking fruit for the rest of the season. You then have to try and shift it. On the farm we couldnt store..or sell at such short notice hundreds of tons of 2nd class fruit. We pressed our own juice but again, storage and then selling was a big problem with that amount out of the blue.

Its not just the fruitlets affected. The leaves are shredded too. Really not good for photosynthesis…afterall, hail pitted fruit still needs feeding! One problem faced in this orchard which I didn’t have in my agricultural orchard is now the guests are walking around looking at damaged, unsightly fruit and leaves.

So, what can be done about hail…not a lot is the short answer. Big growers will have hail netting above their trees which catch the hail which then rolls into the middle of the aisle between rows. This is the best idea I think but it’s costly and doesn’t look nice (if you’re farming, aesthetics are probably not an issue). On the farm I used to work on, we took out hail insurance…an absolute necessity. Apparently spraying copper used to be a solution but I’ve never done this…and in the UK you’re now not allowed.

So, after the initial shock. We’ll change the plan and carry on. They’ll be none of our fruit in the fruit bowls in the rooms but luckily we want lots of juice and we’re certainly going to get that this year. The Kitchens will still be able to use the fruit for certain things such as purees, as an ingredient etc. We’ll see what June drop leaves behind and move on.

So it’s not all bad, it makes me a little bit glad I’m not still farming as its devastating for those who rely on a good crop. However…its a rollercoaster, how rewarding fruit growing is when it all goes well!