Birnbaum Liz - Fruit trees for every garden: an organic approach to growing apples, pears, peaches, plums, citrus, and more

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Some things take time, much like soil formation1 inch every 5001,000 years. And some things take time and are melded by multiple factors, much like the interplay of parent rock, climate, topography, vegetation and time in soil. And so it goes with both this book and this gardener. Acknowledgments at the intersection of time, place, and people

Time and place:

My decades spent living, learning, working, and teaching at the UCSC Farm & Garden formed the basis of this book. It is the sweetest spot.

People over time:

Foremost gratitude and respect to anyone who has ever worked at, or on behalf of, the UCSC Farm & Garden apprentice programsuch a cohort!

To the Rosetta stone, Alan Chadwick, master gardener, stage actor, and charismatic visionarythe man who planted seeds aplenty that in turn ushered in the organic gardening movement and catapulted it from nascent to the flourishing entity we now call sustainable organic agriculture. To his founding of the UCSC Farm & Garden on a steep and foreboding hillside.

To Steve Kafka and Pierre Ott, UCSC early farm managers, who took on a fledgling apprentice in 1974.

To Big Jim Nelson and Dennis Tamura, comrades in arms. In the early years at the Farm & Garden there was virtually no one to teach us. We had to figure it out ourselves, and so we did. Jim taught me trees and soils and Dennis taught us all two things: how one conducts oneself in the world, and how to grow quality crops.

To the more than 1,500 apprentice program grads, a.k.a. our agents of change. Such an exceptional cohort; they are my inspiration and I have profited immeasurably from our interactions.

And heres to modern-day visionary Daniel Press, associate dean of social sciences, professor of environmental studies, executive director of the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UCSC. Daniel is my boss and about as good a boss a person could ask for. Thank you for your stalwart support.

To Martha Brown, a special person in all regards, and her jogging partner Ann Lindsey. For over 30 years, Martha has taken my countless tattered, fragmented jottings on yellow legal pads and transformed them into impressive broadsides. She has also served as a lively conversationalist regarding all things sports, especially baseball. Much respect.

To some of the farmers with orchards who have allowed me to help them with their trees: the boss crows at 5th Crow Farm in Pescadero, CA: Mike Irving, Teresa Kurtak, and John Vars, the hardest working farmers on the central coast. Nancy Vail and Jered Lawson, owners of Pie Ranch, who bring social justice to farming and to farming with youth. Rich and Laura Everett of Everett Family Farm in Soquel, CARich with his Honeycrisp orchard and dedication to bringing back the Yellow Newtown Pippin, and Laura with her cider orchard and righteous brand, Soquel Cider.

To a special subset of the apprentices I have had the pleasure of instructing, many of whom are now my colleagues: Evan Domsic and Ella Fleming, my present-day sidekicks. Albie Miles and Christof Bernau, a couple of characters with character. Matthew Sutton, a true tree whisperer with good business sense to boot, someone who defines the term equanimity . Ryan Silsbee, a talented orchardist who is sweet, smooth, and skilled beyond his meager years. And his running mate, James Nakaharawell, just for being James, a brother. Aaron Delong, a man with a strong moral compass and an insatiable thirst for garden work, day in and day out, and a gifted writer. Doron Comechero: if any of us had half your energy, intelligence and wit, this world would be a far better place. Thank you for your dedication to youth in farming. Lyn Garling: flat-out the smartest woman on the planet, ergo the smartest person on the planet. Kirsten Yogg and Darryl Wong, managers of the UCSC Farm and the two most thoughtful farmers I have ever encountered. And last but definitely not leastin fact, dearest to my heartZoe Hitchner and Sky DeMuro, farmers, gardeners, talented flower growers, and charter members of the roving band of nomadic orchardists. How many trees have we pruned together, how many people have we taught to prune? True partners in grime.

A heartfelt thanks to all.

Thank you to Lisa Regul, Chloe Rawlins, Jane Chin, and all the talented and patient folks at Ten Speed Press; to Liz Birnbaum for your lens and eye; and to Kate McKean. Words written on yellow legal pads do not make a manuscript; for typing services, gratitude to Caroline Martin, Stephanie Martin, Manjula Martin, and Ella Fleming. Thank you to Samin Nosrat for your generous advice at a crucial time. Thank you, Alice Waters, for doing all you do, and in an intergenerational manner.

To my family: The kidsNiranjan, Manjula, Katie, and Caroline (now a flower farmer herself with Wild Moon Flowers). Heres to all the good times growing up, in, and at the Farm & Garden. It has been a pleasure to grow and pick good apples for you, for life is too short to eat lousy apples. And you are, of course, the apples of my eye.

And especially in this instance, gratitude to my eldest daughter, Manjula. She wrote me a promissory note as a birthday card in 2009 that said, This piece of paper entitles the holder to one (1) hand-tailored, expertly researched, savvily crafted book proposal. Courtesy of your eldest daughter. Manj, look what youve done! But without your persistent, yeoman-like, indomitable efforts, intelligence, and humor, there would be no book. And to Max Bell Alper for supporting Manjula, digging holes, and cooking for us during our writing intensivesa true gentle-man.

To my wife, Stephanie, a woman possessed of many attributes, including but not limited to intelligence, artistic capabilities, and a caring nature,

To whom I owe the leaping delight

That quickens my senses in our wakingtime

No peevish winter wind shall chill

No sullen tropic sun shall wither

The roses in the rose-garden which is ours and ours only

from A Dedication to My Wife, T. S. Eliot, 1958

Coda, or Go Forth and Ace It

Somewhere past the end of the growing season, approaching the years shortest day, day dreamin about the way things sometimes are, there are cherished quiet moments in the garden. One might get melancholy. But then there are reflections.

By a strange confluence of chance and choice, I have lived most of my life at the UCSC Farm & Garden where I teach. And I dont remember a time when I didnt know this place, this land. I know it intimately, and from a dirt gardeners perspective.

This farm and garden is a place where we have taken a stand, developed systems and strategies for growing and teaching, and, in many cases, made an attempt to pass those systems on to others for the betterment of the world. This work is successful, restorative, even progressive: we teach people to grow plants organically; the applications are many and varied. The effects are measurable, even palpable.

For 40 years, I have seen a cadre of young (and not so young), superintelligent, intrinsically motivated people come to the Farm & Garden. Their jeans are torn, no money in their pockets, but their hearts are huge. They learn the rudiments of organic farming and gardening, and they subsequently go out and change the world. For the better. They work in food systems from postage-stamp-sized to midsized farms and even the occasional large farmsections of wheat in Kansas (a section equals 1 square mile), large tracks of rice in the Sacramento Valleyto feed the world. Theyre teaching urban youth the value of food through programs like Pie Ranch and Food What?! in California; developing inmate training programs and rooftop gardens in Mexico City and Farm School NYC; helping preserve seed libraries in the heartland. The apples they grow can be found on the shelves of acclaimed markets like Bi-Rite in San Franciscoand also in pantries in towns youve probably never heard of. Basically, they connect the people who grow food with the people who consume food. These kids dare, and usually succeed, at endeavors I wouldnt and couldnt even dream of undertaking. I am, however, privileged to play a role, daily, in assisting them with their endeavors.