Cem Akin - The Home Orchard Handbook: A Complete Guide to Growing Your Own Fruit Trees Anywhere

THE
HOME ORCHARD
HANDBOOK

A Complete Guide to Growing
Your Own Fruit Trees Anywhere

Cem Akin Leah Rottke

Text 2011 by Cem Akin and Leah Rottke

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owners. All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted by the producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with information supplied. We apologize for any inaccuracies that may have occurred and will resolve inaccurate or missing information in a subsequent reprinting of the book.

First published in the United States of America by
Quarry Books, a member of
Quayside Publishing Group
100 Cummings Center
Suite 406-L
Beverly, Massachusetts 01915-6101
Telephone: (978) 282-9590
Fax:(978) 283-2742 www.quarrybooks.com

Digital edition: 978-1-6106-0223-5
Softcover edition: 978-1-59253-712-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

ISBN-13: 978-1-59253-712-9

ISBN-10: 1-59253-712-X

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Design: Rachel Fitzgibbon, studio rkf

Chef Tal Ronnen recipes and photos are reprinted with permission from The Conscious Cook 2009 Tal Ronnen and Melcher Media

Printed in China

Cem

For those who sail the seas of life riding the winds of compassion for all living beings; in particular, mer and Meral Akin: parents, teachers, friends.

Leah

For my students; let your care of plants and trees be your privilege, and your joy.

The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation

This handbook was made possible through the collective experience of our award-winning nonprofit charity: The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF). With a strong belief that planting fruit trees is the most comprehensive strategy to creating healthy environments, FTPF programs alleviate world hunger, combat global warming, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water. Our orchards are strategically donated where the harvest best serves the public for generations, at places such as schools, low-income neighborhoods, city parks, community gardens, Native American reservations, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries.

FTPF collaborates with diverse communities and households across the globe, from the United States to Brazil to India to Kenya. Our programs mobilize local environmental efforts and inspire activists of all ages to get involved by putting trees in the ground. In our hunger relief programs, families are gifted with saplings and trained on how to care for the trees over time, providing a harvest year after year, rather than a food handout that can be depleted in a short time.

This book draws on FTPFs experience in the field, working under a wide range of conditions, to provide detailed instructions on how to create your own home orchard.

A portion of the proceeds from this handbook go to the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation in support of its groundbreaking mission to benefit the environment, human health, and animal welfareall at once by planting fruit trees for communities across the world. To learn more about this important work, please visit www.ftpf.org.

chapter one

FRUIT TREE 101

Imagine providing essential nutrition and oxygen by the tons to humans and animals; cleansing the air, water, and soil; creating vibrant ecosystems for birds and bees; empowering individuals to become healthy stewards of their environment; and inspiring them to spread that messageaddressing world hunger, global warming, and deforestation, all at once.

ONE MIGHT SPECULATE THE NEED FOR entire armies of environmentalists, health crusaders, and animal welfare activists to accomplish this. Yet, there is a singular strategy that can kick-start the heart of this process all on its owna global catalyst for a healthy planet, if we all act together, perfectly utilizing physics, chemistry, and the symbiotic means offered by Mother Nature to nourish the world and all its inhabitants. Best of all, it is a simple, grounding, long-lasting, Earth-connecting strategy that is part of a most enjoyable journey and rewarding destination: Plant a fruit tree, care for it, encourage everyone you know to do the same, and pass on the legacy.

Simply put, trees heal the planet, from filtering air pollutants to recharging groundwater to creating healthy microcosms in the soil. And it doesnt stop there. If that tree is a fruit tree, harvest abounds for decades, sometimes centuries, improving health for generations. Excess harvests may be donated to local food banks or given to neighbors, promoting sustainability by displacing many environmental hazards associated with the mass commercial production, transportation, and packaging of most food sold in todays markets.

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is now.

CHINESE PROVERB

Plums ready for harvest

In the backyard, home orchards serve as a place to forge deep connections with family, friends, and nature. In the community, planting and maintaining fruit trees can be a truly holistic, tangible solution to many of the worlds critical problems.

Fruit trees play an important role in the history of Earth. Many wild varieties have been around for millions of years in various forms. Fossilized remnants from the olives ancestor date back 20 million years.

And perhaps the most fruitful symbiotic relationship ever between plant and animal goes back 80 million years, when fig wasps became the exclusive pollinators of fig treesa relationship that exists to this day.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2001. Human Vitamin and Mineral Requirements. Report of a joint FAO/WHO expert consultation (Bangkok, Thailand).

Therios, I. 2009. Olives.(Biddles Ltd.: UK).

Juniper, B. E. and D. J. Mabberley. 2006. The Story of the Apple. (Timber Press, Inc.: Portland, Ore.).

Machado, C., et al. 2005 May 3. Critical review of host specificity and its coevolutionary implications in the fig/fig-wasp mutualism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Kislev, M., et al. 2006 Jun 2. Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley. Science. 312:5778.

Fruit trees originated in the wild, ages ago.

Ancient Orchard Poetry

In one of the earliest recorded descriptions of a home orchard, thousands of years ago, Greek poet Homer wrote:

Close to the gates a spacious garden lies,