Introducing myself to Scott's forum

Hi everyone, I’m new to the site today and am a land broker in eastern Washington state (apple country) after living in far northern California for 30 years. I’m studying ag science and trying to get to know more folks in farming and ranching in the Pacific Northwest. I was referred to this site by a fellow FB group member from ‘My job depends on ag’ and am excited to learn more about cold weather orchard tending and anything else I can about agriculture in general. I have only a small suburban garden myself but plan to expand into cherries and blueberries next season and the “dream” is a 20-100 acre farm in about 6 years.
I don’t use Facebook much but I am on Twitter and use it several times a week. twitter.com/jesseingels
Anybody else in eastern WA?

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Welcome Jesse, you’re in a good place here. There are a few folks on here from your neck of the woods, like @SpokanePeach, @quill, @NuttingBumpus, @seedy, and some others. Hope enjoy your time here, and like to hear how things are going wih your endeavors.

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Thanks @subdood_ky_z6b ! Looking forward to learning and getting to know my neighbors :slight_smile:

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Welcome Jesse. Lots of really nice people on this site. I live in Spokane and have a small backyard orchard with 6 peach trees an 2 apricots. Glad you joined!
Kevin.

I’ve been here a few weeks so I guess I’ll introduce myself.

I’m from southeastern Connecticut, married, and we have two kids (3 and 1).

I’m interested in gardening because of my grandfather’s influence on me. He grew up on a dairy farm and lived next door to it as an adult. His yard had 2 ~20 foot grape trellises, 4 (semi-dwarf?) apple trees, 4 pear trees, 2 peach trees, about 30 blueberry bushes, and a very large vegetable garden. His vegetable garden was so large that he couldn’t keep it all in the ~1/3 of an acre (out of his 1 acre lot) that he used for gardening. He owned a separate lot out back that was about a half acre and used it just to grow pumpkins, gourds, and tomatoes. He kept a produce stand in his yard and grew so many of the pumpkins and tomatoes that he’d fill up his F150 and, with the pumpkins, his trailer also and deliver them to a local garden center. He kept a heated greenhouse, two flocks of chickens (free range and non-free range), and rabbits. At one point he had a goat but it didn’t last very long. He was a total farmer. Some of my fondest memories growing up involved eating the sweet corn my uncle (who worked at the farm) would plant by putting a bunch of sweet corn seed from Agway in the bottom of the bin before filling the rest of the bin with cow corn seed. My grandfather’s neighbors included that farm (which was run by one of his brothers), two of his sisters, and across the street was one of his nephews. His older sister was also big into gardening. They had many of the same things, but also currants (red & black), gooseberries, raspberries (red & yellow), and were pretty adventurous and less “business like” than my grandfather was when it came to what varieties of fruits and vegetables they grew. That little 400+ acre area (and some of the surrounding woods) was an extended family compound of sorts and us grandkids had the run of the place.

I never really got into gardening until after I was out of college, after my grandfather had died. Right now the house is up for sale, and no one from my generation wants to work the dairy farm that’s next door. It’s hard work and with the way prices have been for a while you lose money doing it.

Ever since I joined this site I’ve been (pretty obsessively) searching back through the archives, trying to learn as much as I can. We somewhat recently purchased a house so I have a lot of things to get started with.

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Welcome!

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Welcome, Joe. Since you have used the word “obsessively”, I am confident that you will fit in here nicely. A bunch of us are obsessed with growing fruit.

@BobVance is in CT. Can’t remember who else in CT. @mrsg47 is in Newport, RI. Several people including myself are in MA and NY, all not too far from you.

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I’m in between Bob and MrsG, over by the casinos in CT. I’ve already leaned on @alan for advice on apples and pears. When I told him that Cummins lost all of their Harrow Sweet he generously offered me one of his from the order he placed at Adams, but I wound up calling Edible Landscaping and they expect to have Harrow Sweet either this fall or in the spring so I’m going to just get it from them rather than take a tree from Alan or his customers.

It’s good that there’s a lot of regulars in this region.

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Another nursery I like is Schlabach nursery in NY. They don’t do on line order and no website (Amish). You can call them and ask 8f they will offer HS next year and ask for a catalog. They offer a lot of good fruit tree varieties, good price and very honest folks.
(585) 798-6198 or 866 600-5203.

Thanks. I might check them out. I saw this information on a blog post that mentions them:

So if you are interested in any fruit bearing plants I suggest you send a note to Schlabach’s Nursery via snail mail and request their catalog. Don’t look up their phone number and call them up! That’s not how they do business. The owner told me that he’d prefer that people write and request a catalog. They do not have a phone room with operators standing by. They are a family with lots and lots of things going on. Please respect their wishes and request a catalog by mail and place your order by mail.

I called him because I wanted to make sure that he was okay with me posting this. They have a cover price on the catalog of $2.00. He did not specifically say that they charge $2.00 for the catalog so I’ll leave that up to you. Their mailing address is:

Schlabach’s Nursery
2784 Murdock Rd.
Medina, New York 14103

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I call in the winter, technically, off season. Leave a message and they will call you back. You can write to them ,too. I have written to them and included my phone number. They called me back. I have bought from them for several years now. I like them a lot,

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Levar

This is a long shot. I am based in London.

I am looking for the Balck Madeira KK ( cutting). If anyone can help!

Regards

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Go to ourfigs.com and ask if anyone in England has it or people in Europe. It is easier to get cuttings that way.

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FigBid is loosely related to OurFigs, it’s an auction site specializing in Figs. You can often find Black Madeira cuttings for sale there, however they are usually too expensive for my taste (and wallet!)

Thanks… I have come accross that site. There has been some chat about not authentic BMkk being sold on that site.

However thank you

Yeah, there is a lot of controversy whenever BM is mentioned. Unlike on eBay, the sellers are somewhat screened. You can always ask a question on the OurFigs forum if you have concerns.

Hi Jesse,
I took my moniker from a seedling apple of Duchess of Oldenburg - haven’t ever seen or tasted Nutting Bumpus yet. I keep apples, (Hunt Russet, Bardsey, Rambour Franc, Lamb Abbey Pearmain, Claygate Pearmain, GoldRush, Edelborsdorfer, Rosemary Russet, [Winekist & Redfield in neighbor yards] Connell, and just learned a mislabeled tree is Honeycrisp, which will probably be top-worked next season!) one pie cherry, thornless raspberry, black currants and two hops.

The adventure continues, with odd turns. Welcome!

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Hello.
I’ve always been interested in growing stuff and became fascinated with Permaculture several years ago.
I’m currently working to convert my high desert 17 acres into a food forest for humans, wildlife, and domestic animals.
Mark Shepard of New Forest Farm is my idol.
Curious, what was GW?
Happy to be here, Wayne.

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Garden Web. Welcome.

Welcome Wayne. I like your goal. My tiny lot is too small to be able to use much of permaculture but I like to incorporate what I can. I do make compost, have a worm bin, use AACT, and plant to draw in and support pollinators. I just added 3 raised beds for vegetables last summer. There are a few others here from AZ.