Here’s an indigenous fruit tree, a black hawthorn in bloom on the banks of the Shuswap River. And here’s an apple tree, a species brought by settlers 160 years ago. Both are […]
Indigenous Trees and Settler Trees
Everybody Needs a Friend
This Macintosh apple tree at Splatsin is struggling out of an infection of Horsehair Canker, with her nurses: two currant bushes (you can spot the one behind). It’s harder to spot the […]
One Hundred Years
A hundred years ago, it was the modern fashion in the US Okanogan to train two trunks from every apple root, at a narrow angle to each other. The practice died out […]
Hazelnut-Cherry Hybrid
So, this is what you do. Plant a cherry tree. Leave it or fifty years. Over time, it is fifty feet high, and her daughters have formed a grove, around her. They […]
Another Tree Triumph at Splatsin
This old apple tree was chopped back to stubs something around ten years ago, and then let grow out. When I came to her, she was so dense you couldn’t see through […]
Pruning Fun at Splatsin, or Keeping Safe
Ah, such fun. Here are Edna’s cherry trees at Splatsin, pruned so she can reach the fruit without a family giraffe. Sometimes, that’s what food sustainability means most of all. And her […]
Making Slow Apple Pies at Splatsin
At Splatsin, there are some apple trees that have been let go as a generation aged. I offered to help, and was, generously, trusted. Here’s what I think might be a Gravenstein […]
