It’s a busy time at the farm. A couple crew members have been trudging through the woods removing taps from the maple trees for half a day and then pruning raspberries for the other half. Another crew member has been prepping fences for the new batch of incoming cattle, making spring repairs to equipment, getting ground ready for planting and ordering supplies for the growing season. The rest of the crew has been pitching in on whatever project is most pressing at the moment … right now, mostly pruning. Another crew member has finished up the apple tree pruning and moved on to the blueberry patch to prune.
This makes it sound like we have a lot of employees. We don’t. We have just the two of us partners, some family volunteers when an hour or two presents itself to help us out and one hired outside worker. It’s a lot and it’s a grind, and we older folks are feeling the grind. We have UNH Cooperative Extension advisors looking at our business with us with a finer toothed comb and an outsider’s eye, trying to guide us through some decisions on how to lighten the workload, prune out any enterprises that aren’t as financially prudent as others, finding areas for improvement and growth while also giving us a little break.
Pruning is a task that takes a tremendous amount of time and labor. For anyone with backyard raspberries, blueberries or fruit trees, you know just how long it takes to take out the dead tissue, step back and assess the bush or tree as a whole and how a cut or a snip will affect things to prune back any weak or diseased plants and leave the strong canes, bushes and branches to produce the most fruit.
I seem to get weary earlier in the day than I did in years past and take a lot more frequent breaks in the action. This doesn’t help shorten the process in any way, and the days seem shorter and seem to click by faster than ever, just as my elderly mother warned me when I was younger and had more energy. Leaving steady and reliable incomes and insurance is not an option for the younger generation, leaving the bulk of the workload with us elders, as hiring is not a financially viable option even if we could find more help. Because of this, we are looking to simplify the farm to leave room for growth where things are strong and prune out the things that just drain energy and finances.
We made a conscious decision when we came back to the family farm to diversify so that we had something going on in every season. This is what helped to grow us where we are today, but it made for no “down time” from the workload. It’s time to prune. The great thing about pruning is the “PPG” promise of “Pruning Promotes Growth.” I am working in the blueberries currently, pruning out a lot of plants that have been weakened and become unproductive because of the disease caused and the stress placed on the plants by the fungus as it parasitizes the host plant. We tried a much more conservative approach last year, trying to just remove obviously diseased tissue, with limited success. We realized that leaving as many plants as we had cut down on air circulation, letting the fungus spores thrive in the humidity of summer. Perhaps if we had pruned out more, the patch would be thriving instead of limping in a couple of rows. The good news is there is a lot of new growth coming, and an opportunity to plant a few new plants of a variety resistant to this particular fungus. Seeing the new growth and the selling buds with lots of potential hidden within is a blessing and a promise in itself.
We are hoping for the same with the farm. By stepping back and assessing the farm as a whole, looking for those hidden buds with bigger potential, perhaps making a snip here or a cut there and strengthening the business as a whole, we can allow better workflow and let the business grow stronger … and allow us more time to relax and play. Pruning promotes growth and leaves room for the best use of the sunshine, showers and airflow … just as we wish for the farm.
