This is going to be a tough article to write - not because I can't write to it, but rather where to stop!

I just got off the phone with Rich Eshleman. I have to apologize to anyone who tried calling in the customer service line. Allyson had to shut the door to her office. I'm a loud talker - perhaps shouter - and Rich is really hard of hearing. And his truck is loud, and he's older, and he holds his phone on speaker phone and physically moves it between his mouth and his ear, depending on if he is talking or listening. You know what I'm talking about.

Rich has been in the orchard business for a while. He graduated from OSU with a degree in horticulture and orchard management, and after working at a few orchards, eventually acquired his own land in Clyde, OH (near Sandusky). That was 1989, and today his orchard looks much different than it did then.

To understand some of the compare and contrast below, here are a few starters:

Orchard Maintenance - includes pruning the trees and staking the branches, thinning the trees (removing excess fruit), mowing, trimming, and managing pests

Harvest - is manual and requires a lot of labor

Grading - not all fruit is considered a #1. #1 fruit is the largest fruit and free of physical imperfections. #2 grade fruit might have scabbing, bug damage, or be misshaped.

Fruit is not produced on year 1. Orchards are a long term investment and the land is tied up for years on end.

Modern orchards are grown similar to a vineyard. There are posts driven at the end of long rows of trees. A high tensile steel fence wire is stretched from post to post and pulled tight. The trees are specifically selected for this type of setup - they are often "dwarf" varieties that are "grafted" to a root stock selected for the climate and soil types.

Root Stock - the root system selected for the apples. They are selected based on climate zone, soils, disease resistance, winter hardiness

Apple Variety - the variety - such as honeycrisp - is spliced onto the rootstock. This is called grafting.

The main stalk, or center lead stalk, is positioned up between the fence wire to hold it up. Cordons, or lateral side shoots/branches, are positioned along the wire as a trellis to support them. The lower branches are longer and the top branches shorter. As Rich says, the ideal tree is "shaped like a Christmas tree." It's fat at the bottom and narrow at the top. The reason is that most fruit bears at the bottom.

In this system, all maintenance - from pruning to thinning - can be done at ground level without ladders. It is much faster and safer.

Trees per acre: Modern VSP orchards have trees every 6 feet, and each row planted 12 feet on center. Each acre has 1,000 trees compared to 30.

The most visible benefit of VSP is that all the work can be done on the ground. It is faster, safer, and easier to harvest. But does the money add up? As Rich says to everything, "if you can find the help to get the work done..." the results speak for themselves.

Yield per acre. While each tree only yields 1 to 2 bushels on VSP compared to 20 to 30 bushels per tree on a traditional orchard, the density of trees makes up for it. With VSP, there are about 1,000 trees per acre - about 1,500 bushels - compared to 30 trees on a traditional orchard, about 900 bushels.

Time to Harvest. Further, a VSP orchard can be harvested on Year 2. Traditional orchards are planted and maintained for approximately a decade before harvest is achieved. 2 years vs 10 years.

In general, about 8 people can harvest an acre in a day. 1 experienced harvester can pick 100 bushels of apples; if they are large and heavy, up to 200 bushels in a day.

Grade Outs. Apples are graded based on color, size, and perfection. With VSP, more sun exposure is possible, improving the color and ripeness of the apple. Further, the plants can more easily be thinned, making for larger fruit. Lastly, monitoring pests and disease pressure is easier and faster to correct.

Rich is averaging 70% #1 fruit on his VSP. This is compared to 50% with a traditional orchard. The market for "cider apples" is less than it used to be, so the VSP matches the modern consumer demand.

And the weather. Rich is keen on waiting as long as possible to harvest. Sunny days and clear, cold nights make the best apples. The apples convert starch to sugars to prevent from freezing. Each variety has a different ideal time. For example, right now honeycrisp and gala are picking good; goldrush and melrose mature much later near snowfall.

Some varieties don't do great in Ohio. Red delicious, for example, blooms early. This means it is at risk of late spring freezes, which are much more common in Ohio than Washington state. In the last 50 years, consumer demand has shifted to pretty, easy eating apples. The red delicious was a game changer in the 1960s and its growing conditions allowed for Pacific Northwest growers to stand out and dominate the apple industry.

With VSP, as new varieties are available and root stock that is better adapted to our climate, the NEO grower is more easily able to adapt to changing consumer demands and keep a foot in the race, so to speak.

Here is a drawing Rich put together for me that explains a little more about how his orchard is planted.

There are plenty of "old wives' tales" in farming. For example, plant your peas on St. Patrick's Day - if the ground is workable.

One of them that David Yoder goes by is the moon schedule for planting and harvesting sweet potatoes. It is said to plant things that go underground - like sweet potatoes - when the moon is either not visible or at least waning away. That one is easy to remember for me - plant things that grow in the dark (like underground) when it is dark.

For harvest, David waits to harvest until after the Harvest Moon - this year, it was Sept 20. This is generally the last full moon before frost for us. There is a good chance we'll have frost by the next full moon.

This week as the moon is waning away, it is also a good time to harvest. For those informed about astrology, this also relates to the "elements." September is part of virgo - an earth element - in contrast to waiting until after the next full moon, which goes into scorpio - a water element. It is said that sweet potatoes harvested now keep longer than those later. From an astrology point of view, harvesting during a water element could mean the plant and root is wetter, resulting in a tuber that would rot.

Side Note: Size of sweet potatoes. David is packing 4# bags. That's really hard because sweet potatoes vary wildly in size. If he would grade out and sell only the perfect mediums, there is no way he could afford to grow sweet potatoes. We try to pack so that the range of potatoes isn't too different but be prepared for some larger and some smaller sweet potatoes.

Dean at Kuhweid has been busy putting up cheese this summer while the grass was green. Dean only produces cheese from 100% grassfed, certified organic jersey cows. The milk is rich in carotene and high in butterfat, producing a pronounced and buttery cheese.

Dean is a "retired" dairy farmer, and this is his retirement job. His family heritage is Swiss and he's the 27th cheesemaker in his family, going back centuries to Switzerland.

Describing cheeses can be difficult. Here is how I'd separate the 3 cheeses:

Sunshine - my favorite, is buttery and sharp, but with a balanced and nutty finish. This raw milk cheese is aged 180 days. (bottom center)

Luscious - A "raclette" style cheese intended for melting, either on a sandwich or for fondue and dipping foods like pickles, potatoes, and fruit in. (left)

Alpsturn - an "appenzeller" style cheese, dense with occasional "swiss style" holes. This cheese has a slight acidic ting to balance the creaminess of the firm flesh. The rind has been washed with white wine and nutmeg, adding a balanced earthiness note. (top center)

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