Saturday, 16 October 2010
Today we visited an Apple Orchard.
We made a return visit to Apple Jack Orchards after a five-year absence. Yes, yes, I realize it is an hour away from our house, but we knew we’d have a good time there.
See, we first visited there in 2004, looking for an orchard near our home in Big Lake. We returned there in 2005, with a four-month old son, and took his picture amidst the pumpkins and fall leaves.
The next few years, we searched out other orchards, just for a change of pace. Living in St. Paul, we tried some that were closer, including last year, when we went to Aamodt’s Apple Farm, possibly the lamest orchard I’d ever visited.
A couple of weeks ago, Jennifer said: “I want to go back to that orchard where we went when Owen was a little baby. Which one was that?” Well, it wasn’t hard to figure out – we just had to open up the photo album and look at the picture of baby Owen sitting by the Orchard’s sign.
Here’s the problem, though: I hate traffic, I hate long drives, and I hate crowds. So…I didn’t want to go mid-week (too much traffic), and I was worried about the weekend (crowds!). But Saturday won out.
Well, we didn’t really have a good time. I mean, yes, there was plenty to do, but there were too many people, it was windy, you couldn’t pick the apples (due to an early frost last spring), and we showed up with exactly $2 in cash. Worst, Isla was cranky the whole time. Jennifer finally got her to calm down in the moby, and then we boarded a big wagon for a tractor ride. As soon as the tractor started going, Isla started screaming. This was totally unexpected because she’s almost never like this, particularly early in the day. Jennifer could do nothing to calm her down. I offered to take Isla, but Jennifer pointed out that Isla “doesn’t like me as much.” Later she explained that she didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but she was exasperated. Then Owen said something like “Maybe she just wants to flop down to your boob.” Which – bravo to Owen – was precisely what she wanted, but sitting knee-to-knee with a bunch of strangers on a rocky wagon isn’t really the best time to accommodate the baby. His comment made everyone laugh nervously, so that drew even more attention to our train wreck of a day.
Isla cried for most of the way home. There was traffic on 394 (is there ever not?). This evening, we discovered Isla has a hives-like rash on her cheeks and chin. Jennifer has a corresponding rash about an inch down from her neck – right where Isla was snuggled for most of the day.
So, yeah…just gonna go ahead and put this day behind me.
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Owen’s been very concerned with the Lego Imagination Center at the Mall of America. They closed up shop over a month ago. When we first saw this, we were both somewhat distraught. Alas, a quick check online revealed that a smaller, temporary store had opened at the other end of the Mall, and that a bigger, stronger, store would be opening later in the year. I saw advertised on the store’s walls that they will be giving out Lego prizes to people who come on opening day. Needless to say, Owen is very concerned that we make it there on opening day.
Well, this morning he asked me to check online again to see if opening day has been announced yet. It hasn’t – ETA is late November. However, the good folks at Lego said they’d be building two murals for the new store today and everyone was invited to come help.
So, after having lunch with my sister, brother-in-law, and dad (yep, he’s back in town again…long story), we sped on over to the Mall of Hysteria and located the Lego booth. Owen was handed a 6×6 flat piece with a number printed on the back and a color-coding on the front. We then went over to a table featuring ~20 buckets of variously colored 1×1 bricks. Owen had to assemble the correct bricks onto his flat piece.
There were two murals, incidentally. One looked to be a Minnesotan landscape, featuring hills and a lake. That mural was over 99% completed by the time we arrived. The other, smaller mural was of a moose. Or, at least, we were told that it would be a moose; it was only about 20% done when were were there.
When Owen finished, he took his piece (#107)over to the moose mural, handed it to a giant of a man (the guy was at least 6 foot 7). That man took the piece, fitted it into the corresponding slot – 5 rows down and 11 columns across. After pushing it on with his hands, he wielded a rubber mallet and secured it into place.
So, if you happen to pass by the Lego Imagination Center at the Mall of America sometime in December or afterwards, find the moose mural, count down 5 rows of 6, and count over 11 rows of 6. Owen made that piece.
Yeah, we were all set to switch to a new orchard this year, but every one my wife called on this end of town didn’t have apples for us to pick (same reason you gave). So we also drove almost an hour away this year.
I was looking for an organic apple orchard, but I couldn’t find one. Apple Jacks is a member of the Food Alliance and practices sustainable farming. So, I am not sure if they use pesticides, but it looks like they try not to, or something. And I had fond memories of Apple Jack’s when we went when Owen was a baby. But pretty much I hate crowds more than traffic, so next year we will go during the week and I will drive.
sustainable farming > organic
Oh, okay. I didn’t read anything that came right out and said that, and it isn’t certified organic so I wasn’t sure, but thought it was our best bet.
Jennifer,
Just to be clear, that was a “greater than” sign and is just an opinion (worse yet, my opinion).
The two problems I have with organic are that (one) it’s an ideology based on the naturalistic fallacy and (two) it has become a government branded certification which is open to every sort of circumnavigation you always get with government. The certification standards are also influenced by lobby groups which only serves to weaken them.
Sustainable farming has no legally recognized meaning (as far as I know) which means anyone can slap it on a label, but non-government, non-profit groups like the Food Alliance that you mentioned act as certifying agencies. So having their certification has more meaning, in my opinion.
Sustainable farming is logic and evidence based, however, there are certainly areas of overlap between it and organic farming. You can find out more about the differences from the many articles on the web that break it down as well as their respective Wikipedia articles.
It may be that the philosophy behind organic farming is more closely aligned with your own principles (or family needs), but I do think that much of what would appeal to you about organic farming can be found in sustainable farming.
David,
Sorry, I don’t read shorthand, so I just read it is an ‘equal to’ symbol.
What I am looking for is the absence of chemicals on my food. I don’t need that to be specifically certified organic, I just want food free of pesticides. I also want animal products that come from a farm that was half way decent to their animals, and that is more likely with organic or natural foods.
Thanks for the info on sustainable farming.
The comments here got me wondering why there doesn’t seem to be any you-pick orchards that are listed as “organic” or pesticide-free in Minnesota. I have found some that are in California, but not here.
So I emailed one of the California orchards and asked them how they do it. This was the reply:
“Thanks for your interest. We try to use certified organic substances that you hang in the trees. They put out pheromones to distract the coddling moths from laying eggs in the flowers to develop into worms that eat the seeds and drill a hole out the apple. Unfortunately, although we have tried 4 different kinds, they do not work that well and we do get holes in the apples. However, they still taste good and you can cut the holes out or eat around them. People still enjoy picking them themselves and they taste much better than apples from the store that are full of water and are picked too early.”
So this got me wondering — are there more challenges to growing apples in Minnesota that make this approach unfeasible? Is there no market in Minnesota for spotty apples?
So I emailed Jeff Gillman and asked him. He wrote in reply:
“Yes, it is much easier to grow pesticide free apples in CA — it’s because they can grow these apples in places where apples don’t normally grow and so there is less of a “Pest bank” from which insects and fungus can attack the fruit. I believe that it is possible to pesticide free anywhere (you could bag all your apples for example) — but the cost would be so high as to be prohibitive.”
While I had him on the line (so to speak), I asked him about the general situation with Minnesota’s orchards. On this he wrote:
“Most orchards try to minimize spraying, but I don’t know of any in Minnesota that are able to completely do away with them. There are just too many apple pests waiting to attack trees and apples, and consumers are too demanding of a perfect product. Fortunately most apple sprays are “front loaded” which is to say that most spraying goes on early in the season.”
That was good to hear, but also a little unsatisfying with words like “most” and “try” peppered throughout.
So I wrote to about a dozen orchards asking them for specifics. So far I’ve received two replies. Both simply said they use IPM (integrated pest management). That isn’t very informative since IPM practices span a large spectrum so I’ve replied to both orchards asking for more details. We’ll see.
I did find a good general source on IPM, though, and that is the IPM handbook for apple growing in Minnesota. (http://www.mda.state.mn.us/plants/pestmanagement/ipm/apple-manual.aspx)
Anyway, I have yet to find a standout orchard with respect to “absence of chemicals on my food” and “food free of pesticides”. While I wait for more replies to come in from the orchards, I’m going to turn my attention to evaluating the risks. My latest email to Dr. Gillman asks for the skinny on “organic” vs. synthetic pesticides for MN orchards. I’ll keep you posted.
David,
Thanks for your extensive reconnaissance! I always appreciate how you are able to take just about any topic and research the hell out of it. I am like that with only a precious few topics.
I think Gillman nailed it when he said customers want perfect-looking produce. Clearly the apple tree can grow and reproduce in Minnesota, and I would bet that it can do so without any ‘help’ at all from humans. But people want that perfect look to things. But while Gillman blames the consumer, I’d blame the advertiser.
Interesting. On the Dr. Oz show he said to try to avoid apples with pesticides, not so much because they are worse than other fruit, but because we eat so many of them. They are finding that pesticides are pretty bad for people and do all sorts of things to our body when we consume them. I ended up not buying any eating apples, just cooking apples, so I will peel them which should minimize exposure.
James,
I’m not sure that is necessarily the case.
First, the apples that we eat are not native to Minnesota (or North America for that matter). The apples that grow here naturally are small, hard, and bitter crab apples. The big, juicy, sweet and tart apples that we eat and cook with were brought here by the Europeans. Further, when they brought them here, the trees didn’t do well. The Europeans ended up having to bring over their own pollinators — bees.
Then you have to consider that the varieties commonly grown here have been developed recently, in a culture of pesticides. So you really don’t have this history of these trees growing naturally. And the result is a tree and its fruit that really do depend on human intervention.
I was able to find a grower in Minnesota that doesn’t use pesticides (although he does use fertilizers). Here’s what he had to say:
“Frankly, if I were to plan this farm today, despite my personal love for apples, I would not seriously consider planting apples because of the intensive care they require […] they do reasonably well occasionally,” and, “When we have reasonably good apples, we allow most guests to pick their own..”
So only “occasionally” do they have “reasonably good apples.” And that’s with “intensive care.”
The more I read about them, the more I see that it is not clear that apple trees would do just fine on their own. To me they look more like a domesticated farm animal or pet that would die within a few days of leaving human care.
Lego store Grand Re-Opening is December 4th.
David,
I’m glad you posted here again, as I forgot to respond to your 28October post. Your info on the apple also reminded me of the David Feldman book “When did Wild Poodles Roam the Earth?” The obvious answer, as with good-looking American apples is: they didn’t.
Oh – and thanks for the Lego store reminder. My son asked me again yesterday, and I said, “I think in 3 weeks.” Looks like it’s 4 weeks. I’ll just hope he doesn’t keep track that closely.