Local Fruit (and more local than you think!)

Brian Olszak

Casually leafing through my copy of The Holistic Orchard by Michael Phillips on a Saturday night (because that’s what Master Gardeners do, of course!), in the section on pears I came upon a particularly interesting find. While European pears, naturally, have found their way to the States from Europe, some pears are found in the wilds of America and cultivated for larger distribution. One of which is the Tyson pear, which was discovered in 1794 in a hedgerow on Jonathan Tyson’s farm in Jenkintown, just north of Philadelphia! This is particularly thrilling for me, having grown up not too far away from this location, in Willow Grove.

A quote on Tyson pears from the preeminent source of American pear knowledge, The Pears of New York, written by Ulysses Prentiss Hendrick in 1921:

An illustration of the pear in question from The Pears of New York

The tree is the most nearly perfect of that of any pear grown in America…. The tree is certainly as hardy as that of any other variety, if not hardier, and resists better than that of any other sort the black scourge of blight. Add to these notable characters large size, great vigor, and fruitfulness, and it is seen that the trees are nearly flawless. (p. 223)

That “black scourge of blight” he’s talking about is none other than fire blight, a particularly destructive bacterial infection to which apples, pears, and even crab apples are quite susceptible to varying degrees, depending on the cultivar. Affected parts of the tree take on a blackened, “burned” look to them, which can spread quickly.

The rub, then, is finding this supposedly delectable pear. After about an hour online research, I could only find two orchard/nurseries that still carry or have recently been known to carry Tyson pears--these are Fedco Seeds and St. Lawrence Nurseries. A lauded and seemingly popular variety in the early 20th century, the economics of large-scale fruit and agricultural production has shifted Tyson pears and many other heirloom varieties into near obscurity, but specialty fruit breeders and nurserymen still carry on the tradition--it's just a matter of finding them! Sometimes it's knowing someone who knows someone else who knows an upstanding nurseryman, but Penn State has a good list of nursery sources for fruit trees, including nurseries that specialize in heirloom varieties, here.  The search goes continues, then.

Everbearing Raspberries

Heritage Everbearing Raspberries

Sandy Grimwade

If you want a long season of delicious home-grown raspberries, you cannot do better than to plant a few canes of an everbearing variety. They will produce a large early crop on the previous year’s growth at the end of June, then start producing berries on current year growth in August and carry on until frost. Last year we had a few fresh raspberries on November 14th!

Heritage is a great variety that grows well in the Philadelphia area, but there are others that may do just as well. The canes don’t grow more than 4 – 5 feet tall and require minimal staking. A few years ago I planted 6 canes and now I have a “hedge” of raspberry canes about a foot wide and 8 feet long.

Everbearing raspberries require a slightly acidic, fertile soil, so they do well in this area. They also need good drainage. I grow mine in a slightly raised bed. Make sure they will get lots of sun, which encourages larger and sweeter fruit.  The best time to plant is in spring and the plants are not very expensive (about $24 for 6 bare-root plants).

Cultivation is quite simple. Books and articles about growing raspberries are full of jargon and make it sound complicated. Please do not be intimidated. In the spring, dozens of small shoots come up from below the ground. I thin out the weaker shoots and remove any that are outside the growing area – they sometimes appear a long way from the original plants. These fresh green canes will grow during the year and bear fruit at the tips from August onwards. The following year the bark on these canes will turn brown, and they will bear fruit along their whole length in clusters in late June. After they have fruited, cut them down to the ground to make room for current year’s new canes. It is easy to tell which canes should be left to grow and which should be cut down, as they are color-coded. “If it is brown, cut it down”.

I have had no disease problems with these raspberries, unlike some other varieties. The only problem has been catbirds, who seem to like the June crop of berries as much as I do.