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The FruitGuys Farm Steward Program

The FruitGuys Farm Steward Program sponsors projects that solve farms’ problems using sustainable methods. Contact us for more information at info@fruitguys.com.

Owl Boxes and Camera Donations

owl box

Owl box and owl camera installation at Kauffman’s Fruit Farm.

Kauffman’s Fruit Farm
Bird-In-Hand, PA
March 18th
12:30pm

To learn more about this project, please contact bridget@fruitguys.com.

If you're in Northern California, join us at E&M Farm, growers of sweet and delicious nectarines and peaches, in beautiful Vernalis, CA. Come help us install six owl boxes while you learn about the owls in the area and the important role they play in rodent control.

If you can join us on March 21st, or have questions or comments, email desiree@fruitguys.com.

E&M Farm
Mar 21st, 2010
12 noon – 3pm
Vernalis CA

Future FruitGuys Pears

A hearty contingent of FruitGuys (with friends and families in tow) went to Gabriel Farm in Sebastopol, CA in February 2009 to help farmer Torrey Olson plant new trees. Part Fresh-Air fund, part Farm Steward project, planting pear trees with Torrey was a great excuse to get out to the country and help a friend.

Torrey supplies the FruitGuys with a variety of delicious Asian pears for the West Coast fruit cases. He farms the thriving organic orchard with his wife Lucy and son Henry. And although there is currently no fruit to harvest, there is still work to be done. New trees always need to be planted: some trees succumb to blight on the leaves or critters gnawing their roots. In a full production orchard every spot is valuable and each row needs irrigation, pruning, and love. Mid-winter is the ideal time to plant seedlings since they are dormant.

Olympia Asian Pear seedlings were the trees Torrey chose to plant. Olympias make a large, round, crisp, and firm fruit. "Dan likes 'em," Torrey said of our FruitGuys fruit buyer. The baby trees were just a bare root ball with a three-foot stem and one or two branches. Big holes needed to be dug, and this is where FruitGuys visitors came in handy. Under Torrey's tutelage we all learned the drill: one to dig the hole, one to hold the seedling, one to hoe the dirt gently back in, one to get the compost, and one to tell the jokes.

Although there was great satisfaction in helping our friend plant 75 trees, there was no instant gratification. These new trees won't bear fruit until the 2012 harvest. An afternoon spent investing in future FruitGuys fruit was well worth it, and the kids got to romp in the grass and climb on the tractor too. The weather held up beautifully, and only when they sky turned grey and nimbostratus clouds gathered did Torrey cock an eyebrow with an eye to the northern sky and say, "rain's on the way, time to put away the tools."

Bat Boxes

On behalf of our vespertilian friends, in October 2008, The FruitGuys Farm Steward Program installed bat boxes at the historic Jelich Ranch in Portola Valley, Ca. FruitGuys Bridget Meigs and Dan Lemley built and painted two houses, and Skip Parody, the foreman at Jelich, installed them. Jelich Ranch grows the wonderful organic Bartlett Pears and some of the apples in our west coast crates.

jelich ranch bat boxes The goal of The FruitGuys Farm Steward Program is “to help the farmers we work with achieve sustainable farming practices,” says program manager Bridget Meigs. Supporting organic farmers benefits everyone from the grower to the customer. “Our farm steward program is one part of our approach to wellness that stretches from where and how things are grown to the people and communities we serve,” said FruitGuys CEO Chris Mittelstaedt.

Bats are important predators for insects that can harm fruit trees and the boxes on the Jelich property will provide additional roosts. Farmers Cindie and Phillip White and their staff have worked hard to maintain their historic ranch poised on the edge of the pacific coast wilds and the metropolis of Silicon Valley. Since buying the 100-year-old orchard from the Jelich family in 2000, the Whites have restored buildings and re-planted orchards. They installed water-saving drip irrigation and qualified for organic certification. They've also registered 12 of their 14 acres under the Williamson Act, a legal instrument for conserving agricultural land for future generations.

Preserving open space is key to conservation. So much habitat has been converted to housing that creatures like bats and owls need new homes to survive. Bats normally roost in hollows of old trees, or under bridges, or eaves. They prefer quiet caves or mines for hibernation—if they awake too soon they become too weak to breed.

bat The bats around Jelich ranch are probably Little Brown Bats, or Myotis lucifugus, one of the most common species in North America. The hope is that the new boxes will encourage the bats to stay, multiply, and vociferously eat mosquitoes and especially the Cottling Moth—a devastating pest to apple growers. The FruitGuys bat boxes were placed high on poles, near water, facing southeast for warm morning sun. Bridget and Dan carefully painted them black with non-toxic paint. Not just to be chic, but to absorb heat. The ideal bat condo is 85 degrees. It may take the bats a few seasons to decide to move into the new digs—but since the Little Browns live up to 34 years, they have time to shop around.

bat boxes Making a home for bats is a fun and rewarding project. There are many national and local organizations with information on how you could do it. The FruitGuys got kits from the Organization for Bat Conservation. The farmer and author Verlyn Klinkenborg writes about watching the bats near his house in upstate New York return home from their work just before dawn.

“Their flight is less erratic just before roosting, no longer distracted by an insect in the air. It’s as though each bat brings a scrap of night’s darkness home with it, leaving the sky pale and brightening. It’s as though night itself were being stored in the bat house till dusk.”

Honey Bee Hives

We launched our Farm Steward Program in April 2008, with a donation of four hives and 48,000 honey bees to Torrey Olsen's small organic farm in Sebastapol. Before we beegin buzzing about the bees, we wanted first to thank you for your business with us as your patronage allows us to make this donation to Gabriel Farm and support sustainable small family farming. Here is a video from that day, a detailed demonstration on How to Set Up a Bee Hive.

Click here for an article about our gift of honey bees in the Sonoma county Press Democrat.