#apple trees

Apple Blossoms

Wilmarth Farm, Vermont

Fruit trees are fruiting!

All these trees I’ve grafted or rooted myself, starting with bare rootstock or a cutting. Many of these trees I’ve put on multiple varieties. Some have more than half a dozen or more different varieties on one tree!

Since we don’t own land, we grow our trees in containers. They all started out in 1 gallon pots and now most are in 15 gallon containers. I don’t plan on potting up further but we are hopeful we will plant many of these trees in the ground when we buy a place soon.

We’ve got apple, Asian pear, plum, nectarine, peach, grapefruit, mandarin, pineapple guava, fig, pomegranate and more.

No fruit yet on the cherry or European Pear trees. Maybe next year!

When I was little, I would look out my bedroom window every February/March and watch my dad prune all the apple trees in our yard. One by one, they would go from tall gangly, scragly trees to a stubby little plant that looked a bit like one of those funny metal wire back-scratchers, but upsidedown. The first year I watched him do this, I remember running out and asking why he was killing the trees… were they bad? 

‘No no no…’ he replied. 'Only if I cut them down will they be able to grow big and tall again and grow very good apples for us to eat.’

It still doesnt make complete sense to me… why fruit trees work that way. And I still hate to see the chopped-off apple trees every spring. I think they’re ugly. 

….and that’s how life feels right now. A bit ugly, and quite a bit hard. I had not really been able to figure out what was going on for the last few weeks… it felt like life was regressing. But today I read John 15, and suddenly it all made sense.

John 15 is the chapter in the Bible where Jesus is talking to his disciples about the Vine and the Branches. Now I’m from Washington - we have apple trees, in abundance. But Jesus lived in the middle east - where grapes, well, they’re 'the thing’ over there. And while I’ve never watched my dad pruning grape vines, the analogy still makes sense.

I won’t quote all of John 15 in this post, since you can read it right here: youversion

But basically, Jesus has to prune us. There are times in our lives where he wants us to move FORWARD, but before we can move forward and bear wonderful fruit, we have to be pruned. The lackluster 'branches’ of our lives have to be cut away so that only the good 'branches’ can continue to grow strong and healthy.

And good golly, it’s not a fun process.

In the last few weeks i’ve felt confused about friendships, i’ve felt my confidence slipping, i’ve made some weird choices and hung out with even weirder people, and all the while just kind of disliked what was going on in life. I felt discouraged and even angry at times. A couples times I asked God what was going on, but I never stuck around long enough for an answer, so I just stopped sticking around, since I was a bit mad at Him, too. But after John 15 today… it is kind of all making sense.

I’m being pruned.

And yes, pruning sucks. But, if you read past the pruning part, into the middle of John 15, there’s hope:

I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.

We get to have God’s joy! We are named as friends! We are no longer servants! These things are SO much better than being approved of by the world. In John 15:18-19, Jesus says the world will hate us because it hated him; when we are confused about how the world treats us, we have only to realize it treated him that way first, and it is because we are becoming like him that it treats us that way. 

And here’s the truth of the matter: I would rather be friends with God and have his joy than not go through pruning and only have fellow lost humans by my side. Hands down.

So with that revelation… I embrace the pruning and look forward to the JOY. :)

The goats and horses are now living their best lives in a clean and organic landscape. Apple trees are a foodscaping element the goats find especially pleasing. Project Name: “East Coast Style.” Landscape Design by Paul Hendershot Design, Inc. paulhendershotdesign.com

Paul Hendershot Design, Inc