Native Orcharding

Apple blossoms at Dark Hollow

THE WORK / NATIVE ORCHARDING

An orchard that looks like the place itself.

Perennial foods rooted in the ecology of the eastern landscape.

FIELD NOTE / ORCHARD

What can an orchard be?

At Dark Hollow, orcharding does not have to mean straight rows of a single fruit tree. Pawpaw grows in patches. Spicebush inhabits woodland edges and understory. Sassafras spreads through roots. Sumac occupies its own niches.

Perennial food can be cultivated within the character of the land rather than replacing it.

The orchard becomes less a shape imposed on the land and more a relationship discovered over time.

Pawpaw at Dark Hollow

pawpaw / a native fruit that already understands this place

Pawpaw at Dark Hollow

Spicebush berries at Dark Hollow

ORCHARD NOTE
Flavor is one way a landscape enters culture.

FROM THE ORCHARD

Spicebush, from plant to pantry.

Spicebush berries are gathered, dried, and ground into a fragrant native spice. The product is useful, but it also tells the larger story: a woodland shrub becoming food without the woodland first having to disappear.

Follow those native flavors from woodland edge to spice jar, then into the kitchen.

EXPLORE NATIVE SPICES →

SHOP ON ETSY →

Pawpaw at Dark Hollow

THE LONG VIEW

Perennial systems ask for patience.

Native orcharding brings together propagation, planting, grafting, harvest, preservation, cooking, ecology, and years of watching how plants respond to a particular place.

An orchard does not have to look like an orchard to feed people.

Goods Library / native orcharding

From This Practice

A changing selection from the Goods Library.

Black locust flower cluster

Black Locust Robinia pseudoacacia A spring-flowering tree whose fragrant blossoms are an abundant seasonal yield and important bee forage. The pods are wildlife food. Read field note

Black walnut leaves and nuts on a tree

Black Walnut Juglans nigra Black walnut is a native tree with long compound leaves, dark furrowed bark, and round nuts enclosed in thick green hulls. 1 product available Read field note

Large clusters of berries hang off of an American Elderberry shrub.

Elderberry Sambucus canadensis A native fruiting shrub offering both flowers and dark berries through the growing season. People enjoy making elderberry syrup from the juice of the berries. 1 product available Read field note

Mayapple Podophyllum peltatum Mayapple spreads by underground rhizomes, forming broad colonies across moist woodland floors. Read field note

Pawpaw

Pawpaw Asimina triloba A native understory fruit tree growing in patches at Dark Hollow, with a short and highly seasonal harvest window. 1 product available Read field note

Ramps Allium tricoccum Read field note

Sassfras

Sassafras Sassafras albidum Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) grows along the woodland edges at Dark Hollow, spreading through root suckers to form dense colonial thickets over time — the same… 1 product available Read field note

Spicebush

Spicebush Lindera benzoin Grows in the understory of the wooded areas at Dark Hollow and is being incorporated into more part-sun orcharding tests. 1 product available Read field note

Black locust trunk viewed from below

White Oak Quercus alba White oak is part of the native woodland and provides the bark used for the biodynamic oak bark preparation. Read field note

Wild black cherry field

Wild Black Cherry Prunus serotina A native canopy tree whose dark summer fruit is part of the productive woodland. About every 3-4 years, the yield on the Prunus Serotina trees around the farm is… 1 product available Read field note

Explore the Goods Library

FROM THE MARGIN

Let the ecology get a vote.

The goal is not to make the land resemble an orchard. It is to discover what an orchard can become when the existing ecology gets a vote.

BACK TO THE WORK →