A few acres,
and the time to know them.

Lopez Island sits at the southern edge of the San Juan archipelago, in the rain shadow of the Olympic mountains. The summers are long and dry; the winters mild and wet. It is, as the old growers say, apple country.

Our orchard is small — small enough to walk in an afternoon, to prune by hand, to know each tree by its quirks. Some came with the land. Others we planted ourselves, hoping to be around long enough to taste the fruit.

We grow without synthetic sprays. We mow the understory once or twice a year and otherwise let it be — clover, yarrow, the occasional thistle. The bees are happier for it, and so are we.

Pruning happens in late winter, when the trees are sleeping and the shape of each branch is clear against the sky. Harvest stretches from the first plums of August to the last keepers in November.