Asheville's Vance Elemetary students help Professor Barkslip water muscadines grapes they donated at the Edible Park.
Where this year's fruit schools take place:
Hendersonville,NC- March 10, 11, 24, 25
In Conjunction with:
Transition Hendersonville and the Bullington Center.
Bullington Center 33 Upper Red Oak Trail, Hendersonville NC 28792
Info and checks to:
Bill Whipple
70 Alabama Ave
Asheville, NC 28806
828 713 2424
Durham, NC-
March 17 & 18
Contact info:
Bountiful Backyards
P.O. Box 1307
Durham, NC 27702
919.619.9862
Union, WVa
April 28, 29
Contact info:
Bill Whipple
70 Alabama Ave
Asheville, NC 28806
828 713 2424
Advanced Fruit school
Asheville, NC
March 31 & April Fool's Day
Union, Wva.
April 6,7,8
Info and checks to:
Bill Whipple
70 Alabama Ave
Asheville, NC 28806
828 713 2424
Dress warm
Bench grafting apple trees
"Sticking" cuttings
Top working a crab apple with all manner of apple varieties
Tapping maple tree at Isaac Dixon School
Stool foolery
Ship o' Fools
Hand is holding 2nd year wood. The bulge is collor or "knuckle" and then last year's wood.
Ziplock baggie, well squeezed out damp paper, and prized one of a kind scion wood well marked. Put these in the fridge where they wont freeze.
Barkslip’s University of Diversity
“Making a World of Difference”
New Classes this year:
Advanced Fruit School (prerequisite of previous fruit school attendance or likewise experience required)
(see descriptions below)
Cost of Fruit school classes:
Early Bird: payment due by February 10th
40.00/ class
140.00 series
Late Bird: payment after February 10th
45.00/ class
160.00/ series
Times of Hendersonville classes:
Classes will run from 10:00AM - 3:00PM (with a lunch break) Please arrive between 9:30 and 9:45 so we can start promptly @9:00.
Lunch and what else to bring:
Please bring a bag lunch with you so we can eat together. A large part of Fruit school is fellowship with other enthusiasts. We can talk about a fruit club. Not to mention saving gas.
Bring hand pruners and appropriate clothes for the weather as we will be outside for some of the programs. If you like bring scionwood,seeds, and cuttings to share as well.
THE CLASSES
What: Fruit tree care and pruning workshop (for the home, farm, and public space)
When: Saturday, March 10th from 10:00-3:00 (and on)
Where: Bullington Center, Hendersonville, NC
This class will be half talk and half walk. I will take you through site analysis and selection, proper tree selection, orchard floor prep and care, as well as, caring for the established orchard . Like all the classes at fruit school, emphasis will be on using organic methods. There will be plenty of anecdotes about antidotes. Bring your favorite pruners and saws for the hands on portion of the class, as well as, appropriate outdoor clothing for comfort. There is a lot to cover and chances are this class will run over time. Try to allow for staying longer.
What: Bench Grafting and cloning around!
When: Sunday, March 11th from 10:00-3:00
Where: Bullington Center, Hendersonville
Two things I like to do most in the world is chasing after bee swarms, and grafting fruit trees. Learn to graft your own fruit trees! This is nothing short of magical when you learn to stick a branch of one tree onto another and it grows. Granted, it harks a little of Dr Frankenstein, but you wont need a big scary castle to resurrect a favorite tree from Grandma’s yard, or a favorite cider tree selection. Just a ‘bench’ and the comfort of working indoors for this, the civilized way of grafting, is all that is needed. Discussed and illustrated will be the whip and tongue, and the cleft grafts, rootstock varieties, seedlings versus clones, and aftercare. Included in the price is one rootstock, choice of several varieties of budwood, and aftercare materials. I will have plenty of rootstock for sale to do multiple grafts if desired. I encourage people to bring their own varieties of pear and apple tree cuttings to graft or to swap and share with other participants. (See below for proper budwood (scion) harvesting and storage.) Seeing as a young, healthy, organic fruit tree costs 30.00 this class nearly pays for itself with one graft.
What: A Plethora of plant propagation possibilities:
When: Sunday, March 24th, from 10:00- 3:00
Where: Bullington Center, Hendersonville
(Special: child (10-15 yrs) half price with paid adult)
Plants want to proliferate and for you to eat their juicy fruit. Fruit is one of nature’s favorite marketing techniques and this is one marketing scheme worth falling for! There are many natural ways to encourage them to do so with materials you can salvage. This class emphasizes low tech, organic methods of plant production though seeds, layering, rooting, stooling, and division. This is by far the easiest and cheapest way to bring the nutritional abundance of plants into your life. Great activity ideas for kids as well!
What: Top working and advanced grafting (Have your flower and eat it too!)
When: Saturday, March 25th from 10:00- 3:00
Where: Bullington Center, Hendersonville
Previous bench grafting class is a prerequisite for this class
10,000 varieties of apples, 1000's of pears, 100's of cherries, 10's of persimmons, a couple of medlars and oh, so little time! How in the World are we ever going to find the space to try every fruit on earth?... to experiment with local adaptability?....or just make use of those smelly ornamentals? Easy. Learn to top work! I will hurl you headlong into the world of top working countless varieties onto existing trees. Within 3 years you can have a barren ornamental tree in production with 40 varieties! We’ll learn about compatibility, timing, and the world of countless grafting techniques including chip and T- budding, side grafting, rind graft... We’ll touch on festooning and arborsmithing as well. Also emphasized, is the essential after care of the top worked tree. I guarantee you will look at the Bradford pear with a new found reverence!
2012 New Offering!
Advanced Fruit School
For those seeking their PhD in fruit
This special 2 day session of fruit school is exclusively offered to graduates of fruit school or people who have accumulated proficiency and practical experience in horticulture especially around fruits and nuts.
With the elementals behind us, cumulatively we can explore the leading edge of fruit and nut culture. All the while we will be developing a cooperative roundtable learning environment that appreciates all that want to contribute. Topics will be lead by Professor Barkslip, but open participation and discussion of information will be encouraged. There will be some hands on instruction and a field trip to Barkslip's nursery will be offered.
It is not what the world holds for us... rather, it is what we bring to the world. - Anne of Green Gables
Cost of Advanced Fruit school classes:
Early Bird: payment due by March 1st
50.00/ day
80.00 series
Late Bird: payment after March 1st
60.00/ day
100.00/ series
Time of classes:
Classes will run from 10:00AM - 5:00PM (with a lunch break) Please arrive between 9:30 and 9:45 so we can start promptly @9:00.
Advanced orchard care- "A piece of the whole"
A comprehensive and deep understanding of one’s site leads to proper decisions about appropriate varieties. The focus of this discussion will be how to augment the forces and allies of a site to support those varieties. From the soil, to ground cover to the surrounding ecosystems, we will find how best to nest an orchard in to its surroundings.
Advanced propagation-"Breed your needs"
Beyond the basic tools of cloning and seed propagation is the thrilling world of genetic selection. What if we could breed the characteristics that suit our site? Selecting local varieties with choice selected traits? Mix those with high producing strains....? That’s contributing to the the adaptations of abundance
Advanced Bench Grafting- "Backyard nursery coop"
For those compulsive grafters that just cant stop this class is an alternative to G.A. (Grafters Anonymous). A small nursery is a great way to put your compulsion to graft to a constructive use. You can grow a lot of plant material in a small area as a nursery. This is a great opportunity for diversified income. What if many of us combined our backyard nurseries to form a larger nursery coop?
Advanced advanced grafting- "Over the Top-working and beyond"
Taking it to the streets, farms, schoolyards, and the woods. Literally changing the face of the world. We will be working on techniques and strategies to graft difficult plants like nuts, persimmons, eleagnus and beyond.
What: Maple sugaring for the sap sucker
When: Canceled due to Global warming
Where: Location: My shop in West Asheville
You can make maple syrup in your urban yard as well as mountainside suger bush. This half day class focusses on the harvesting and rendering of maple sap into maple syrup. We will cover what you will need to known to harvest maple sap using common items found near your home to larger commercial operations. Whether you run one tap or 10,000, maple sugaring is great fun. Professor Barkslip apprenticed on a sugar operation in Northern Vermont in 1983 that ran 1500 taps, and has been making syrup ever since. Bring a well sharpened pocket knife for making your own tap.
What: Tools for fools and Stools for fools (Limit 6 students)
When: This Fall in Hendersonville, Asheville Hardware
Where: TBA
"That's been a good ol' axe. It's had 4 handles and 2 heads...."
Tools for fools- Havent had the heart to throw away those old vestiges of honest work? Rusty hammer, axe heads, shovels and post hole diggers with broken handles laying aroung the basement ? No worries, fixing them up doesnt mean YOU have to use them. That's what your son-in-law for. It is, however, an opportunity to study a deeper understanding of wood and it's amazing diversity of functions.
During this weekend intensive, the fools will be making tool handles and learning how to hang them. We will learn about grain, appropriate species, wood movement, harvesting, processing, and hand working green wood, all the while, applying these traditional technologies to all matter of Tom toolery. Be willing to break a sweat.
Stools for fools- This is the second half of the "fools" series. Another wekend intensive that builds on what was learned in the "Tools" class, we will be making a small stool incorporating traditional joinery. Tools for fools is a necessary prerequisite.
Budwood (scion) Harvest and care:
When you want to procure scion wood for grafting there are a few things you’ll want to do to ensure the best chance of success. Wait for a day above freezing as close to the time of grafting as possible. February is my favorite time for scion harvest, well before bud break and fortuitously coinciding with dormant pruning. After identifying a tree you would like to clone through grafting look for last year’s growth at the end of branches. There’s usually a knuckle, collar, or swelling of the branch and this delineates last year’s growth from that of 2 years ago. Hopefully there’s at least 8-12" of growth.
Also, the trunk of the tree may have water sprouts that shoot up straight, and if the buds look well developed, it can be suitable wood. About 3/16th to a quarter inch in diameter or a pencil thickness is a good healthy diameter for scion wood. (Though seldom on unkempt trees is the growth that vigorous).Cut a few pieces off to the length that will fit in your zip lock bag. Label these with masking tape and permanent pen. Take a sheet of paper and wet it, then squeezing all the excess moisture out. There should not be any drops of water on the sides of the bag. Place this wad in the bag with the scions and store in a drawer in the refrigerator. Do not let these freeze. After the refrigerator is full you will have to eat out a lot more.
Directions to Hendersonville's Fruit school being held at the Bullington Center:
Bullington Center
33 Upper Red Oak Trail
Hendersonville NC 28792
from Interstate 26 & Highway 64 East:
Highway 64 East from I-26
Left on Howard Gap Road.
Go One Mile on Howard Gap Road
Turn Right on Zeb Corn Road
Turn Right on Red Oak Trail