Last month our staff attended the PASA conference in Lancaster, PA! We love going to this conference because it’s an opportunity to connect with POP partners, friends, and colleagues to learn together before our heavy pruning season.
Several of our program staff participated in all three days of our conference while others just went for one day. Although there aren’t always orchard specific sessions for this event, it’s a great way to get together and learn about other trees and agriculture in the state.
As the Spanish speaker on staff, I usually like to check out the Spanish track for training and was pleased to see an increase in offerings for the latino community. This year I was able to go to two sessions, one on immigrant workers organizing in New York with Alianza and another on food safety for food distribution from Penn State Extension. Both shared insightful information on how to keep communities safe in the workplace and in our food handling practices.
Two workshops I found particularly interesting were Tree Establishment 101 with PASA’s Dylan Heagy and Hickories and Hazels with Akiba Silver from Twisted Tree Farm.
Though agroforestry and urban community orcharding have different motivations, both require us to make successful plantings and be intentional about planning. In both fields, our trees are in danger of harm from pests, disease, and an ever changing climate. When talking about reducing tree mortality, Heagy really drove home the importance of thoughtful design. He reminded us that “planning grounded in reality” should stay at the forefront of our minds, especially when we get the itch to plant trees in our landscapes. Far before we start to purchase trees, it is important to stop and consider all the factors that could make the tree most comfortable in the long term. This means selecting trees that are more resilient, planting tree varieties best adapted for our climate and understanding the anticipated growth of a tree. At POP, we know planning and proper placement is key in establishing an orchard or a food forest that we want to last for many years to come. This means having an iterative and continual process, adding different understory components to add protection and support. As I’ve learned more about design I realize how many mistakes are made in urban spaces due to lack of proper planning. Keeping trees alive and healthy is especially important when we are planting in spaces with limited access to resources or land, the more responsible we are, the better chance we have of creating permanent orchards for these communities.
It was helpful to see this image he shared in the presentation of all of the ways a tree can be incorrectly planted.
Akiva Silver’s session on Hickories and Hazelnuts demystified many curiosities that were on my mind. I learned that not only are hickories and hazel nuts edible but that you can make exciting cooking oils from grinding them down, among other things. Many of these tree nut varieties can be found on the east coast and are becoming part of local foragers list. In the area near his nursery, Silver explained that there are growing cooperatives of people investing in large scale nut processing machinery, and encouraged participants to try and connect with other people with similar interests. I enjoyed learning about Silver’s approaches to his grafting work and about his books. It’s always great to have presenters who see trees as part of our community. To me, tree nuts are fascinating crops that are often forgotten about in the realm of fruit trees even though there is along complicated history to growing them on Turtle Island prior to colonization. I will certainly be on the lookout for large trees that are around the Philadelphia area.
— Carolina
Thoughts from other staff:
Sharon:
“This was my third time attending PASA and I was excited about many of the offerings this year including the expansion of sessions covering topics such as agroforestry, soil health and perennial plants. While I found that some of the information shared in sessions most relevant to our work was geared towards beginners, having it included at the conference was a refreshing change I’m excited to see more of!
One of my conference session highlights was attending “Sheep Keeping Essentials: Care, Breeding and Beyond” facilitated by Tomia MacQueen at Wildflower Farm in New Jersey. I have absolutely no background in sheep care or animal husbandry, but a dear friend of mine has been sheep shearing for a while now and it piqued my interest to learn more about what caring for sheep entails. In the session, Tomia covered everything from parasites to look out for in sheep, a quick overview of lambing – the process of a sheep giving birth, how to protect livestock from predators and much more! I easily could have sat in an intensive for an extra hour and absorb the knowledge and wisdom that Tomia had to share. It revealed to me that caring for and managing animals is just as much a sacred stewardship as caring for the land is.
Other session highlights included the jam packed audience for “Perennial Vegetables That Sustain Themselves” presented by Dani Baker of The Enchanted Edible Forest at Cross Island Farms; it was exciting to see that many other growers and stewards were interested in more perennial options as we at POP look into expanding our perennial veggies at the Learning Orchard. I also attended “International Perspectives in Agriculture” which included a panel of speakers who were all accepted into the competitive Nuffield Farming Scholarships, a program that awards 20 individuals each year with the opportunity to research topics of interest in farming, food, horticulture, forestry or any other countryside industry. According to the Nuffield site, “Scholars are able to travel anywhere in the world for a period of no less than 8 weeks to further their knowledge and understanding of their chosen study topic. On return from their travels, they present their findings, the conclusions they have reached and the recommendations to the industry in a variety of formats, including a written report and a presentation at the Annual Nuffield Farming Conference.” I was able to see Philly’s own Director of Urban Agriculture Ash Richards talk about their travels to research agroecological cities and countries in the world that support the expansion and preservation of farmland in and around cities for local food systems.”
Dani Baker talking about high bush cranberries at PASA
Phil:
“This year I got to attend PASA for one whirlwind day. As always, the highlight was seeing so many friends, colleagues, partners and connections from the past 17 years of POP and PASA conferences! I got to attend an inspiring talk on silvopasture and a talk on organic apple production in the Northeast that reinforced our conclusion that there are much better options in our humid climate.”
Simone:
“For me my biggest takeaway was from the last speaker reframing our role as humans on earth and how we can sustain and nurture nature while still living in abundance. I tend to view humankind as a stain on the planet. The last speaker reminded me that we come from the earth. Our hardware is aligned with nature; it is just our software that has been corrupted by harmful ideologies and greed. I came out of the talk with a refreshed and more sober clarity around our role and duty as stewards of this earth.”
We look forward to attending PASA in the future and continue learning in the community. Have thoughts on something you’d like to see POP teach at PASA? Comment or let us know.
This conference recap was written by Orchard Coordinator Carolina Torres with contributions from Orchard Director Sharon Appiah, Co-Executive Director Phil Forsyth, and Orchard Coordinator Simone Shemshedini