Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The possibility of an orchard

I have inadvertently created optimal conditions for an orchard of rowan trees. I did this by chopping down the forest to the south of the cabin, and by keeping dogs whose scent make the moose and deer steer clear of my immediate surroundings. Moose and deer like to nibble on fresh rowan shoots.

Rowan is one of the few naturally occurring deciduous trees here, along with birch and aspen. There are oak trees fifteen km (ten miles) from here and I pass both maple and elm on my daily commute. But at this height above sea level the selection of trees is drastically lowered.

Rowan berries can be used not only for decoration but for food, though there must certainly be a limit to how much rowan jelly a guy needs. Maybe rowans can be pruned to pleasing shapes or coppiced for walking sticks.

I will keep the ones that do not threaten to block out the sun that's supposed to reach the solar panels.

2 comments:

coastkid said...

rowan...a native scottish tree...
i was just about to ask why dont you coppice them... then i saw the link...
wonder if the berries can be used like blackthorns `slows` for slow gin?...if so then you aint got too many!

Northmark said...

Excellent point. How could this about preservation in alcohol possibly have escaped my mind?