Picking apples down on the farm
Indian Ladder gets its customers interested in nature
NEW SCOTLAND One of the goals at Indian Ladder Farms is to get people out into the orchard, away from cars, and interested in agriculture, says the farms owner, Peter Ten Eyck.
"We try to get customers interested in nature," he said.
Ten Eyck operates the farm, which has been in his family for more than 100 years, with his daughter, Laurie Ten Eyck.
Indian Ladder Farms is one of around 700 apple orchards in New York State. The orchards range in size from very small to very large, said Ten Eyck, adding that numerous operations in New York are 10 times as large as Indian Ladder Farms.
Indian Ladder is among a group of 11 growers in the Northeast and New York State that are "trying to be more responsible," Ten Eyck told The Enterprise. The group is called Eco Apple.
"Eco Apple is a pretty special group of growers," Ten Eyck said. The group tries "to push the envelope" by educating themselves and being "thoughtful" about the products used on their crops, he said.
The Eco Apple growers draft an agenda about the way they plan to grow their apples, Ten Eyck explained. The group works with Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America, an independent non-profit organization, which conducts inspections to ensure the growers are following the protocol.
Integrated pest management is an approach to farming where pesticides and fungicides are not used unless there is evidence that it is needed, said Ten Eyck. The motto of Eco Apple is, "Don’t use them if you don’t have to," he said. "We’re trying to say that we’re responsible about working these things out, and we’re knowledgeable," said Ten Eyck.
Because Ten Eyck has practiced IPM, rather than the normal use of pesticides, "I’ve had some diseases which have gained the upper hand," he said.
Apple scab is a disease in apples that causes blemishes on the surface skin of the fruit. Fungicides are used to combat it, said Ten Eyck. Apple scab "is literally skin deep," he said.
Indian Ladder Farms, and other Eco Apple growers are trying to find ways to use fewer fungicides and, if it is necessary to use them, to use them early in the growing season, said Ten Eyck. "Our agenda is to grow apples that don’t have pesticide residue on them," he said.
Apples galore
Indian Ladder grows over 40 varieties of apples.
The farm grows antique apples, such as the Spitzenburg, which was developed by Thomas Jefferson; traditional apples such as the McIntosh and the Cortland: new varieties like the Pristine and the Honeycrisp; and a number of varieties which are part of future apple varieties, said Ten Eyck. Those future varieties, about a dozen at Indian Ladder, have only numbers; they are not yet named, he said.
That crop is in a trial phase, he said. You can’t really sell an apple without a name, he said. "Have you had your number 3558, today"" he joked.
Apple breeders don’t name a variety if it doesn’t have appeal, said Ten Eyck. "It’s kind of the chicken-and-the-egg thing," he said.
Dr. Susan Brown heads the apple research group in Geneva, N.Y., which has thousands of seedlings.
The seedlings are subjected to the diseases that traditionally affect apples, and the majority of them die, he said. This process determines if the apple would be reasonably resistant to common diseases, he explained.
The trees are then studied for various issues, he said. Is it a light bearer" Does it have a tendency to only produce every other year" How long does it take for the tree to bear fruit" What is the tree’s susceptibility to frost and to winter injury"
The trial apples are also grown in various areas to determine how they grow in differing climates and soils, said Ten Eyck.
Some of the trial phase apple trees at Indian Ladder Farms have their first apples on them, and others wont have apples until next year, he said.
Healthy economic situation
Several years ago, Indian Ladder Farms sold its development rights, and though it may not always be an orchard, it will forever be used for agriculture.
"I think if I was able to get all the residents of New York State together, and talk to them" I think I could get them to believe they could grow their own food," Ten Eyck said.
Its alright to have a T-shirt that was made halfway around the world, he said. Food is different.
"We’re feeding ourselves by waving money in the air, and someone comes from the four corners of the world to give us something to eat," he said.
When a consumer buys an apple from Chile or Argentina, the money goes back to those countries. When you buy from your neighbor, he said, you are supporting someone who will shop in local stores, who may employ your child with a summer job, and, who may be "silly enough" to serve on the local school board. "It’s a very healthy situation economically," he said.
It costs a lot of money and produces a lot of carbon dioxide to transport food from the west coast to the east coast, said Ten Eyck.
Running a farm requires a great deal of electricity and fuel. "Apple trees live on carbon dioxide; they need it to grow," Ten Eyck said.
"We use a lot more carbon dioxide than we create," he said of Indian Ladder Farms. "We are a net user of carbon dioxide, not a net generator," Ten Eyck said.
"People like ourselves," Ten Eyck said of himself and his daughter, "We try to be informed of all the good things and the bad things, and we try to do something about it."
