Peaceful Acres

Peaceful Acres Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Peaceful Acres, Farm, State Route 104B, Mexico, NY.

Our local transfer station will load your truck with wood chips for $5/load (or you can load yourself for free). Approxi...
01/12/2024

Our local transfer station will load your truck with wood chips for $5/load (or you can load yourself for free). Approximately 80 trips with beds full of chips was what it took to cover the entire 9000 square foot "Peace Garden" (111' diameter garden formed in the shape of a peace symbol). We layered these chips with the benefits we understand from the "Back to Eden" gardening method, to restore the health of the soil which we had inadvertently depleted earlier from too much tilling. More to follow on the Peace Garden soon.

From WV Public Broadcasting website, published in 2019, here is the backstory for the first picture below: "On February ...
01/08/2024

From WV Public Broadcasting website, published in 2019, here is the backstory for the first picture below:

"On February 20, 1995, the Golden Delicious apple was officially named the state fruit of West Virginia. It’s one of two popular apples that originated in the Mountain State. The first was the Grimes Golden, discovered in the early 1800s on the Brooke County farm of Thomas Grimes.

Legend has it that the Grimes Golden tree grew from a seed planted by John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. The original Grimes Golden tree blew down in 1905, after bearing fruit for a century.

The Golden Delicious apple was discovered in 1912 in Clay County by Anderson Mullins. It was probably related to the Grimes Golden but had a sweeter taste.

Mullins originally called it “Mullins’s Yellow Seedling and Annit apple.” Stark Brothers Nurseries purchased the tree from Mullins and built a fence around it. The company changed the name of the apple to the Golden Delicious to market with its Red Delicious brand. The original Golden Delicious tree bore its last apples and died in the late 1950s."

The first photograph is that very tree, caged, guarded, and ultimately producing the scion wood cuttings to recreate that particular fruit in grand scale. Modern orcharding features trees of favored cultivars, reproduced over and over by grafting scion wood cuttings onto selected rootstocks. The scion wood determines the fruit, the rootstock determines many characteristics of the tree (dwarfing, resistance to drought / blight, productivity, etc.).

The other photographs show one of the entrances into our wild apple forest areas, and if you zoom in you can see the profound variety of the apples by color. We have many hundreds of trees growing wild, and the vast majority (if not all) are "pippins", growing directly from seed, not grafted. Each one is genetically unique, because apple reproduction is heterozygous. Each inherits traits of their parents (cross-pollinating in nature), but ultimately each is genetically unique. The significance of this cannot be overstated, as the genetic diversity lends to amazing cider production. These areas have been unattended for many decades, and perhaps a century or more. We may have some old cider varietals back there, but we definitely have many many hundreds of new unnamed apple types.

We will be characterizing the fruit, logging and chronicling details each year, and experimenting with blends and single-varietal ciders. Stay tuned as we celebrate and share widely these amazing gifts.

Another focus at Peaceful Acres will be to expand our natural pollinators. We do not use any pesticides (or herbicides, ...
01/06/2024

Another focus at Peaceful Acres will be to expand our natural pollinators. We do not use any pesticides (or herbicides, or fungicides, or artificial fertilizers, or anything that isn't natural), and we are going to establish more colonies this year than ever before. In addition to our bee colonies, we have many other pollinators which are not disturbed and whenever there is a bloom we find the flowers literally abuzz with activity. Our "BEES-ful Acres" honey will be on the farm-stand, and some of our ciders will be blended with the honey to create CYSER. Enjoy these pictures of the adventure to-date here at our home, and look forward to more in the spring.

At Peaceful Acres, we are celebrating the New York Grapes. We have begun a vineyard with Marquette wine grapes, and dabb...
01/05/2024

At Peaceful Acres, we are celebrating the New York Grapes. We have begun a vineyard with Marquette wine grapes, and dabbled into winemaking for ourselves. In addition to the Marquette, we plan a few other varietals in this coming year. We ALSO have a GREAT amount of wild grapes growing around the perimeters of the fields, which we gather and use for jellies and possible blending with our ciders. Just one more aspect of this gift we are now stewarding.

For the past two years we have had samples of our apples collected in cooperation with Cornell and Rutgers, in order to ...
01/02/2024

For the past two years we have had samples of our apples collected in cooperation with Cornell and Rutgers, in order to identify genetic markers that may define their provenance. Unsurprisingly, all collected last year (and likely again this year) were not known varietals. Our pippins (apples born from seeds over the decades) are genetically unique, but we may be able to identify some of their parentage (stay tuned). It is exactly this genetic diversity that enhances their cider-making potential, as well as their significance going forward for supporting healthy orchards. More to follow ....

Dawn of Possibilities
01/01/2024

Dawn of Possibilities

Happy New Year everyone ! This is the first year where we get to engage Peaceful Acres as a full-time endeavor, and to...
01/01/2024

Happy New Year everyone ! This is the first year where we get to engage Peaceful Acres as a full-time endeavor, and today begins that phase of our journey. PLEASE join us here frequently, as we will post updates and pictures FREQUENTLY. We ALWAYS welcome commentary and insight from all, but please do keep it civil and constructive. Together, we are building a holistic version of what we call "opticulture", which will engage principles of permaculture, fundamentals from the "one straw revolution", and the best that agricultural advancements have to offer.

Stay tuned, stay informed, stay engaged, and welcome to the adventure.

Address

State Route 104B
Mexico, NY
13114

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Peaceful Acres posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category