My wife told me about this score! A local orchard has pushed over a lot of their trees and are allowing folks to cut and take what they need. There’s a lot of wood here! Blue Hills Orchard in Wallingford, CT. These trees are just off Mansion Road; near the intersection of Mansion Road and Blue Hills Road. Blue Hills Orchard Also, for the local CT folks, Blue Hills has an amazing hard cider they sell in the area. It's a bit spendy, but amazingly good. And last but not least, have to tag the local hoarder buZZsaw BRAD on this one! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Trunks on apple trees aren't typically big so it will take a lot of time to get a cord but apple is great burning wood and can be sold at a premium for people who smoke meat.
Firewood Bandit , I think so! I've seen other plantings they have that look like what you posted. What's the difference between that and traditional plantings?
Well, just about everything. To name a few: 1. Much quicker to get yield on new trees. Yields can reach 1,200 bushels/acre. (think about that compared to corn at 250) 2. Much higher yield per acre 3. Faster to pick and prune 4. Does not need skilled labor 5. Higher quality fruit due to better light and more consistent size 6. More efficient to spray I should do a new thread on the orchard from 2015 to present chronicling taking out all the old and planting new. These pics are on trees planted in 2016 and 2017
Great info there! Thanks for sharing. We often drive by the orchard I mentioned above. Now I'll 'somewhat' know what's going on. LOL!
If you want to know more: Dr. Terence Robinson There are dozens of videos explaining and exhibiting all the reasons and various techniques. Like this:
Most of what he says is pretty good. I made two MAJOR mistakes though taking his advice concerning bending over top leaders and tying down branches and letting them be rather than heading close to the tree. The guys at Nurtien Ag which is THE PLACE for orchard products around here said not to do it and I did anyway. Oh well, live and learn. I have some corrective actions to take this Winter.
Holy crapple! Know exactly where that is. Used to drive by there as the Giant Valley farm was a regular roofing customer. How recent was that pic skier?
I have about 3/4 cord of apple at home already but boyyyyy that's tempting! It's not like open invitations to cut rows of apple trees come up all the time. I have yet to burn some in my stove as what I have won't be truly ready until next year. I do plan on burning some outdoors tomorrow when I'm cooking my turkey over the pit.
It is tempting. I scored a small amount of apple back in March. If you can drive right into the orchard and cut trunks it'd be great. Ill find out on Friday
Less than 24 hours old! I didn't walk that far into the property. It looked like maybe 3-4 trees had already been cut? I'm tempted to head there myself! Even though I don't burn wood in CT. LOL!
Use caution when processing that first tree. Sometimes they use highly tensile wire in the crotches to train the wood when the tree was young. I’ve been there and hit that. That being said, yes it’s tons of work for not much wood per tree but when you have acres and acres of free wood, what’s a hoarder supposed to do! It’s fantastic firewood and it’s top notch for smoking on the barbie.
At one time I worked up a small amount of apple wood for sale. Selling to people who smoke is worthless. 5 Bucks worth is all people are going to buy at a time. I have all 3 of the Weber Smokey Mountain smokers, the small, 18" and 22.5", and a 5 gallon pail last me a couple years. A SMALL amount of smoke wood goes a long ways and using a lot over powers the food.
Love, love love apple wood! I always split and save chunks for the smoker whenever I am lucky enough to get some. Love the smell of it.
Ironically, the orchard owner posted on FB Marketplace regarding the free wood. Came up in my feed last night.
A local orchard is removing trees, the owner is a friend. I could have all the apple I want, BUT there has been fire blight in the orchard and I would never bring a stick of wood in the yard from there on the chance It would come here too.
I called and you can drive right into the orchard. SIX acres of trees pushed over. Im debating on what day to go. If you wanna go together PM me i have time this weekend.
