Summer looks different depending on who you ask—but on the farm, nature decides the timeline. For some farmers, July brings berries, blooming elderflowers, and the first signs of cider season. Here’s a look at what summer means at Blackshire Farms!
Berries, Blossoms, and Pumpkin Vines
In the Midwest, summer spans roughly June to September, but for many, this season begins when school ends, on Memorial Day, or with the solstice. For those working 9-5 jobs, or in education, academic calendars and government holidays offer some sense of control over time. But on the farm, nature follows its own rhythm.
At Blackshire Farms, summer is in full swing by July. The pumpkins planted in June are filling in rows and crowding out weeds. Mulberries and raspberries are ripe — vibrant and juicy, they are perfect for topping ice cream or simmering into syrup. Elderberry plants are putting on showy displays of big, white, fragrant clusters that will become fruit and then a special syrup this winter.
Lessons from the Orchard
But not everything is as “in order” as we’d like. This spring’s high winds blew apple blossoms off the trees just as they were opening for pollination. Now we’re watching a poor fruit set unfold. This, too, is farming: some years bring spring frosts or July droughts and leave the farmer with nothing. And there’s no calendar or app that truly predicts what kind of season it will be.
In 2016, when Sean ordered the custom grafted trees that would become our orchard in 2018, he had a Michigan mentor with dessert apples who could tell him how rootstock worked in Michigan. But because Sean was ordering cider varieties known in Europe and the northeast US, trees with no traceable record in the Midwest, he knew we would be learning by trial. He chose “semi standard” rootstocks, which could be self-anchoring, self-supporting, and find sufficient water without irrigation. He picked apple varieties with chemical and flavor characteristics good for cider, but with untested history in our region. He made calculated, scientific decisions, but in the end, it’s clear our orchard is an especially windswept place.
We lose blossoms or bees don’t fly when it’s windy, leading to pollination and production problems. We’ve learned that fire blight, a bacterial disease, loves to spread through damage created by the wind. Sean now grafts his own trees, and each year assesses the orchard to see what’s healthy and what needs to be replaced. It’s a cycle he’ll engage in forever with this orchard.
Cider In Progress
There’s also an educational process that unfolds in the tasting room, as we share ciders with customers and ask them to pick out notes of aronia or honey, or tannin and “horse blanket.” At the end of June, Sean started the first batch of cider in our new facility. He’ll fast-track it, if nature will allow, to be ready for fall.
Normally, he’d let the process take its time, the wild yeasts or added inoculants eating the apples’ sugars and converting them to alcohol over the course of a year or more. If the cider needs more time, we’ll know, and he’ll age it, sharing the process with those who stop by the tasting room curious to learn more. Fall isn’t here yet, but this cider reminds us that it’s coming. The seasons will shift, and the cider, like the landscape, will change. This, at least, we can count on.