We're back from Michigan, and it's time to put into practice what we learned from Matt about grafting. Our scion wood is ready, we're received a bundle of rootstock from Willamette Nurseries in Oregon, and we have one of Matt's new grafting tools. But do we have the space, the time or the skill to get our sticks to stick?
As a start-up, we're going to be doing everything in our 1914 farmhouse as we get going-- fermenting apple juice in the basement, grafting trees in the parlor, updating the books in the dining room. We've already relied on the help of friends and neighbors to plant our front orchard (thanks, everyone!), and today, we're enlisting the help of Sean's friend, Chris Langford.
Lang is visiting from New York, and grafting trees is the kind of thing you could imagine him doing in his spare time. We've been so lucky to have many of our friends give us a few hours here and there of their spare time, and it's probably an act of grace we'll rely on for some time to come. But even in--or especially in-- this early stage of the process, it's amazing to see how our community and friends have been supporting us.