Cultivating diversity in a Perry City Orchard

Alexis Self and Chris Negronida moved into their home in Perry City in 2015 and started their orchard a year later. Today, that operation — Perry City Orchard and Nursery — has grown into a diverse one.

The apple orchard has about 80 different varieties of trees, though not typically more than three of any specific kind. Between the orchard and the road sits a high tunnel, providing appropriate growing conditions for sweet potatoes and a quickly producing fig crop, and the beginnings of a blueberry patch.

But the centerpiece is the apple trees, a mix of European cider, North American heirloom and varieties found while foraging. They grow a limited amount of each of the varieties.

“On the grand scheme of size, we are very small,” Negronida said, adding that they grow 1,000 to 2,000 trees in a general year, with maybe as many as 2,500 in the ground. “We do everything by hand. We’re not certified, but we do everything organically.”

But they have chosen their tree offerings with an eye on their nursery business.

“A lot of varieties, not a lot of nurseries grow them,” Self said. “So, we knew there was a demand.”

“For us, an aspect of this is to serve as a preservation orchard,” Negronida added. “We [only] have one to three trees of any variety. It’s not economical from a production standpoint. We want to preserve the diversity, too.”

They have a combination of individual trees and high-density plantings supported by frames and a trellis structure.

“For me, doing it organically is an important part,” Negronida said. “It’s not for the label because we’re not certified yet. It’s how we want to live our life and also how we want our orchard to be. We appreciate the value of the food economy. If you know your farmer and you know the farm, you don’t need the organic seal to trust what they grow.”

The nursery mostly fills custom orders, grafting the apple variety requested to a naturally growing tree to produce a rootstock.

“On a personal level, … grafting wasn’t something I’d done,” Negronida said. “All apple trees have to be grafted to be true to variety.”

The nursery allows their business to diversify its offerings.

“When you plant an orchard, there is always a lag time with income,” Negronida said. “A nursery is more of an annual crop and generates income more quickly.”

The figs also have been for sale this season, mostly as plantings people could buy to take home, but they are also selling ripe figs.

“Right now, we don’t have enough to do farmers markets,” Negronida said. “We didn’t know what the figs were going to do this year. The main thing with figs is the canes don’t always survive the cold.”

But they weathered last winter in the high tunnel and have produced more than expected this year.

Unlike other crops, fruit trees take a bit longer to develop, as has been the case with Perry City’s apples.

“This is really the first year we have had much of a crop,” Self said. “What we had last year, we turned into cider for home use. That’s probably what we will do this year, too. Eventually, the goal is to have a license to make cider for commercial use.”

Negronida is well versed in the commercial cider trade as the head cider maker for Black Diamond Farm. He said once Perry City has enough apples to go the commercial route, they can start working on that.

“We don’t want to let the operation get ahead of the orchard; we want to scale up as the orchard starts producing more,” Negronida said, adding that many of the apples they are growing can work for cider or for selling retail. “I think for us, we’re trying to find the sweet spot of what is feasible for us to grow for cider and have some fresh fruit for market.”

But Self and Negronida cautioned people to plan ahead if they want to order trees from them.

“The majority of our sales are custom orders,” Negronida said. “You’ll get what you want on the right rootstock. Some people know what they want, while others want help. There is a two-year lead time on custom orders, so you want to order in advance. The trees we’ll be grafting this spring will be for the 2023 or 2024 planting season. It’s definitely a labor of love, [growing trees], and it teaches patience.”

For more information, visit the Perry City Orchard and Nursery website at perrycityorchard.com or its Facebook page at facebook.com/perrycityorchard.

IN BRIEF:

Trumansburg Rotary Fall Speaker Series

The Trumansburg Rotary Club has announced the presenters for its upcoming Fall Speaker Series, with five dates coming through mid-October.

The public is invited to join Rotary Club members for the speaker series on Zoom at 7 p.m. on Thursdays. For the Zoom link, contact Peggy Haine at Peggyhaine.1@gmail.com.

The speakers will be John Overbaugh on dealing with internet spam (Sept. 23), District 7170 Governor Evan Kurtz on the focus for the 2021-2022 Rotary year (Sept. 30), Yvonne Taylor of Seneca Lake Guardians on how BITCOIN harms the environment (Oct. 7), financial adviser Rordan Hart on why BITCOIN is a favored investment (Oct. 14) and wildlife rehabilitator Jane George on wild-and-domestic animal rescue (Oct. 21).

Have Trumansburg-area news? Contact Rob Montana at rob.j.montana@gmail.com.