More goes into the healthy apple than meets the eye!

Community Orcharding depends on local growers raising nutritious fruit for apple lovers who recognize the full value of such pioneering work. Appreciable challenges need to be met to bring an organic apple harvest to table. Our holistic orchardist network focuses on sharing sustainable fruit growing techniques that emphasize orchard soil health which in turn makes for healthy trees and thus healthy apples and -- blessed be! -- healthy people.

Apples like Swiss Gourmet (known also as Arlet) will be tree-ripened to healthy perfection at a community orchard near you.

The vision of many biological orchards providing wholesome and flavorful apples and other fruits to families and neighbors is part of a much larger local foods movement. The time has come for small-scale answers that make sense for our planet and our lives.

So many beautiful fruit labels long ago . . . reflect exactly what viable local orchards can achieve once more.

Grower Input

Any effective networking effort is driven by commitment to the cause. You will find on these pages connections with like-minded growers, the basics of undertaking site-based research, cutting edge exploration of orchard dynamics, and exciting revelations throughout of why ecosystem health delivers on the promise of nutrient-dense fruit for our customers. Sharing seasonal observations and thoughtful orchard trials adds to this collective knowledge base. Signing up for The Community Orchardist newsletter keeps you abreast of holistic thinking in the orchard world.

Good happenings require member investment of course. Please be sure to read the who, what, and why of the Holistic Orchardist Network to gain a full understanding of how this effort is evolving. Michael Phillips, author of The Apple Grower, initiated this site to inspire and assist many folks to succeed at their own community orchard venture.

Hear ye, All Apple Lovers

You have stumbled onto something good in your search for healthy apples!

GrowOrganicApples.com is where holistic-minded orchardists come together to explore thoughtful ways to grow good fruit. Our orchards are interconnected webs of biodiversity, deep nutrition, heirloom varieties and exciting new cultivars. Connecting sensible growers with apple lovers broadens the marketing base vital to every local orcharding effort. Here we share with you what it takes to grow healthy fruit, and post listings of community orchards where such wholesome fruit can be found.

Growers face a myriad of challenges to make a good apple possible. You can get a sense of this by perusing the grower-directed research we do. Holistic thinking is never pursued with corporate funding; growers alone must achieve a systems approach to orcharding that goes beyond chemical dependency and succeeds economically on the local level. As an apple lover, you can contribute to this networking effort as well. Together -- farmers and families -- we are the ones stewarding the precious gift of life.

Numerous allies like this tree frog help keep pests in balance in the holistic orchard. Photo courtesy of Kalangadoo Orchard.

'Tis an honor to journey with our tree friends down the path to a more sustainable tomorrow, don't you think?