• Home
  • Donate
  • The Shop
    • Herbal Salves
    • Herbal Massage Oils
    • Herbal Soaps
    • Herbal Teas
    • Herbal Seasonings
    • Bulk Dried Herbs
    • Essential Oils
    • Mushrooms
    • Live Plants
    • Seasonal Offerings
    • Educational Tax Credit Contribution
    • Volunteer
  • Future Stewards
  • Roots
    • Learning Facility
    • Stewards of Quiet Creek
    • Board of Directors
    • Instructors
    • Awards & Memberships
    • Quiet Creek Corner
    • Down To Earth Resources
  • Classes & Events
    • 2023 Workshops
    • 2023 Schedule
    • Spring Fest
    • Fall Fest
    • Build Your Own Class
    • Product
    • Weddings
  • Apprenticeships
    • Meet Our Apprentices
    • Apprenticeship Experience
    • Brookville Community Garden
  • Videos
  • Contact Us
Quiet Creek Herb Farm & School of Country Living

Pergola Promises

10/15/2011

0 Comments

 
Last summer Joe Hanchar and his parents, long-time friends of the farm, spent hard working hours building a pergola at the back of the herb garden.  With the help of Paul, another enthusiastic volunteer, Joe was able to see his senior project rise from the ground to become a beautiful and versatile structure. 

After digging twelve deep holes and filling them with concrete and rebar, the work crew continued to erect, plumb, square, and nail the Pennsylvania hemlock to completion.  The result resembled a railroad trestle, but Rusty reassured Joe the beefy beams were necessary to support the proposed planting of a variety of vines. 

Gracing the entrance to Joe’s accomplishment one will find two “Aunt Dee” wisteria vines.  Running down the sides on cables are an assortment of grapes.  The bulk of the pergola will soon be covered with vines that very few farmers from this temperate climate know anything about – the hardy kiwi.

This kiwi lacks the fuzziness of its tropical cousin and it is the size of a large grape.  The flavor is likened to a combination of a banana, strawberry, pear and its fuzzy relative.  They grow on vigorous vines and once established are winter hardy perennials.  They require a male and female plant to insure pollination and may take up to nine years to produce 50 to 100 pounds of fruit per vine.  Hardy kiwi will “after” ripen meaning that when picked it will continue to sweeten in cold storage for up to two months. 

Joe’s pergola stands proudly and patiently in anticipation of loads of sweet fragrant flowers and fruit.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Rusty and Claire Orner, with their two sons, Walker and Ashton, are stewards of the non-profit educational organization, Quiet Creek Herb Farm & School of Country Living in Brookville, Pennsylvania. They can be contacted at 
    ​
    www.quietcreekherbfarm.org 
    Quiet Creek © 2018

    ​

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2018
    December 2012
    February 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    Back To Basics
    Birds
    Donating
    Donations
    Earthen Building
    Farm Life
    Farm Production
    Farm Visitors
    Flowers
    Holiday
    Holidays
    Interns
    Mushrooms
    Nutrition
    Pasa
    Peppers
    Sabbatical
    Square Dance
    Sustainable Farm
    Traveling
    Volunteering

    RSS Feed


Picture

Proudly powered by Weebly