Cosmic Orchard

This blog space is intended to be a digital journal of my engagement with the moon and planets and the orchard. Every month during the growing season I intend to record Astrological and Astronomical happenings with observations from the field. I work with the Tropical Zodiac as it feels orienting to me to call the spring Equinox 0 degrees Aries, the summer solstice when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer as 0 Cancer, the fall equinox as 0 Libra, []

Earth Day 2021 and Anti-Racism Daily’s Youth Led Earth Day series offering: THIS IS OUR HOME

Happy EarthDay cider fans!!! Earth day is always the beginning of the growing season for Apple growers. In our orchard the diversity of varieties show their differences in how quickly they awaken from winter slumber. Some of the latest varieties to open like Brown Snout and Stoke Red are just barely opening their bud scales, the flowers still hidden and well protected from frost. Other varieties like Honeycrisp and Roxbury Russet have opened their buds to the potentially threatening environmental conditions and []

November News from The Orchard …and more

In the orchard…We are wrapping up the 2020 harvest with our final apple pressing this weekend. This means one last time for the sheep to get their favorite treat, pomace. There it is, all of the growing season distilled into two things, the pomace for our sheep and the cider for you! And now the orchard moves to slumber, read more in our Notes from the Makers section. At the table…We had the pleasure earlier this month to participate as the opening evening cider []

Heart Song For Reparations and Work for White People

To our black friends: we see you. we are holding you in our heart so big now and always. We love you, I love you. we are so sorry for all this hurt and heart ache and callousness. We will fight to dismantle white supremacy forever and in all that we do. We love you. For our white friends, please read and listen and think: An excerpt from our weekly postcard writing group: We have a different sort of ask this week. []

Breeding and Discovery in the Orchard at Redbyrd…

May 2020 At Redbyrd we are always looking to improve our orchard system. Experimenting with and discovering new ideas, and ways of management has always been interesting to us. One of those ideas is the quest of finding and breeding new varieties. For years we have found, propagated, named and distributed our favorite wild found varieties. These apples Gnarled Chapman, Redbyrd Bitter, Searsburg Cherry Bomb , Barn Hill Sharp are all treasures bred by nature, selected by us for their flavor and []

Ithaca’s Press Bay Alley Food Transfer Hub: Redbyrd Cider and so much more!!!!

Ithaca Area Peeps: You can order Redbyrd Orchard Cider right from our online shop and choose the Local Delivery Option for pick up on Thursdays at PressBay Food Hub…. here’s more info From the website: Curbside Food Hub in Downtown Ithaca A distribution option for area farmers and Free Food Pantry FARMS TO ORDER FROM EACH WEEK Free Food Pantry Mondays (3 – 5 PM) Customer Pick Ups Weekly on Thursdays (3-7 PM) 110-1 Green St., Ithaca (PressBay Court) curbside We are committed to keeping food flowing through []