ABOUT US
We are thrilled that you have made it to our website and hope that you stick around for our updates. We have written a few stories to give you an introduction to who we are and what our orchard is all about.
Please continue to our BLOG for more...
Sandy & Bob Freschi
BECOMING FARMERS
Neither Sandy or I have ever been farmers. We've both known farmers. Went to school with farmers. I even had 3 years of ag when I was in high school. However we both had to go explore the world after high school and the idea just never really came up for either of us.
Flash forward about 35 years, my high school sweetheart has recently become my wife, we've purchased 20 acres in Jonesborough Tn. and we're talking about farming. Actually Sandy suggested growing some Asian Pear trees. I thought that was such a good idea I got 124 of them. So on March 1st of 2015 we started planting trees and creating what has now become Depot Street Orchard.
In March of 2016 we planted another 127 Asian pears and 5 apple trees for good measure. Well we had a problem this time, a few trees got fire blight. Neither of us like the idea of spraying chemicals - If you can't eat it, it might not be a good idea to spay it on your food - So Sandy investigated and found a system of growing called permaculture. In it's simplest terms, Permaculture uses all kinds of plants, encourage birds and insects and even animals, to fight the pests you don't want just like what occurs naturally.
So March of 2017 we're planting not only Asian pears, but there will be Apples, Almonds, Cherry, Plum, Peach, Nectarine, Blueberries, Raspberries, Goji Berries, and Arctic Kiwi's.
To be continued on
our Blog.
Bob Freschi
THE ASIAN PEAR
LOVE AFFAIR
Sweet like a pear... crunchy like an apple
I had never tasted such a fruit until 1989., and it was love at first bite.
I fell in love with Asian pears on my first morning in Japan. As a young naval officer, I was taken to my quarters on base the night before, and left with some necessities to hold me over until I got settled in. The next morning I sorted through my welcome basket to find something interesting to eat. My welcome basket was filled with all kinds of snacks, but the one thing that caught my eye were the voluptuous, round, delicate yellow fruits, each peeping out of its own dainty mesh sock.
I took my first bite, and my mouth erupted with the magic that only an Asian pear can ignite. It was like eating the nectar of a fragrant bouquet of flowers.
Having grown up next to a commercial apple orchard in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia, I had come to love apples as a child. But the Asian pear took my appreciation for round orchard fruits to a whole new level.
Sandy Freschi
Sandy in Japan
REMEMBERING THE
BLACK-EYED SUSANS
I remember when I was a young child, my maternal grandmother was always growing something. She would let flowers dry on the stem, pick them and crush them up where she wanted them to grow the next year and the next year there they were. She would cut a stem off a bush, stick it in the ground and it would grow. Totally unremarkable to a 6 year old child.
Due to a lot of hard work on the part of my parents, we got 5 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Va. and started making weekend trips on a regular basis, planning a future on the mountain.
My grandmother brought some dry Black Eyed Susans from her yard and crushed the flowers to let the seeds fall where they may.
Today, almost 50 years later, the Black Eyed Susans still grow wild in the woods around my parents home on the mountain. So in remembrance of a truly remarkable woman who could grow just about anything just about anywhere I have been bringing some of her susans to the farm in Jonesborough. But also as a reminder that all living things, even a yellow daisy, respond well to a person with a big heart.
Bob Freschi
p.s. If you look closely at our logo you will see the black eyed susan.
