Harvesting Success Together
As we embrace the heart of summer, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the bountiful stone fruit season and express our gratitude for our fruitful orchardist relationship with Mike & Ingrid, his wife.
“I am a fruit collector & Explorer, when I walk through my orchard in the Summer I feel like a kid in a candy store.”
Mike had a background in construction and has a masters in Food Science Nutrition. He moved to his 4 acre home orchard in Healdsburg about 40 years ago in 1985. The property on Rio Lindo was originally a hotel with only 2 wild plum trees. After Mike purchased the property, his brother sent him 25 fruit trees from Sonoma Antique Apple Nursery as a housewarming gift.
Mike had a background in construction and has a masters in Food Science Nutrition. He moved to his 4 acre home orchard in Healdsburg about 40 years ago in 1985. The property on Rio Lindo was originally a hotel with only 2 wild plum trees. After Mike purchased the property, his brother sent him 25 fruit trees from Sonoma Antique Apple Nursery as a housewarming gift.
Mike Built a home after stewarding his land, he became involved with the Redwood Empire Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers (RECRFG). Through RECRFG’s fruit tastings and orchard tours, he was exposed to the rich diversity of fruits that can be grown in Sonoma County. This is where he learned to graft.
Grafting is a common practice in horticulture to propagate desired fruit varieties or to repair damaged trees.
Mike takes a small 1-inch segment of a young branch (a bud), makes a small incision on an established plum tree and inserts the segment like a wedge. If it takes, it can sometimes provide fruit in just one year.
He grows over 120 varieties; many are heirloom and rare varieties. He has many of Luther Burbank’s Asian plum creations, including Wicksen, Inca, Formosa Lieb, Sultan, Shiro and Santa Rosa.He grows many of the interspecific varieties of Pluots and Pluerrys.
One of our favorite is the Sweet Treat Pluerry a cross between a cherry and a plum.
“The birds tell me when they’re ripe.”
Mike refers to the birds on his property as “friends.” He observes the fruit on trees and on the ground: If they’ve been pecked and many pieces are around the tree, it means the birds enjoy them for their sweetness. Of course feeling the fruits for firmness and reviewing their color development is important, but the fruit’s popularity amongst the aves is the final checkpoint for sugar development.
30 years ago he grafted four varietals onto one wild plum tree, all with different ripening times. When we visit his orchard, he usually points to a new project and says “I have never tasted the fruits on this tree, but I hope they will be great.”
He and his wife, Ingrid, are both supporters of Sonoma Land Trust, sharing the mission to protect the open, natural, and working lands and waters of Sonoma County to secure healthy and thriving futures.
We first met Mike when he approached SingleThread in Summer of 2017, where our Chef-owner Sean McGaughey was Executive Sous chef. Mike’s intentions were to help SingleThread’s farm with their fruit trees and expose them to his knowledge of grafting. He brought a sampling of his plums and peaches to a group of a “very intense room of chef coats.”
His little brown lunch bag of fruit brought the emphasis of opening a 3 Michelin Star restaurant a sense of support the chefs didn’t know they needed: community.
We are grateful to find someone who not only features exceptional product, but also shares our values and the commitment to sustainable farming practices.
Mike is an enthusiast for great tasting fruit: An interest and expertise we can certainly get behind.
We look forward to this time every year to feature his bounty at both Troubadour and Quail & Condor. Our chefs experience that same romantic scene from the movie Ratatouille. Mike shows up with the trunk of his Subaru stacked with different varietals of stone fruit, we get to talk, taste and select something for us to feature.
They only distribute to SingleThread, The Montage, Quail & Condor, and us at Troubadour Bread & Bistro.
Join us soon, let’s talk stone fruit.
