[compost_tea] about my friend...

From: Judi Stewart (js@olympus.net)
Date: Tue Feb 18 2003 - 14:47:02 EST


 
Bob Norsen asked me what plans I had for his Bitty-O-Lator which I won
on this site for having named it. I told him I belonged to a fruit club
and that up to now I'd been making compost tea in my five gallon bucket.
Besides using compost tea on my own garden and trees, I said I'd like to
give some tea to some to the fruit club members so they could test it
for themselves. When Bob said he was sending the brewer, I thought to
myself that early in the season I'd be able to have enough compost tea
for the club's co-founder, Jerry Pate, so he'd spray away his orchard's
scabby trees.
Last year I began talking about compost tea at our club meetings and
spent an hour showing the group how easy it was to make. At that time
several of the more senior members balked and politely suffered my
conversation. To one particular fellow who mocked, I sent articles
about compost tea successes, weekly. A couple of months down the road
at this one particular meeting, the most senior member present stood up
and loudly announced to the assembly that he had purchased a compost tea
brewer. He said he knew of so-and-so who told him this-and-that and
what great apples you could have using this compost tea and he began to
gesticulate and described these glorious compost tea sprayed apples and
the lush orchard floor. One senior fellow later asked me if I thought
he could use this such-and-such pump for brewing his tea. I saw this as
progress.
Well, The Bitty arrived just in time for our February 4th meeting. They
circled it, asked some questions. They're now beginning to talk about
it. I know that the group is going to be experimenting with compost tea
this year, whether they make it themselves or I do it. As for my friend
Jerry's fruit trees, several of the club members will soon be pruning
them and I'll be spraying.
Bob Norsen made arrangements for me to get his brewer quickly and in the
course of conversation I gave him a little information about our club.
Bob thought you might like to know about the people on the list and
about my friend.
Jerry Pate was affectionately known as the Apple Man of Cape George.
His trees did so well. He had so many apples on his lot that one day he
put an ad in the local paper that read, "Apples- 50 Cents a Pound."
That's how we met. He went to the bins he built on the side of his
garage and started cutting pieces of all his apples so I could try them.
He was talking and cutting, cutting and talking. He's asking me how I
liked this one, or if I liked the red blushed one over here, and if I
did then I'd love the crisp dark red in this bin. Well my mouth was so
full, my cheeks were so puffed, the juice was running, and I had all I
could do to just nod my head while Jerry did all the talking and all he
heard was me crunching. Then he brought out one of his favorites,
Hudson's Golden Gem. I d never seen nor tasted an apple like that in my
life. I had no idea how he could tell them all apart from one bin to
the next. He kept talking, telling me things like, this one isn't
exactly perfectly ready yet and needs three more weeks, this makes great
sauce, or the Melrose is the best keeper, and so on, and so forth.

There was no way you could tell from the road how many trees Jerry had
growing on his lot. Once he took me for a tour around the orchard and
the eating, dribbling, cutting and teaching started anew. Jerry would
have his little knife with him as he showed me one tree after another,
cutting a piece, and then handing me a new apple to take home. "This
tree was on a dwarfing rootstock but grew bigger than the tree on the
semi-dwarf." I now had my mouth, hands, and pockets full. Once in
awhile he'd tell me about his latest fishing trip and where he had taken
his boat out for halibut or salmon.

It took some time for Jerry to finally get me to come to a meeting of
his group, the group he helped found over 20 years ago, the North
Olympic Fruit Club in Gardiner. I finally made it to a meeting and
eventually joined. Any time I had questions or problems, I could always
call Jerry. He gave me great advice, shared his experience, knowledge
and friendship. He gave me books and periodicals to read and fed my
growing interest in raising fruit. He and Maxine were always available.
When his apples would drop, I'd get the call to come over with my
buckets to pick up the drops and feed them to my chickens. He showed me
exactly where and how to toss the ugliest apples over the fence for the
local deer.

Jerry showed me how he washed and pressed his fruit, how he handled and
cleaned his carbuoys, decanted and then froze his cider in gallon jugs.
Last year Jerry tasted some of the first batch of my hard cider and gave
me the thumbs up. I told him in December I'd help him press his apples
next season. He turned his head slightly and gave me a questioning
look, as if to say he wasn't real sure about that. I lost my friend
Jerry Pate to lung cancer on February 7th. He was 85. I visited with
his wife Maxine, their daughter Karla and her husband Dave. I came home
and walked around in my little orchard. Yesterday was his Memorial. On
March 4th, Jerry's fruit club will be grafting his apples. His hobby,
his work, will always be a part of me, and his community.

 
 




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