Dear Members and Guests,
• Have you been thinking about becoming
a full fledged member of the Holistic Orchard Network?
• Have you ever felt like you have gained so much useful knowledge from the HON and from the Grow Organic Apples website that you wish you could do something for the organization, in return?
• Have you ever just been in awe and wondered what it takes to make all of this great information flow possible?
Michael's post struck a chord with me and as a fellow HON forum admin and member I wanted to echo his request for full fledged membership. Many of us who are passionate about fruit growing, and are involved in the business of marketing our fruit and fruit value added products, spend many hundreds (or thousands) of dollars a year towards our marketing efforts, memberships in various organizations and a variety of annual inputs we deem most valuable to our efforts. When I think about the money I put towards those ends, I often find myself wondering how much of a net benefit much of it is. As farming, in general, is often financially precarious, we should always be aware of our bottom line and where to be best put our energy and our all important dollars.
With this said, is the Holistic Orchard Network less worthy of our annual orchard marketing/membership/input considerations? For a mere $100, a full fledged membership can be proudly achieved with the full knowledge that those dollars are going towards continuing the important work of holistic orcharding outreach and mind share. A large amount of extracurricular time, energy and expense go into keeping a website online and updated, newsletters written, forum posts and questions addressed and more. Your donations really help keep fuel in that tank. At $100, this is a bargain and is simply money well spent, in my humble opinion.
Not to mention a tax deductible business expense for those of us in the fruit business for profit too.When you think about all you have deeply learned and taken to heart, be it recently or over the last decade, of any or all of Michael's Holistic approaches to producing healthy, thriving and nutrient dense fruit and trees; don't you consider a $100 membership donation, to maintain the health of the network's primary engine, to be an absolute bargain?
Here is an example from my own orchard; Using holistic awareness and many of the techniques, I save several hundred dollars a year in reducing my organic spraying (in both time and material costs) and then, as a bonus, make several hundred dollars more than I would otherwise, in the high % of 'Extra Fancy' fruit I am producing that I absolutely attribute to the 'beyond organic' holistic approach that I embrace and employ in my orchard. . . . and I am a smaller community orchardist!
Plus, my customers are excited about my fruit and they are actively telling their friends and family about both my fruit quality and my holistic philosophy too.
Who wouldn't pay $100 for that kind of word of mouth juggernaut?! Again, I attribute this extra level of success in my business to my holistic commitment and with this I thank Michael for his inspiration and sincere support over the years.
Take a moment to think and feel through the differences the holistic orchard approach has made on your farm? With your customers? To your overall enjoyment of proudly producing such a high level of fruit? To your family's health and to the health of your immediate and future environment?
I can only imagine what some of our many holistic fruit growing comrades-in-arms are also adding to their hard earned farm coffers annually as a result of all of the deeply inspired, thoughtful and practical tools and experience that is made so readily available to each and every one of us by this network.
For those of you less familiar with our host, Michael Phillips is a champion of holistic fruit tree health who carries this torch high, with honor, with pride and with an open willingness to share so much of his knowledge and experience with all who are inspired to make the move to growing more wholesome fruit. Over the last decade, Michael has crafted a whole new approach to orchard health awareness and he has become both a beacon and clear voice of encouragement for each of us to better connect with our trees and with our land and to join together in the quest for finding healthier answers that honor all species.
The
Holistic Orchard Network community portal and
Grow Organic Apples primary website are made possible by Michael's ongoing commitment to sharing sustainable fruit growing techniques, and dialogue, that emphasize both orchard soil and tree health. All with an ultimate hope of empowering small scale biologically focused orchards in their deeper desire to bring wholesome and highly nutritious fruit to their families, communities and local markets.
Ready to make a serious difference in your regional local food movement? Each and every orchardist truly can be an important part of making that difference. Join us in this endeavor. Participate in our holistic orchard forums. Ask questions, share answers, think deeply and learn to listen to what our trees are trying to tell each of us. We can do great things as individuals, but we do even more as a community. Be a part of something truly special! Let's do this together!
Please seriously consider joining us as fully fledged members and help this new way of thinking about orchard health, a philosophy we are each embracing, continue to soar ever higher.Without you, there is no us.Please join us, won't you?Gopher Hill ApplesZone 8 in California
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2015 05:23AM by Paul Weir.