Fruit project features pears at CREC field day

The Northern Hardy Fruit Evaluation Project orchard will be the site of a tour and featured presentation during the North Dakota State University Carrington Research Extension Center’s annual field day set for July 18.

The field day program will begin at 9 a.m. with coffee and a welcome. The fruit project tour will depart at 9:30 a.m. and return to the main area at noon. Lunch will be served at noon. No preregistration is needed. Kathy Wiederholt, Carrington Research Extension Center fruit project manager, will lead the tour of the center’s fruit orchard.

The featured presenter on the morning fruit tour is Gretchen Merryweather, owner of Sweetland Orchard in Webster, Minnesota. The topic is growing and harvesting pears. Merryweather raises 5,000 trees on six acres with four kinds of tart cherry, 24 varieties of pears and 100 apple varieties. She continually explores better systems for growing perennial tree fruit and making hard ciders. Sweetland Orchard sells fresh fruit and makes unique farmhouse ciders and perries, an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears.

The Northern Hardy Fruit Evaluation Project was established in 2006 to introduce and demonstrate alternative, economically viable fruits that will grow in North Dakota. The project plantings include apples, aronia, hardy cherries, black and red currants, grapes, haskaps and honeyberries, juneberries, pears and plums.

The fruit project tour is one of several tours happening during the center’s annual field day activities that day. Agronomy, beef production and organic/sustainable agriculture tours also start at 9:30 a.m. Afternoon tours begin at 1:30 p.m. and include farm safety, ag technology and sustainable agriculture.

For more information on this year’s field day tours, contact the center at 701-652-2951 or visit its website at ndsu.ag/crec-field-day.