Sam Bonney
@quivering-twig.bsky.social
Orchardist, growing chestnuts for the Northeast US with Breadtree Farms. Agroecology, plant breeding, evolution and co-evolution, speculative history and speculative futures 💫🌱🌈
quiveringtwig.substack.com
breadtreefarms.com
quiveringtwig.substack.com
breadtreefarms.com
Came home today to these boys casually slapping together a marble staircase… ok go off
March 27, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Came home today to these boys casually slapping together a marble staircase… ok go off
Here’s a grafted honey locust from one of those old farms. Once you see this stuff you can’t unsee it!!
March 25, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Here’s a grafted honey locust from one of those old farms. Once you see this stuff you can’t unsee it!!
This weekend — pruning my Malus breeding orchard (80 unique clonal genotypes, plus 100 seedlings), and winnowing the rest of my flint corn so I can have some good eats the rest of the week 🌈
March 24, 2025 at 6:06 PM
This weekend — pruning my Malus breeding orchard (80 unique clonal genotypes, plus 100 seedlings), and winnowing the rest of my flint corn so I can have some good eats the rest of the week 🌈
The best trees around are going up for sale. Seriously. The best. These boys are incredibly meticulous about genetics, + they have grown some insanely vigorous stems (deep spading, gonzo quantities of woodchips, + pasteurized human urine from the Rich Earth Institute will do that) www.yellowbud.farm
March 22, 2025 at 3:30 PM
The best trees around are going up for sale. Seriously. The best. These boys are incredibly meticulous about genetics, + they have grown some insanely vigorous stems (deep spading, gonzo quantities of woodchips, + pasteurized human urine from the Rich Earth Institute will do that) www.yellowbud.farm
Shout out to da best barn cat, Galaxy. Still well under a year old and already showin the voles who’s boss
March 22, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Shout out to da best barn cat, Galaxy. Still well under a year old and already showin the voles who’s boss
Fast forward to march 2025, I’m about the head out to prune my orchard (including my Elly tree) and I get this text. Elly lives!! I love trees, I love tree people. We have so much capacity to propagate goodness. Go hard knights of Pomona ⚔️ 🍎
March 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Fast forward to march 2025, I’m about the head out to prune my orchard (including my Elly tree) and I get this text. Elly lives!! I love trees, I love tree people. We have so much capacity to propagate goodness. Go hard knights of Pomona ⚔️ 🍎
Benford Lepley is a wonderful cider maker and Apple steward in Long Island (Floral Terranes , etc). We were just getting to know each other at the time. I handed off Elly budwood to him at the New York apple camp that year, and he made the magic happen
March 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Benford Lepley is a wonderful cider maker and Apple steward in Long Island (Floral Terranes , etc). We were just getting to know each other at the time. I handed off Elly budwood to him at the New York apple camp that year, and he made the magic happen
While moving my one Elly clone in ‘23, I accidentally snapped off a branch that represented my one good piece of future scionwood. Knowing the mother tree was dead, this was a precious little stick. My life was in turmoil + I wasn’t in a position to do anything with it. So I DMed my friend Benford
March 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
While moving my one Elly clone in ‘23, I accidentally snapped off a branch that represented my one good piece of future scionwood. Knowing the mother tree was dead, this was a precious little stick. My life was in turmoil + I wasn’t in a position to do anything with it. So I DMed my friend Benford
I lugged my one tree around in a pot for 2 years. In summer ‘23 I rescued it from the flooding winooski river + that autumn I planted it in its forever home in Granville NY
March 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
I lugged my one tree around in a pot for 2 years. In summer ‘23 I rescued it from the flooding winooski river + that autumn I planted it in its forever home in Granville NY
I sent Matt scions and made a single graft for myself. In ‘22 I returned to the mother tree + it had been cut down 😱. Only mine and Matt’s grafts continued the lineage.
March 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
I sent Matt scions and made a single graft for myself. In ‘22 I returned to the mother tree + it had been cut down 😱. Only mine and Matt’s grafts continued the lineage.
In 2021, I found a feral crabapple that remains my fav Malus find to date. Tied for 2nd place 🥈 for ‘best quality cider’ + 3rd place 🥉 for ‘best in show’ in @gnarlypippins.bsky.social 2nd annual pomological exhibition 💯💯💯🍎🍎🍎🍎
March 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
In 2021, I found a feral crabapple that remains my fav Malus find to date. Tied for 2nd place 🥈 for ‘best quality cider’ + 3rd place 🥉 for ‘best in show’ in @gnarlypippins.bsky.social 2nd annual pomological exhibition 💯💯💯🍎🍎🍎🍎
Oh and don’t forget the winter stockpile of high sugar, high protein honey locust pods 😎
March 6, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Oh and don’t forget the winter stockpile of high sugar, high protein honey locust pods 😎
Check out this honey locust silvopasture. Trees have been thinned over time. The thinned trees have not died - they coppiced, and now produce lush grazable shoots with 22% crude protein. Is there not enough light here?
March 6, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Check out this honey locust silvopasture. Trees have been thinned over time. The thinned trees have not died - they coppiced, and now produce lush grazable shoots with 22% crude protein. Is there not enough light here?
my PDF collection grows stronger by the day 😈
Arundinaria gigantia — our native bamboo — might be the most productive native source of ruminant fodder in the US. Evergreen, 15% crude protein, and it will hold onto that protein through the winter.
Arundinaria gigantia — our native bamboo — might be the most productive native source of ruminant fodder in the US. Evergreen, 15% crude protein, and it will hold onto that protein through the winter.
March 6, 2025 at 2:24 AM
my PDF collection grows stronger by the day 😈
Arundinaria gigantia — our native bamboo — might be the most productive native source of ruminant fodder in the US. Evergreen, 15% crude protein, and it will hold onto that protein through the winter.
Arundinaria gigantia — our native bamboo — might be the most productive native source of ruminant fodder in the US. Evergreen, 15% crude protein, and it will hold onto that protein through the winter.
Going through the walk-in cooler this morning to make sure all the babies are doing OK as we get towards the end of winter. 4000+ trees in here, mostly chestnut and yellowbud hickory, plus 150 lbs of chestnut seed from select parentage. A few thousand more trees on the way. Spring will be busy!!
March 4, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Going through the walk-in cooler this morning to make sure all the babies are doing OK as we get towards the end of winter. 4000+ trees in here, mostly chestnut and yellowbud hickory, plus 150 lbs of chestnut seed from select parentage. A few thousand more trees on the way. Spring will be busy!!
fyi there’s like ~650,000 acres of direct-seeded, direct-browse intensive silvopasture with leucaena and tagasaste in Australia, ~120,000 acres with leucaena in Latin America, and they are doubling, tripling, 10xing carrying capacity for cattle operations. A scalable and real alternative to feedlots
March 4, 2025 at 3:20 AM
fyi there’s like ~650,000 acres of direct-seeded, direct-browse intensive silvopasture with leucaena and tagasaste in Australia, ~120,000 acres with leucaena in Latin America, and they are doubling, tripling, 10xing carrying capacity for cattle operations. A scalable and real alternative to feedlots
I was mulching with staghorn sumac coppice growth last summer. So easy. Big juicy straight stems, machete cuts like butter, bare hands can crack 2” diameter stems. That material was very very effective at holding moisture. I cut-and-carried but have planted some for future in-situ mulching
March 2, 2025 at 6:18 PM
I was mulching with staghorn sumac coppice growth last summer. So easy. Big juicy straight stems, machete cuts like butter, bare hands can crack 2” diameter stems. That material was very very effective at holding moisture. I cut-and-carried but have planted some for future in-situ mulching
Organizing biomass in my very playful and experimental home orchard. All the hay was decades old insulation in our barn loft, full of pigeon and mouse manure (used to be a potato farm so the barn needed temp regulation). White pine and black locust are from two mature trees in the yard I limbed up
March 2, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Organizing biomass in my very playful and experimental home orchard. All the hay was decades old insulation in our barn loft, full of pigeon and mouse manure (used to be a potato farm so the barn needed temp regulation). White pine and black locust are from two mature trees in the yard I limbed up
Megaherbivore disturbance facilitates massive diversity. “Climax” plant communities, where water is not limiting, are characterized by strong competition for light. Disturbance allows co-existence and redundancy between otherwise competitive species
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
February 18, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Megaherbivore disturbance facilitates massive diversity. “Climax” plant communities, where water is not limiting, are characterized by strong competition for light. Disturbance allows co-existence and redundancy between otherwise competitive species
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
More play on this snowy Sunday. This time, cutting back a huge, beautiful, collapsed box elder that is starting to shade out the healthiest butternut on the property. I’m finding these Rinaldi tools to be remarkably efficient!
February 9, 2025 at 10:29 PM
More play on this snowy Sunday. This time, cutting back a huge, beautiful, collapsed box elder that is starting to shade out the healthiest butternut on the property. I’m finding these Rinaldi tools to be remarkably efficient!
Mayan forest gardeners used to look for the mounds of leaf cutter ants, which were up to 30m across and 7m deep and which defoliated whole sections of rainforest. They would start their gardens there and augment it by girdling trees with flint tools and setting low fires
February 9, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Mayan forest gardeners used to look for the mounds of leaf cutter ants, which were up to 30m across and 7m deep and which defoliated whole sections of rainforest. They would start their gardens there and augment it by girdling trees with flint tools and setting low fires
I’ve long had the question “how did slash and burn agriculturalists do anything before the advent of metal tools?” This amazing book provided me one answer!
February 9, 2025 at 4:35 PM
I’ve long had the question “how did slash and burn agriculturalists do anything before the advent of metal tools?” This amazing book provided me one answer!
Outside a Dunkin’ Donuts on the highway, check out the browse line on this English ivy, which are growing up red oaks, with acorns still littering the ground. Deer heaven.
February 9, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Outside a Dunkin’ Donuts on the highway, check out the browse line on this English ivy, which are growing up red oaks, with acorns still littering the ground. Deer heaven.
First time cutting down a tree with an axe today 😌 clearing out around some feral apple trees, doing it the slow way because what’s the rush. We are flush with firewood so I organized the material into some habitat piles / in-situ woody compost heaps that won’t impede future management
February 9, 2025 at 12:21 AM
First time cutting down a tree with an axe today 😌 clearing out around some feral apple trees, doing it the slow way because what’s the rush. We are flush with firewood so I organized the material into some habitat piles / in-situ woody compost heaps that won’t impede future management