‘Genetic Modification’ understandably conjures up all sorts of scary thoughts, four legged chickens, huge mono-culture insect free fields of cereals etc.. However the reality is that GM as a farming technique used for centuries and we are doing dabbling with it this week! When we first planted apple trees we choose 12 varieties that looked suitable. Over Some of those varieties quickly proved to not withstand the challenges of organic life and others just did not deliver whilst others have proven hardy or popular etc., and we have planted more and tried other varieties. Over twenty years later we now have a reasonable understanding of which varieties suit our farm best, live well organically and produce good quality and quantity apple crops and most importantly popular tasty apples. grafting organic apple trees

We have bought 100 organic apple tree root stocks and have picked a handful of our favourite apple trees, taken cuttings and grafted these onto the rootstock. So, all being well, these will grow into happy healthy apple trees that will thrive on our farm and expand our orchards (the next generation) and a process we repeat most years.

So whilst one selected apple tree can produce dozens of off spring (clones) in a year, these will take four or five year to mature and produce first fruit, however one hen can potentially produce hundreds and in turn thousand of off spring a year and selected plants, or a bull or ram etc., similarly produce thousands of off spring, all without the aid or risks of human interference and experimentation (do we never learn!) in a laboratory.

Choose organic food to be guaranteed no GM (the laboratory type) and guaranteed the best farming practices!