Fruit

4. Fruit

Basic to the Hygienic diet is fruit. This ideal food can be easily grown by a Hygienist and bring him one step closer to food self-sufficiency. There are many things that you can grow on a long-term and short-term basis. First of all, to get a quick crop of fruit during your first year, melons and tomatoes are the answer. They are easy to grow and will produce in virtually any part of the country. For those living in the northern sections, look for varieties with short maturity dates. In the warmer sections of the country, the season can extend over a long period of time.

For the second season, you can additionally enjoy many varieties of berries. They will begin to bear the second year after they are planted and will produce in abundance every year thereafter.

Grapes are also a fairly fast crop to mature and an excellent addition to the Hygienic diet. Some fruit trees are suited to every part of the country and the possibilities are broad. If space is a limiting factor, try the dwarf varieties. ‘They will begin to bear fruit early and the quality of fruit will be excellent.

4.1 The Orchard

It is natural for man to desire to plant and live in an orchard as his ancestors did. Given a choice, almost anyone would choose to surround himself with trees and follow our primal instincts. Here, we are surrounded with our basic food of fruit and nuts and a serene environment that will produce mental and physical health. The orchard provides the most natural and healthful habitat for man.

The Hygienist lives symbiotically with other creatures in his orchard and lets these creatures maintain harmony within the orchard. Thus, predatory insects keep pests down to reasonable numbers, as do birds. Since the homesteader does not see the orchard with dollar signs in front of his eyes, he accepts a few mishapen fruits and shares some of his bounty with the insects and birds. There is plenty to go around. Some of the culls can always be made into juice or put on the compost pile to enrich the soil. The beautiful blossoms in the springtime are not only an esthetic delight but benefit both man and bees. Bees collect pollen to manufacture their honey and at the same time pollinate the blossoms assuring perfect and bountiful fruit for man.

4.2 Dwarf Fruit Trees

Dwarf fruit trees, usually from six to ten feet tall, are easier to plant, fertilize, mulch, and harvest than are standard-sized fruit trees. They usually begin fruiting far sooner, often by their second year and sometimes the same year they are planted. Standard trees usually take five years to begin bearing and sometimes as long as ten.

A mature dwarf apple or pear can produce two or three bushels of quality fruit per season. Semidwarf varieties, growing from 12 to 15 feet tall, are also available. These produce more than twice as much fruit per season in a quarter of the space necessary for the standard tree. The fruit from dwarf trees is equal in size and quality to that of the standards, and is often larger and of better quality because of the individual care the growers lavish on their type trees.

Dwarf trees allow the homesteader with a small plot of land to have a variety of fruits in a succession of harvests. For example, the 40 by 40-foot space usually deemed necessary for the standard 25-foot apple tree could accommodate 16 dwarfs, each of which requires a 10 x 10-foot space.