Hollow Hill farm is a small community apple orchard with an integrated pest management approach. Jessie Dubuque and her husband took over the orchard from the Testa family. They use as many organic and environmentally friendly sprays as possible. They are one of two Kestrel weather stations in the area. NEWA out of Cornell University uses data from the weather station to model and monitor outbreaks of pests.
For instance, it will be able to predict if Apple maggot fly is to break out and be prevalent on xx date based on predictive model. This high tech model ensures the return interval for sprays they have to use are short. Return interval is the amount of time you should wait to enter the area or eat the fruit after spray. Jessie’s husband is a certified sprayer.
Jessie describes herself as a Jill of all trades. She has a degree in Environmental Science with a speciality in Fish & Wildlife Conservation and Disease. She put herself through college working on a dairy farm and has always had a green thumb with a passion for gardening.
Jessie and her husband met & fell in love during covid. They made babies while living in the town of Freedom, but always had an eye on the farm here in Tamworth. They eventually wrote the farm a love letter and to their suprise the Testas invited them over. They entertained them and then decided to sell to them.
The Orchard is 55 years old now. Testa family started the orchard. Eventually it became a bit much for them to keep a handle on and they decided to stop maintaining the trees. Shortly after, they had an outbreak of fireblight so they had to remove a third of their trees.
Hollow Hill Farm was the first place Jessie took her daughter apple picking. In 2022 Jessie and her young family moved in the day after their marriage.
Apple cider is easily their most famous product. They sell unpasteurized cider pressed right on the farm. They make a type of ‘kitchen sink’ cider, blending different apples. They have a 80 liter hydro press. it’s made of stainless steel with a rubber bladder inside. It presses 40 gallons of crushed apples a pressing and leaves 15 gallons of dry mash. It makes 10 – 12 gallons per cider. Their chickens eat the dry mash leftovers.
We asked them for pro tips they can share for using their apple and she obliged. They have perfected a whisky sour, recipe here. Maple lemon juice and apple cider with bourbon of choice. She recommends using the cider to make Apple cider muffins. You can make a apple cider reduction and drizzle it on ice cream and oatmeal. For those who like an experimental challenge, she suggest making cider vinegar.
In terms of growing fruit trees, Jessie offered a few pro tips. She recommends putting the focus on cultivating healthy soil. Use resources with the UNH extension to do foliar and soil sampling with UNH. She also recommends pruning in dormant season because apples really thrive with a good pruning.
For the serious backyard fruit tree grower, she recommends they add an early and a late season crab apple tree for maximum pollination. For apples to produce well they need a crab apple near by. If you do not knowing the varieties of trees, just get enough crab apple varieties to cover the whole blooming window. A crab apple tree can be effective at serving apple tree pollination up to a mile away.
Life continues to throw Jessie and her family some twists and turns and the orchard is again for sale. If they can find a buyer to continue the efforts, they will. They would be open to leasing the orchard to a young farmer who is looking for opportunity, if the right candidate is interested.
They have received an NRCS to expand pond & deepen it and then irrigate the property. Irrigation infrastructure improvements are a major upgrade. The pond is the hollow between the cemetery and the house. For the long term, they will be focusing on building out redundant climate resilient adaptations.
We cherish Hollow Hill Farm’s humble beginnings. Jessie always dreamt to have kids centered around food and farming. As a family they cherish the experiences that goes with farming: clearing land, getting it stumped, and prepared it to be seeded as a meadow. They look forward to do cover-cropping and growing the soil at the farm.
They intend to march along and plan for the long term unless something changes. They’ve experimented in offering a humble, rustic, and obtainable wedding venue. They see more of that happening in the future. An affordable venue for local people to do wedding and events is much needed in the area.