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Post by castanea on Sept 6, 2012 20:48:24 GMT -5
John Gordon was a nurseryman in Amherst, New York, with a phenomenal knowledge of nut trees. And he was a really nice guy. www.nuttreesnorth.com/"John Gordon passed away on August 2 of this year after several months of being hospitalized. He was recognized as an expert in nut culture as well as some of the "orphan" fruits including pawpaw and persimmon. He was an extraordinary nut tree explorer and grower always searching for new adaptable species of nut trees or cultivars with outstanding characteristics. His most outstanding attribute was his willingness to share what he found with everyone who was interested without concern for credit or remuneration. John Gordon joined NNGA in the early 1960's with a driving interest in the American chestnut, an interest that continued throughout his life. This interest expanded to all other nuts including hickory and pecan. I met John at my first NNGA meeting in 1968 and we became good friends from then on. He was an inaugural member of SONG and attended the first meeting in October of 1972. He was an enthusiastic, active member for many years. He was elected as President of SONG, a position he held for several years. He donated the writing of Nut Growing Ontario Style, the first handbook of the Society of Ontario Nut Growers. He was also an active member of the New York branch of the American Chestnut Foundation as soon as it formed. He assisted wherever he was asked in the meetings and research work. He also joined the New York Nut Growers Association as soon as it formed. He actively served both groups until his death. He was one of the group responsible for the introduction of the ultra northern pecans that are successfully growing in eastern North America. He went into the nettle infested northern Mississippi River forests several years in a row to find early ripening pecans. He collected pecan seed nuts and scion wood from these trees. We now have his colorfully named cultivars like `Deerstand', `Lucas', `Carlson 3' and `Snaps' because of his efforts. He unselfishly shared all of his findings with his interested friends. He started the Pecan Distribution Programme where he sent out thousands of packets of ultra northern pecans to interested growers all over the USA and Canada for several years. This project caused the NNGA membership to swell to record numbers. He dedicated a large part of his 50 acre farm to the trial plantings of thousands of seedling and grafted trees with the intention of introducing new cultivars of nut trees. His outstanding contributions of `Imshu', `Locket' and `Stealth' are a few of the heartnut selections he made. His nut tree nursery supplied numerous growers with seedling and grafted trees, as well as seed nuts and scion wood for many years. His interests also turned to the fruiting trees that NNGA members adopted including pawpaw's and persimmons. He introduced and tested several selections of both of these fruits including his own persimmon introduction `Geneva Long' recently renamed `Gordon' by the Grimo Nut Nursery. John will be sorely missed to all those who knew him. A remembrance was held on August 3 and his ashes were spread over his Amherst property by his daughter Katie Gordon on August 10." Ernie Grimo in S.O.N.G News Sept 2012
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Post by khoomeizhi on Sept 6, 2012 21:37:45 GMT -5
a friend of mine went to the recent NNGA conference/meeting/whatever and his report was that this is the current direction of the group. all the older folks are dropping off one by one, and there don't seem to be a next generation ready to pick up the reins.
RIP
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Post by steev on Sept 6, 2012 22:24:25 GMT -5
Welcome to the World of Inter-Generational Indifference! My daughter will have my farm on the market before I'm cold, if she can.
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Post by castanea on Sept 6, 2012 22:25:42 GMT -5
a friend of mine went to the recent NNGA conference/meeting/whatever and his report was that this is the current direction of the group. all the older folks are dropping off one by one, and there don't seem to be a next generation ready to pick up the reins. RIP Very true. I'm in my 50s. I'm one of the "young" guys.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 7, 2012 12:37:47 GMT -5
Steev's daughter and my son are going to sell both farms and spend the money in Rio having a great time while Nero fiddles and it all burns. My son's last girlfriend told him that she thought I was intimidating because I can do so many things. I can't even do half of what my Grandmother could do, and my Great Grandmother well, she did it all and with 13 children underfoot and 120 acres to boot. I'm confused and I don't know what's happening. Yesterday I was at the hardware store, buying 1/2 pints for salsa (yes I ran out). I ran into a friend with her son and soon to be wife. They were buying quart jars to put flowers in for the weeding. I told them that I have 200 quarts in my barn that they could have for free; they just needed washing. Anything stored in the barn gets both dust and spiders. The young gal thanked me but said she'd rather buy them new than wash them. ?? That's $200 friends. The day I'd rather spend $200 than wash something for free, I guess you oughta take me out behind the barn and shoot me. I just don't get it. John Gordon and many more like him will be sorely missed.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Sept 7, 2012 13:14:20 GMT -5
Here's my take.
I don't want my daughters to become farmers unless it's something they want to do. Farming is in a lot of ways miserable work with a pretty low return on investment in pure dollar terms. So if you are going to be a farmer then you ought to love the work. If someone doesn't love it then it is unreasonable to resent them for their disinterest. I'm doing everything I can to encourage an interest in agriculture in my daughters but people turn out the way they turn out.
I know I'd have resented the hell out of my father if he'd expected me to follow him and become an optometrist? Fill in the blank with any occupation you like, it is silly to expect your kid to love the same things you love, they're not you. My fear is that the future is changing to where my kids won't have any other OPTION but to be farmers. In that case I want to make damn sure that they at least know HOW to get things done. Doing a job you hate is preferable to starving to death I do believe.
But why leave your land to your kids anyway? If you love the land, transfer it to somebody who wants to farm it and tell your kids to go scratch.
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Post by ferdzy on Sept 7, 2012 20:48:15 GMT -5
I didn't know John Gordon or even of John Gordon, and yet I do believe from the short list of his varieties mentioned by Castanea that I have at least three of them in my garden. Thank you John, and bon voyage. Holly, there are people (mostly young women) out there with very odd ideas about weddings and What People Will Think. What if somehow word got out that she was using old jars for her wabi-sabi style decorations? (Pardon me while I roll around on the ground laughing. But I'm someone who never actually got married partly because I couldn't stomach the idea of paying the government $50 so I could legally do what I was already doing, never mind all the other fuss of a wedding.) The reality is that people who have been dedicated to the hard work of farming and gardening because they love it have always been both scarce and peculiar, in any time and place. They will continue to be scarce (and probably peculiar too), but they will continue. There will always be more of us. They just may not be our immediate descendants, and they may pop up in the strangest places. Look at me. I never lived out of an urban apartment until I was 37. I knew I wanted to garden, since I was about 15, but it took me until I was 49 to be able to really get to the place (literally!) where I could do it. We just need to be open to nurturing that interest where we do find it, even if that interest isn't in the people we think it ought to be in.
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Post by circumspice on Sept 7, 2012 23:18:16 GMT -5
My son thought I was nuts because I bought land in a rather remote rural setting. Then he got upset because I didn't buy a house in Houston... After I die, I honestly think that he will sell my place as soon as he can find a buyer. I find that tragically short-sighted & rather weird because he grew up in the same remote rural county where I bought my land & settled down to live for the remainder of my life. Since he is the only heir on his father's side of the family, he stands to inherit everything from the entire family group. That makes my little 6 acres look chump change to him. Unless things go to hell before I die, he won't see the value & relative safety of living in a somewhat remote area, where he can grow his own food & provide for his family...
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Post by castanea on Sept 7, 2012 23:41:07 GMT -5
Steev's daughter and my son are going to sell both farms and spend the money in Rio having a great time while Nero fiddles and it all burns. My son's last girlfriend told him that she thought I was intimidating because I can do so many things. ...... I'm intimidated too.........
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Post by castanea on Sept 7, 2012 23:43:00 GMT -5
Here's my take. I don't want my daughters to become farmers unless it's something they want to do. Farming is in a lot of ways miserable work with a pretty low return on investment in pure dollar terms. So if you are going to be a farmer then you ought to love the work. If someone doesn't love it then it is unreasonable to resent them for their disinterest. I'm doing everything I can to encourage an interest in agriculture in my daughters but people turn out the way they turn out. I know I'd have resented the hell out of my father if he'd expected me to follow him and become an optometrist? Fill in the blank with any occupation you like, it is silly to expect your kid to love the same things you love, they're not you. My fear is that the future is changing to where my kids won't have any other OPTION but to be farmers. In that case I want to make damn sure that they at least know HOW to get things done. Doing a job you hate is preferable to starving to death I do believe. But why leave your land to your kids anyway? If you love the land, transfer it to somebody who wants to farm it and tell your kids to go scratch. But in the future, maybe 5 years from now, maybe 15 years, a lot of people who never gave it any thought are going to want to be growing food. The world economy is on its last legs and US agriculture is not far behind.
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Post by castanea on Sept 7, 2012 23:46:54 GMT -5
My son thought I was nuts because I bought land in a rather remote rural setting. Then he got upset because I didn't buy a house in Houston... After I die, I honestly think that he will sell my place as soon as he can find a buyer. I find that tragically short-sighted & rather weird because he grew up in the same remote rural county where I bought my land & settled down to live for the remainder of my life. Since he is the only heir on his father's side of the family, he stands to inherit everything from the entire family group. That makes my little 6 acres look chump change to him. Unless things go to hell before I die, he won't see the value & relative safety of living in a somewhat remote area, where he can grow his own food & provide for his family... I think things will be going to hell and he will be aching for the value and safety of growing his own food. My mother used to tell me stories of the Great Depression. She lived on a farm so she was lucky but things were still hard. But the next depression is going to make everyone forget the Great Depression.
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Post by steev on Sept 8, 2012 0:48:19 GMT -5
I quite agree with Ox, but my own frustration is that I see myself developing an independent life-support system, which in bad times can enable one to survive and in good times can be a base of operations from which to reach out. That my daughter has no grasp of the value of that rankles no less than the knowledge that she has no desire to go to Rio or any other unfamiliar place.
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Post by circumspice on Sept 8, 2012 2:13:29 GMT -5
My son thought I was nuts because I bought land in a rather remote rural setting. Then he got upset because I didn't buy a house in Houston... After I die, I honestly think that he will sell my place as soon as he can find a buyer. I find that tragically short-sighted & rather weird because he grew up in the same remote rural county where I bought my land & settled down to live for the remainder of my life. Since he is the only heir on his father's side of the family, he stands to inherit everything from the entire family group. That makes my little 6 acres look chump change to him. Unless things go to hell before I die, he won't see the value & relative safety of living in a somewhat remote area, where he can grow his own food & provide for his family... I think things will be going to hell and he will be aching for the value and safety of growing his own food. My mother used to tell me stories of the Great Depression. She lived on a farm so she was lucky but things were still hard. But the next depression is going to make everyone forget the Great Depression. My parents were born in 1923 & 1925, so they both had very vivid memories of the Great Depression & its aftermath. It was a major force in shaping their personalities & outlook on life. I grew up hearing about life during the Great Depression, something I've never forgotten. My son also grew up hearing their stories about it. But to him, it is ancient history, something that won't be repeated by the more 'enlightened' generations that followed... That just makes me shake my head in exasperation. He KNOWS where food comes from, he helped me & my dad in the garden from an early age. I can't understand or explain his complacency. He won't listen to me when I warn him of hard times to come. He infuriates me by patronizing me whenever I broach the subject. But it isn't only my son, it's all his contemporaries as well, they are all in the same mind-set. DENIAL. SHEESH!!!
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Post by MikeH on Sept 8, 2012 2:43:50 GMT -5
Kids these days don't value a dollar They don't like chewing but they sure can swallow, Wasn't that way in my younger days Something's wrong with kids these days Times ain't now what they used to be
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Post by circumspice on Sept 8, 2012 2:58:10 GMT -5
Kids these days don't value a dollar They don't like chewing but they sure can swallow, Wasn't that way in my younger days Something's wrong with kids these days Times ain't now what they used to be ;D A complaint that is as old as the written word & probably older still... ;D
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