By Dawn Bates, Executive Assistant, & Tyler Broetje, Media Coordinator, Broetje Family Trust
Ralph Broetje is co-founder of Broetje Orchards and Broetje Family Trust. He has been farming in Washington State for more than 50 years, living out his God-given call to care for people and the land. We recently interviewed him in the field to catch his reflections on the season, as the trees are blooming and people are preparing for a new crop. He speaks from his current corner of Creation, bordered on one side by his daughter Sonya’s blueberry farm. Reflecting on a lifetime of experience planting and growing apples and cherries, he speaks about the unpredictability of the weather and the essential role of caring for the health of the soil. His views are a celebration of life and land, raising up partners who learn how to work together to love the places they tend, and drawing closer to Mother Nature and to God.
What is important about farming? What comes to your mind this time of year?
Ralph: This time of year, it’s a challenging time of the year. It’s an exciting time of the year. When we drove in, we took a picture of Sonya’s blueberries all covered with ice. So it can be cold at night and sunny and bright during the day. The weather is changeable. You never know from one hour to the next what it’s going to be. As you can see there’s a little bit of ice on the ground here. Chilly last night. Blossoms are just starting to open. The workers are challenged this time of year, staying up day and night. Frost protection, and pretty soon they’ll be bloom thinning, blossom thinning. This is the time of the year when a lot of decisions need to be made that set the crop for the coming year. Probably the most important time of the year.
Could you talk a little more about farming and the connection to the land?
Ralph: Farming is really tied to nature. I always feel closer out in the field, in the dirt, closer to God. Closer to nature. It’s a real connection. As farmers, if we’re lucky we have 50 crop cycles, one crop each year. We farmed for 50 years so we had 50 crop cycles. We do our best to take care of the soil, take care of the land, take care of the water. During that 50 years we hope to improve the condition of the soil. The soil is alive. It has millions of microbes per square foot. The better job we do of building up the soil, taking care of the health of the soil, the more nutritious the fruit will be, the better it keeps. And we want to return the soil and the land back, better than when it was placed in our hands. We’re only stewards of it for a short time. We need to do our best to improve it, not hurt it. We’re not in control of everything. We try to work with mother nature and God. Like weather, it changes all the time. With frost we do what we can to protect the buds. We learn to work with nature and not fight it.
As you think back over your years of farming, what would you say about your choice to grow an orchard?
Ralph: Agriculture, especially fruit tree growing is labor intensive. The people are the ones that build the relationship to the land and the trees. It’s like you’re closer to God out here and nature. It’s an exciting occupation.