Are orchards and farms often combined? ?

Question

I know that orchards are usually where fruit are grown, and farms are where vegetables, dairy and meet come from. But I was wondering are there a lot of farms that also grow things fruit as well as vegetables?

Answer 1

With farms you can grow several things in rotation, to amend the soil.

Answer 2

Actually, dairy and meat come from ranches (at best...).

I grew up in a small town, and there were orchards for peaches and walnuts, as well as strawberry and onion farms. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to mix them together, since the require completely different care and equipment. If they are mixed, it's usually a small area with a little bit of everything, where the owners sell the fruits and vegetables in a stand near the road.

I have heard of some orchards that are planting crops in rows between the rows of trees, but this is unwise because it takes out too many nutrients from the ground.

Answer 3

In the U.S.A. orchards, farms, and ranching are usually all separate enterprises.

Also people who grow orchards usually only have one type of fruit they specialize in.  

I lived in Yakima, WA for a while, and dated a guy who owned an orchard (apples).  Learned a great deal about orchard farming from him.  His sister owned a vinyard (grapes) that were made into wine.

You are not very likely to meet many farmers who mix orchard, vegtables, dairy and meat all in one farm.

I'm one of the extremely rare examples of that type of farming.

We have a small orchard, apples and a few pears.  Expanding the orchard to include plumbs, more apples, nut trees, peaches, and a few other fruit bearing trees.

Our chickens (for eggs and meat) will have the run of the orchards.  Our turkeys (for meat) will also have the run of the orchards.

Hutches to raise meat rabbits are being set up in the orchards as well.

We raise vegtables, and will be greatly expanding our garden to be able to sell to customers.  

I also raise meat goats and a few sheep in our pasture areas.  Meat goats are our main crop that we sell to customers.

I will be adding a few dairy goats to my herd (currently about 100 goats).  The dairy does will be just for our personal use.  It is illegal in the state we are moving back to, to sell dairy products, without being a Grade A Dairy.

We also grow herbs, which will be greatly expanded.

About the only thing we don't grow are grain crops.  No wheat, oats, barley, ect.  The weather in our area is too wet to bother trying to get in a grain crop.

It is very, very rare now days for a farm to grow more than one crop.  Most specialize in growing only one thing (or three things that they rotate planting every year).

It's even rarer to find a farm that combinds livstock, with the growing of crops.

It is a very labor intensive way to farm.  There's almost never a day off...no vacations for us.  However I wouldn't trade it for the world.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years