Hi Forum Members,

I recently received this from the Cider Digest, and I thought that at least some of you would be familiar with his books.  I know that at past HOS scion distributions and HOS autumn fruit tastings his book:  "The Apple Grower, A Guide for the Organic Orchardist" was available for sale.  It is a tremendous compendium of information, and also often quite entertaining to read.

This was posted by Quebec apple aficionado Claude Jolicoeur, the author of the outstanding reference "The New Cider Maker's Handbook, A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers."  It's titled a "handbook", but it is the best textbook on the subject available today.  As usual I digress.  Here is Claude's posting [I take it to mean Feb. 27 or 28]:

This is very sad news. Michael Phillips left us last weekend. His heart
failed as he was working in his orchard. This was very sudden and totally
unexpected, as he had sent me a normal email the same morning of his death.
Many of you on this forum are from many areas of the world and might not
know much of his work. He was a monument in North America for
non-conventional orcharding practices, and in particular promoted Holistic
orcharding. He wrote many books, animated numerous workshops and
conferences, and hosted a forum called *Holistic Orchard Network*.
http://groworganicapples.com/portal.php

He was the central point, linking together many apple growers who believe
conventional way of growing apples is not the best way to go, and he will
be missed.
Claude

Reinettes.