Hi HoHum, you will hopefully get some good input here, but you can also check out the Fruit & Orchards forum. It's a very active forum, and lots of knowledgeable folks over there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit & Orchards

Welcome to the New England forum, HoHumHollow. I'm not sure how much help we will be on specifics since I don't know that many of us grow fruit. However, I can at least give you some information to get you started.

The general guidelines for growing anything in a container is that it needs to be at least 2 zones hardier than your zone if it will be exposed to your regular winter temperatures. I've never tried growing any perennial crops in containers because they would have to be very hardy to have a chance of surviving in my colder zone. With fruit trees, you will also want to keep the container as cool as possible as late as possible in the spring, since soil in containers tends to warm faster than the ground, and you don't want early bloom by your fruit trees to avoid late frost and to be sure of active pollinators. (So that might entail moving your container to a shady spot for winter and early spring and insulating with bags of leaves or something, and then moving to sun once late frosts are unlikely.)

Growing anything in a container is more difficult than in the ground for other reasons beyond hardiness. Regular soil gets too compacted in a container, so you will need a soilless mix (typically a combination of composted organic matter and light-weight mineral matter such as perlite or vermiculite.) You will also need to provide fertilizer and water since the plant's roots can't go searching beyond the container to get what it needs. Consistent moisture is especially important for good fruit formation. So if you are renting, I can understand your wish to grow in a container, but if not, it's much easier in the ground.

I don't know if any of the folks on the container forum can give you formulas for organic soilless mix and fertilizer specifically for fruit trees and a fertilizer schedule. My organic fertilizer that I use for containers (and all my gardens, both food and ornamental if they need it) is equal parts of blood meal, rock phosphate, and green sand. These are all natural materials and between them have all the macro- and micronutrients your plants will need. They can be bought at my local farm store, but the blood meal doesn't come from organically raised animals, so you might want a different nitrogen source. I mix it into the container mix when I first fill the container and then top-dress annually with just a bit. It breaks down slowly, however, so if your plants need a quick pick-me-up, manure tea or compost tea will give them soluble nutrients that are readily available. I top-dress all my containers with compost once or twice a season so that nutrients are being supplied with watering. I do know that successful organic growing of apples and peaches is quite difficult as there are many insects and diseases that affect these two crops, but there are more organic tools available now than there used to be. I really am not trying to discourage you, though it may seem that way. I just want you to know that the combination of organic, container, and the particular fruits you have chosen is challenging, even for an experienced gardener . . .

I do grow blueberries and cranberries in the ground. If you have acid soil, both are easy crops that are both good for you and ornamental. Cranberries are happy in evenly moist, well-drained soils with lots of organic matter, like most food crops. (The cranberry fields are flooded to make harvesting easier, but the plants aren't grown in water.) Cranberries make a nice groundcover under other perennial plants. Both blueberries and cranberries have leaves that turn shades of reddish in the fall, and the cranberries don't lose their leaves. You might have to cover the blueberries with bird netting since many birds love blueberries. Rhubarb, though not strictly a fruit, is also relatively easy given a rich "soil," and modern varieties are far less tart than old-fashioned ones. Strawberry rhubarb pie or cobbler is one of our favorite early garden foods! (I've tried growing strawberries, but the chipmunks always got them before I did, so I go to the local pick-your-own now - less heartbreak.)

I probably wouldn't try to grow annual crops with the fruit trees since the veggies need full sun and removing the plants at the end of the season may disturb the fruit trees' roots and set them back some. Competition for food and water won't benefit either one. However, I do grow some of my veggies in pots, and that is quite doable since they don't need to be over wintered and
you can refresh the soil in the pots annually.

Here are some links to other Garden Web forums that may help:
Organic gardening: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/organic/
Container gardening: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/contain/
Figs: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/fig/ (I included this because it's a fruit tree that many of these folks grow in containers, so you might get some ideas for winter treatment, soil mixes, etc.)

Start by doing a search within the forum (down near the bottom of the page below the list of topics - silly place for a search!) for topics of interest, such as fruit and apples in the container forum or fruit and containers in the organic forum. They may also have an FAQ that may be worth looking through before you start asking questions. Then jump right in and ask away. Some forums are extremely active, but some aren't, so you might get good results or very few, depending.

I'm also including link to a catalog of organic lawn and garden aids including some items for organic fruit raising, though you can probably find more local and less expensive sources as well.

Good luck with your gardening!

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardens Alive