Hi everyone, It’s been another wet week (you can see as much from some of my photos below), but overall, things aren’t looking to bad. We thankfully avoided almost all of the hail that slammed a lot of our area a couple nights ago. Hail can be devastating to a fruit farmer even this early […]
It’s finally strawberry season!! We’ve got a few picked berries in the market right now, but we got rained out this morning, so I’m not sure how long they’ll last and if we’ll be able to pick many more today. However, tomorrow and going forward, we’re hoping to have a good supply every day for […]
I’ve always been interested in genetics and plant breeding. I actually took a lot of genetics as part of my biochem program as an undergrad. One thing that many people don’t know is that apples aren’t self-fertile. To “make” an apple, some vector (generally a bee) takes pollen from one apple variety and applies it […]
Spring is our second busiest time of year, after fall harvest. Between getting the pruning done and getting all the perennial crops ready for the season, and then getting all the vegetable fields ready and planted, it’s nonstop for a couple of months. Since we don’t yet have our own greenhouse, I order seed every […]
Spring at the Orchard means pruning all the trees, tons of planting, and bloom. It’s probably the prettiest time to visit our farm. Here are a few shots I’ve taken in the last couple weeks. Spring really can make or break us every year. Bees are critical for pollination in most of our crops, and […]
Peaches – The bad news first. We sold out of the last of the Encore peaches this past weekend. We’re done with peaches until next year. Apples – Now the good news. We’ve got over a dozen varieties of apples in the market right now, including Honeycrisp. In the last couple weeks, we’ve picked Gala, […]
Wow, it’s been a crazy last few weeks! First off, I’m now a dad. Amanda gave birth to our baby Abigail, and they’re both doing great. It’s been a blur of happiness and excitement, combined with lots of wailing, sleeplessness, feedings, and diapers. And did I mention, we’re really, really happy?! So Amanda is stepping […]
Hi everyone, The big news for us this past week was that we made USA Today’s list of 10 Great Pick-your-own Farms Across the USA! We were so excited!! Most of the other places were bigger farms right outside of large cities, so I felt that added to the honor of being chosen. I’m really […]
Hi everyone, April was so cold this year that everything is running late, but the warm weather the last couple weeks is starting to catch things up. Since I haven’t posted for awhile, I have a lot to tell you about what’s going on around the farm these days! First of all, as you can […]
Hi everyone, The weather finally broke today to be a little more fall-like. It’s been miserable picking (or being outside in general) this last week. I’m sooo happy for some 60s and low 70s! The heat has kept us ahead of schedule on harvest. The positive (at least for me) is that harvest will be […]