Cherries & Sactown Magazine

We picked the first cherries this week and they're now for sale at the fruit stand.  We had to pick them a little earlier than we wanted, because rain was expected again.  It has continued to be cool here with many record lows for the month so far.  Some of the tomato plants I replanted even frosted again this past weekend.  I pruned off the frosted parts, but if the plants survive the tomatoes will probably still be delayed. 

A nice article featuring our orchard comes out in this month's Sactown Magazine  "Best of the City" issue.   The article is called "Home Eat Home" and it's about 10 local farms and their specialties.  Otow Orchard is noted for persimmons.  The article isn't online, but you can find the magazine for sale in a lot of places throughout our area.

At left is a photo of ripening loquat (or biwa) on the tree.  Most are now yellow to orange and a little riper than this, so they should be ready to pick soon. 

Oranges

Lately we've been busy thinning fruit from the peach and plum trees, planting the vegetable gardens and fixing irrigation problems.  There were two cold nights this past week that killed some of the tomato plants in the colder parts of the orchard, so a lot of the tomato plants we planted a few weeks ago partially froze.  Probably they'll have to be replanted.


At the Fruit Stand we now have: 
--Oranges (Valencia) 
--Grapefruit (White variety)
--Lemons (Eureka) 
--Organic Vegetable Seedlings from Peas and Harmony--tomatoes, peppers,  eggplant, cucumber, squash, herbs 
--Eggs 
--Honey 

At left is a photo of  the Valencia orange tree at the orchard.