Monday, May 30, 2016

STONE FRUIT AT THE FARM STAND


Stone fruit seems early this year.  Maybe it is the weather or maybe its our efforts to hold back on water.  We are already harvesting apricots, peaches, plums, and pluots.

Santa Rosa plums are just around the corner.

Ladybug chrysalis (cocoon) on green tomato.



Zucchini plants look happy to give us our first squash of the season.  They are so fresh and easy to cook.  Other vegetables seem to be at least a month away.





At the Farm Stand we are now selling:
Springcrest, Maycrest, and Junecrest peaches              Eureka lemons
Red Beaut plums                                                         Yellow grapefruit
                               Blenheim and Patterson apricots                                   Honey
                               Flavor Supreme pluots                                                 Loquat
                               Hoshigaki strips

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

HARVEST IS STARTING

Salt curing for umeboshi.
Harvest is starting to come in, but we are still trying to modify irrigation to save water and labor.

If you are an ume fan, now is the time.  The window for processing ume is now open.  We have lots of conventionally grown ume.

Loquat and mulberries are being picked.  Peaches are coloring up. We are selling the first plums of the season and a limited supply of peaches.

Posted by Tosh

Comment by Chris:  In case you are wondering what to so with ume, there are great recipes for umeboshi, umeshu, and ume honey at the justhungry.com     website.

Friday, May 13, 2016

START OF A NEW SEASON

LOQUAT (BIWA)
LOQUAT ARE STARTING GET COLOR



Spring is giving way to summer.  Yesterday we harvested the first loquat. 

In a week we will have a few plums, peaches and apricots.  The emphasis is on the word FEW.

At the farm stand we are currently selling honey, Good Stuff Jams, Hoshigaki, dried peaches, dried figs, lemons and grapefruit. From other orchards we are selling oranges, Red Beaut plums and ume.

Our hours are:  Tues. through Sat.    10 AM to 6 PM
                                            Sun.    10 AM  to 5 PM
                                            Closed on Mondays

FROM THE TRACTOR SEAT

BIRD PROTECTION
EXCLUDING CHERRY VINEGAR FLY
It is going to be 90 degrees already.  Cherry Vinegar Fly wiped out our cherry crop.  If we are going to have any cherries in the future, we are going to have to bag every fruit.  Fruit is coloring up and birds are already pecking peaches.  Apricots are next.  Since we gave up spraying chemicals, there is a lot more life in the orchard, beneficials as well as pests.  From the farmer's standpoint the pests seem to be winning.
2015 UMEBOSHI WITH SHISO LEAVES
 Our ume harvest is finished. Loquat are next.

Every year there seems to be an introduction of a new pest or two.  As pests become resistant to every ag chemical the industry throws at them we will have to learn to eat wormy fruit.  It may gross us out but it may be our only alternative to starvation.  Pests are not going away.

See you at the orchard,  Tosh

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Regular Hours & Tomato Plant Sale

We're now back to our regular hours at the Fruit Stand.  We  will now be open from 10 o'clock to 6 o'clock, Tuesday through  Saturday, and on Sunday will be open from 10 to 5.  Mondays the Fruit Stand is closed. 

At the fruit stand now, we have navel oranges, lemons, grapefruit, hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmons), Good Stuff jam, local free-range eggs and tomato plants for sale.  The tomato plants are plants that started by seed ourselves. 

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