Many customers have been stopping by to check for peaches and plums. We tell them probably not till June. Peaches and plums are still hard and green. And with the current 4 days of rain they are subject to disease.
Tis the season for mulberries though. So "Here we go round the mulberry" tree. We are starting to harvest Pakistani Mulberries. This is a new crop for us so we are waiting to see how sensitive it is to the rain we are experiencing this week. Pakistani Mulberries are a long strand of delicate deep purple drupes. The drupes cluster around a central stem. They are sweet, juicy and low in acid. Most people will wash and eat them right out of the basket. My internet search tells me they can be used in desserts, salads, and paired with cheese or meat.
Loquat fruit are on the horizon. By the end of May we hope to be harvesting some of these memory fruit. On the tree they are still greenish and developing a bit of color.
In the orchard, the stone fruit thinning is almost finished. Next the apples, pears and persimmons need to be thinned. Keeping up with the weeds is also a challenge this year. We were just getting it down, and now there is rain.
BarleyOats farm will be supplying us with winter vegetables for a couple more weeks then those vegetables will want to bolt. Our summer gardens are being planted with tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, peppers and okra. Their production is at least a month off.
Here's what we have in the farm stand from Otow Orchard:
Hoshigaki, hand dried persimmons
Eureka Lemons
Marsh white grapefruit (yellow flesh)
Valencia oranges
Pakistani Mulberries (limited supply)
Dehydrated Asian Pears
Calendula Salve and Lip Balm
Herbs: mint, rosemary, oregano
Honey from our orchard
This is what we have from other producers:
Rio Red Grapefruit from Stony Point (organic certified)
Ume from Sunnyslope Farm
Jams from The Good Stuff
Winter vegetables from BarlyOats Farm
Honey from Top O' The Hill Apiary
Bee pollen from Top O' The Hill Apiary
Eggs from Two Feather Farm