Archive for the ‘Crops – Fruits’ Category
August 22, 2010 – Moldy Plums
Not every crop is a success every year. This year’s constant rainfall, along with high humidity and heat when it wasn’t raining caused the plums to mold on the tree. They’d mold before they ripened. We managed to pick a few before they were ripe, but the conditions were not conducive to plums this year. ...Read more.
August 16, 2010 – Pie Filling
The raspberries are just starting to bear heavily. With all the rain, they are prolific. We picked a couple of gallons from a 70 foot row today (after picking for market two days ago). The apple pie filling was such a hit last year, that we thought we’d try raspberry pie filling. We also had ...Read more.
June 16, 2010 – Cherries
The cherries are quickly ripening. For a Minnesota boy, it still seems exotic to have a cherry tree. They are a bit of a hassle to pit, but they sure are good in pie, dried, or in jam! one year ago…”Debate Nationals Preview”
April 24, 2010 – More Apple Blossoms
Although I’ve posted a few photos lately of orchard blossoms, I can’t resist as the blossoms have taken center stage at the farm the last few days. This is a Williams Pride apple blossom. William’s Pride has been a great performer at our farm. We have a couple of trees and a beehive very close ...Read more.
April 18, 2010 – Spring Landscapes
This time of year the contrast between the dead corn and bean fields and life of everything is else readily apparent. This is probably as good as the south berry garden will look this season, before the weeds overcome us. This row of plum and cherry trees smells like a roomful of grandmothers who prefer ...Read more.
April 14, 2010 – Spring Flowering Begins!
Spring blossoming time has just begun! We’ve been 15 to 20 degrees above normal the last week, so plants have really been amping up. The plums are first out of gate in offering the bees the first big rush of pollen and nectar. The pear trees are not far behind – looks like our trees ...Read more.
October 2, 2009 – Applesauce Day
I’ll spare you the details of the processing, but today might be a record canning day at high hopes! The girls spent about three hours peeling apples, and we had some bags of apples in the freezer from earlier maturing trees. We made nine canner’s worth of applesauce. Apples take a while to cook into ...Read more.
July 20, 2009 – Fine Apple Crop (so far)
The apple trees have set a tremendous amount of fruit this year. Today I tried to make the trees resemble apple trees more so than grapevines. In the first go-round, I probably picked a couple of 5 gallon buckets of golf-ball sized and smaller apples from four trees. But the William’s Pride apples are further ...Read more.
July 6, 2009 – First Pear!
We’ve been waiting for many years to get our first pear. The pears have been among the slowest of all the fruit trees to give fruit – the cherries, apples, peaches, and plums all beat the pears. This is one of about a dozen on this tree. one year ago…”New Blooms”
June 1, 2009 – Dead Peaches
OK, so today’s picture isn’t so upbeat, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless. We’re on the fringe of the peach range (most people would say we are out of the range), but we’ve planted peaches nonetheless. Last year was an incredible production year – we harvested many bushels of peaches and sold them, dried them, ate them ...Read more.
April 30, 2009 – Plum Blossoms
We continue to be in a dark, cold weather pattern. Hard penance to pay for the 80 degree day last week. Low overcast with continual wetness starts to feel oppressive after a while. I’m worried that the wetness, cool temps and wind will prevent the pollinators from getting out to the fruit trees. The plums ...Read more.
April 21, 2009 – Apple Blossoms Soon
Now that the weather is really starting to warm up, the fruit trees are on the verge of their spring splendor. I’m very curious to see how the trees react to last year’s bumper crop and the -20 temps we had last winter. The peaches are particularly vulnerable. Stay Tuned! one year ago…”State Envirothon Champs”
March 15, 2009 – Prunings
Now that the pruning has been completed, it is time to haul away all the leftovers. Rather than many trips with the two-wheel cart, I thought I’d fire up the old garden tractor and use the small hay wagon. Of course, by the time the battery gets charged, then the drive belt slips off the ...Read more.
March 11, 2009 – More Pruning
I discovered last weekend that fruit tree pruning is a great complimentary activity to boiling maple sap. I can prune a tree for 15-20 minutes, take a needed break by wandering over to the stove and throwing another chunk of wood in the fire, and so it goes. Today it was frightfully cold, down to ...Read more.
