Archive for the ‘Crops – Fruits’ Category
August 12, 2011 – Putting Away the Apples
We’ve been working at preserving the early Williams Pride apples. It’s a wonderfully tart and sweet apple that ripens this time of year.
So far, from just one tree, we’ve put up 18 quarts of apple pie filling, and numerous bags of dehydrated apples, and eight gallons of frozen sliced apples, awaiting another later variety to make applesauce next month. There’s still a good number of apples left on the tree for more applesauce fixins. Oh yeah, I also found some blueberries at the store for 99 cents a box, so since we missed out on the berries up north, froze about half and canned the other half.
But by far, the best concoction is the apple pie filling. It’s a bit of a hassle to make, but all Linda has to do is make a crust, pour in the filling and bake. Great for potlucks and last minute desserts with little fuss.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #220″
June 17, 2011 – The Peach Tree That Could!
The little peach tree that could. This little guy wants to produce so bad – he’s a real overachiever!
All these peaches on a tree that’s just been in the ground 2-3 years. This is one candidate for some serious fruit culling to match the size of the tree to its fruit production.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #213″
June 8, 2011 – Strawberries Arrive in Earnest
Finally, the first succulent fruits of the year are here!
The strawberries are here and nothing like sun-warmed ripe strawberries off the vine (except maybe sun-warmed peaches of the tree).
one year ago…”Barn Staining Update”
May 8, 2011 – Just Peachy!
Now that the cold spring weather has broken, the buds that were just waiting, are hiding no longer.
The peaches are blooming profusely.
Too bad, the fragrance doesn’t go along with the the photos.
one year ago…”Ecoheartland Film Features High Hopes”
May 6, 2011 – Maybe Spring’s Here Now?
Spring might be here. After the long, cool wind-up, I’m not yet holding my breath.
I can’t recall the maple helicopters being so brilliant red in year’s past. Maybe it’s the cold?
Usually by mid-to late April the apple blossoms are about ready to avail themselves to the bees.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #207″
April 22, 2010 – Spring in Suspended Animation
Despite a couple of 85 degree plus Sundays in April, the rest of the month is just short of miserable. We should be in the mid-60′s by now, but it seems many days it struggles to reach 50.
Most everything seems to be in suspended animation. This asparagus is purple because of the cold and hasn’t shown appreciable growth in a week since it poked out.
Fruit tree buds, like these plums, are likewise, just holding steady and not advancing like they usually do. Last year the plum trees were in full bloom on April 14 – looks like this year could be two weeks or more behind last year’s blooming time.
Despite being the 8th warmest March on record on a global scale, we did not contribute to that warmth. There’s blue dots over us. April will likely be even much colder from average than March.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #205″
February 19, 2011 – Tree Pruning Begins
It’s time to kill two birds with one stone. Martin likes to climb trees. Dad needs the fruit trees pruned. So, it must be time to instruct Martin on the fine art of fruit tree pruning.
We just got a start on the pruning, but at least a few trees are pruned.
February 8, 2011 – Claire’s Lemon Meringue Pie
OK, it’s back to Iowa farm-grown produce. Today, we feature lemons. I neglected to post these back over Christmas break, when the lemon harvest began in earnest.
Yes, these lemons were grown at High Hopes Gardens, albeit indoors for some of the year.
Claire shows no remorse shortly after ripping these baby lemons from her long-time companion lemon tree, named Panda. Being raised on a farm, and around farm animals, I guess she had no troubles tearing this lemon from its mother and immediately cutting it up.
The non-meringuey part of the pie.
The completed pie.
Never one to know when to stop making Panda feeling bad, here Claire returns with a sinister smile to taunt Panda with what her babies looked like after being knifed, crushed, and cooked!
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.
one year ago…”Visit to Local Vineyard”
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 the first few blackberries coming on.
We ended up making seven quarts of raspberry filling, three quarts of blackberry, and we unfroze cherries put in the freezer from earlier in the year for this purpose and canned seven quarts of cherry pie filling. Seventeen pie fillings ready for winter!
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 for pollination!
One more parting shot and some summary information from a longer description available from Purdue Extension:
Williams’ Pride is an early-maturing, attractive, dark red apple with excellent fruit quality and field immunity to apple scab. The fruit is of medium to large size and matures with the very earliest known commercial red cultivars in the midwestern United States. It ripens 1 week after Lodi and 7.5 to 8 weeks before Delicious. Williams’ Pride is released as a potential commercial cultivar for use as a summer dessert apple. The apple is named in honor of Edwin B. Williams, Emeritus Professor and long time leader of the disease-resistant apple breeding program at Purdue Univ.
This summer apple is unique in that the flesh is very crisp and firm and that the fruit can be held in storage at least 6 weeks without loss in quality or firmness. The attractive, moderately bright, dark red fruit do not drop easily and retain firmness, crisp flesh texture, and flavor on the tree up to 2 weeks after maturity. During this time they develop nearly a 100% deep dark purple-red and heightened flavor, character, and juice content. Ripening is somewhat uneven and will require more than one picking.
The new cultivar produces a vigorous, spreading tree with sturdy growth, and good branch angles. Moderate to moderately heavy annual crops of moderate to large-sized fruits are produced without chemical or manual thinning.
The new cultivar has good to moderate resistance to fire blight. Williams’ Pride has also shown moderate to good resistance to powdery mildew. Leaf bronzing caused by parasitic mites has not been observed even in trees grown without miticides.
Bloom is annually very heavy, with a much extended bloom period. When compared with standard commercial cultivars, the duration of bloom extends from very early season to mid- or late mid-season. This character may provide avoidance of spring frost injury.
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 floral perfumes and have lsot judgment as to the proper amount to apply!
This is the newest strawberry patch – the other one petered out, so this is the new spot – for my future reference – top right Evie day neutral, bottom right Cabot, top left Earliglow, bottom left Cavendish.
one year ago…”Old Red Cedar Shingles”
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 are finally old enough to produce more than just a handful of pears this year.
