This Week on the Farm

Cherry News
Wednesday, June 30th, 2004

John grabbed me by the arm and made me leave the office for a golf cart ride through the orchard. He had been driving through the trees all morning and wanted me to share in the excitement. It is exciting! The trimming job this spring has allowed the sun to shine down on the lower branches. The crop of sweet cherries is plentiful, but not too plentiful. The cherries that have turned red are already defected--fruit that was either frosted or damaged somehow--and are starting to fall off the trees. The cherries that remain on the trees are sizing up very well (about the size of marbles). I think we are looking at having cherries in the market around July 6th-10th with U-PICK starting sometime between July 10th-13th.

Some of the challenges this year will be keeping the birds off the cherries. My next job after I finish this update is to go find the bird tweeters. Bird tweeters are solar powered recordings of a bird in distress. The problem is, we still have to be smarter than the birds. Changing the location of the recorder is the key to its success. I become like Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny around. The other tool we use to discourage the birds is called a bird banger. This runs on propane and sounds like a gun shot every 15-20 minutes. It works well if we change the location every 3 or 4 days. Of course, the neighbors aren't too happy if someone forgets to turn it off at night.

The construction is going well. We hope to be in our new fruit stand by July 10th. The light sweet cherries (Queen Annes or Emperor Frances) will be ripe around the 15th. Tarts look like they'll be ready about the 20th. We expect apricots by the 1st of August. I'll keep you posted on the dates. See you in the orchard!

Crop Update
Tuesday, June 22th, 2004

Here it is almost the end of June and still the strawberries aren't ripe. What a cold spring. The strawberry man assures me that the strawberries will be top quality and plenty of them once they start. The starting date is this Thursday or Friday!!!! We are ready. Both markets are open with a few vegies and of course all our jams and jellies. This year we have our own King Orchard cherry jam, cherry butter, cherry/raspberry jam and Balaton cherry salsa.

The progress on our new building for the market is going slower than we had hoped but it is happening. I guess the fact that it is a late year is working out for the best. Yes this cold spring is pushing back the date to start harvesting cherries by 8 to 10 days. My guess is that we will have some sweet cherries in the markets around July 6. U-pick will start sometime between the 10th and the 14th. The season should last three to four weeks. These are of course just a guess so I will keep you up-dated at this site. No price yet. Everything is growing and looks good.

Raindrops Keep Falling on our heads
Monday, May 24th, 2004

We got almost an 1.5 inch of rain over the weekend. I know the new trees love that rain! I'm worried about our raspberries as they seem a little slow getting started. John did check half a dozen of them, and although they didn't have any growth they were still living. Our corn looks good. We have heard that our farming friends in Bay City have had so much rain that the fields are too wet to plant their corn. This may be bad news for you sweet corn lovers since we start our sweet corn season early by supplimenting our crop with that "Bay City" corn.

We went down state this past week-end. When we left here it was a chilly 53 degrees, and when we got to Flint it was a muggy 78. No wonder the vegetables ripen ten day before ours.

I can see the outline of the new fruitstand and it looks great. It will be a wonderful improvement -- I just hope I survive the stress!!! I keep reminding myself of the end result and I know it is worth it. Things look great. I'll keep you in touch.

Beginning of the Blossoms
Thursday, May 13th, 2004

The blossoms are out on the apricots, sweet cherries and just starting on the tart cherries. We have had great weather for pollenation. We hope it continues through the peach and apple blossoms. Our bee man brought in the hives we rent to make sure that we have plenty of bee action. He had to move to Florida a few years back because European Honeybees have been declining in Michigan. He now brings in very active (hot) hives that he has been raising in Florida groves. One of my favorite spring time walks is to walk in the orchard under a canopy of bloom and hear the bees working the flowers. You don't instantly see them but you can sure hear them and then as you study the bloom you begin to see the 20 to 30 bees working the bloom.

Our barn yard is almost as busy as the bees in the trees. We have moved the two barns out and down to the corner of our farm. The old cement has been broken up and hauled away. The new fill is almost in and we expect to start the building on Monday the 17th. I'm hoping to be open for business June 10th. I don't expect everything to be complete of course, but all I need is a table and a place for people to park.

Other exciting things happening this spring is the smile on John's face after he gets out of his new 6520 John Deere tractor. This baby has 4 wheel drive with a low clearance cab, radial tires, and 24 speed power quad transmision! It is a beauty and easy on John's back. Jim has a smile on his face after seeing what a great job everyone has done on trimming the orchards. Rose has a smile on her face with the number of new Honey Crisp apple trees that have been planted this spring. Tom has a smile on his face as he hears again and again about how cherry juice has helped people. I'm just happy to see all this progress. This spring with the potential of a full crop in all our fruit (something we haven't experienced in two years) makes the atmosphere around here almost giddy. We are poised for a bountiful year! I'll do my best to keep this page updated so you too can share in the bounty.

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