The Pot of Gold

Yesterday as Bill drove up to the orchards, he saw snow on Stormy. You know what the old timers say about snow on Stormy in October? It means we're going to have a lot of snow this winter, and our apples will sell for a good price. I confirmed the first part of it on the NOAA long range forecast. Yep, the scientists and old timers agree. The second part I'm waiting on....

This is the first snow of the year on them thar hills. Can you see Ray & Stephanie's house by Stormy? I'm teasing you. Their house and farm is too far away to see. However......

When Bill arrived at Last Chance Orchards, he saw that the end of the rainbow was at Ray & Stephanie's house. He was very excited to hear about the Pot of Gold at their house, so he called Stephanie. Stephanie was, of course, very excited as well and said she would let him know when she found it.

Saturday we finished picking the small block of Red Delicious. It's been chilly each morning. The pickers really look forward to the coffee and donuts as they wait for the sun to warm the apples.

Notice that the water in the stem bowl is frozen. Our pickers wear gloves this time of year.

FYI it's time for the Farm Quiz Game!

What's on this Red Delicious apple?

a. Apple eye lashes
b. Apple nose hairs
c. Lacewing eggs
d. Red Whisker Disease

I hope you didn't say, "Red Whisker Disease" because I threw that one in there to trick you. Good thing you said Lacewing eggs because I might have needed a time-out to guffaw a bit.

This is what an adult lacewing looks like. This is a beneficial insect that in the larvae stage feeds on aphids, thrips and assorted other soft bodied pests that damage apples and cherries. We love them and frequently purchase them so they'll help us with pest control. According to Bill, at night in the tractor headlights they look like iridescent fairies.

So after a full day of picking, we drove out to Ray & Stephanie's to help them look for the Pot of Gold and join their cider party.

We didn't find the gold but we did find some yummy apple cider. A delicious blend of apple varieties that created a light and refreshing glass of cider. Ray had several bins of Sweetangos, Honeycrisps, Galas and Robellas. The Robella was new to us. This apple had more acidity and added the tart flavor to the cider. As you can see, this cider press is very impressive. Ray restored most of it and even built the new basket underneath since that part was missing. The other thing you can see is that Ray likes Bill's jokes. That's awesome, Bill, because he's been listening to them since you guys were in kindergarten. Making cider is hard work. The crew needs cold hearty ales to sustain the pace of jug filling.

The grinder chews up the apples which fall in the basket.

When the basket is full, a wooden lid is laid on top of the ground apples and the screw compresses the apples in the basket to create the juice.

Stephanie sent us home with several jugs of juice. She said, "It's a cultural experience and part of the season." And we said, "WE LUVIT!"

Finishing the Honeycrisps

Hey, I'm back, and we're finally done with Honeycrisps! And I have another Follower! Yippee, Stephanie:)

Here she is with her lovely daughter Johanna. Stephanie is a Fun Farmer and an awesome friend. She and I are kindred spirits for 4 reasons:

1. We both began our work experience as teenagers picking eggs at chicken farms. OK, I've never met anyone else on this earth that has picked eggs at a chicken farm!
2. We're both keen fisherwomen. Her version of fishing is amazing! It includes a private lake, sunshine, a puppy and champagne with hibiscus flowers.
3. We both love farming and farmers, specifically the two that have been best friends since kindergarten.
4. We're both moms of exceptional children. Johanna's baby shoes are on the dashboard of Stephanie's Jeep. Natalie's umbilical cord clip is in my sock drawer, and my positive pregnancy test results with Shyla are in the safe. I keep an avocado green coffee cup Grayson found and gave to me the first weekend we met when we were 4-wheeling on the mountain. And the string of peppers John gave me 2 years ago are still on the kitchen wall. (Geez John, I must really like you because those peppers haven't aged well!)

So much to CELEBRATE!

This was our biggest crop of Honeys ever. Triangle C had their biggest crop ever, and we had the most difficulty we've ever had getting enough pickers. Our core group of 14 guys have worked non-stop for the past three weeks. I found out yesterday that several of them are also attending night school to earn their GED. Wow, wow, wow!

Here they are again. They've been an awesome crew!

 

Some things we want to remember for next year's Honeycrisp crop:

• We need a much bigger crew year around beginning this winter
• Spend more time summer pruning to get more light into the tree canopy
• Irrigate a couple of times a week rather than daily
• More aggressive pest control specifically for the leaf roller

This is an example of leaf roller damage on a Honeycrisp.

• If it's a big crop, go back in again in August for another round of thinning
• Although our soil had excess nitrogen levels, we kept bitterpit down by weekly foliar applications of calcium throughout the growing season
• Post harvest recommendation from Gary Johnson, the soils guy at Wilbur Ellis, included a band application of Gypsum ( Calcium Sulfate), Pro Natural Soil Stimulant if compost not added and a foliar application of moderate boron and 1 gal of either True Organic 4-0-2 or 3-1-5
• Well, I don't know how we're going to foliar apply anthing now that we've finally harvested the fruit and next week the forecast shows snow? The irrigation water is off and all the lines have been blown. The sprayers have been blown as well.

Here I'm distracting Bill from working on blowing the sprayer. That's our compressor hose strategically located to blow all the remaining fluid from the lines. Hey Ray, do you recognize that sprayer? Bill bought it from you 20 years ago!

Do you see the spray coming out of the nozzles. Bill is doing a great job!



Back to our list of things to remember for next year's Honeycrisp crop:

• We had concerns about low temperatures at night this past week. We had signed up for weather alerts from Ag Weathernet so recieved an alert with extra information. The suggestion from WSU was that although there was the potential for low temperatures, there could be an inversion so wind machines might help keep the temperatures from dipping too low by pulling the warm air above into the orchard.

Here's one of our wind machines.

 Bill is setting the thermostat for 32 degrees.

The canyon got cold Tuesday night through Friday morning. The wind machines came on every night soon after the sun went down. One of the canyon neighbors called me Friday morning to let me know we had some wind machines going.  According to him, wind machines couldn't possibly have a purpose this time of year plus they were disrupting his sleep. Oh my gosh, he's the same neighbor to call us in August wondering if we had a meth lab in our cherry block because of the odor wafting up to his house after we applied Dried Poultry Waste.

In the morning after the first cold night, we cut open an apple and saw frost on the seeds. Our fieldman explained that the cold temps travel up through the core from the bottom calex end of the apple frosting the seeds without freezing the apple.

The last night it got down to 25 degrees for several hours, and we did have a few frozen apples. This was obvious because the skin was wrinkled and the apple felt rubbery. We waited until almost noon for the apples to warm up so we could begin picking. We marked those bins of apples as 0's meaning they should be sold immediately. Those apples having been frozen once won't store for any length of time.

We didn't have many apples that froze, and we're pretty sure we kept the temperature up five degrees more than it would have been without the windmachines.

In addition to the good news on finishing the Honeycrisps, Natalie got her third interview for a job she's excited about in Dubai. Yay Natalie, good luck!

Now we move to harvesting our Red Delicious, Pinatas and Fugi apples. 

Harvesting Apples and Deer

Yesterday we harvested 65 bins of Honeycrisp. We were hoping to get 80 bins but didn't make it with the crew we had. The forecast is still predicting Monday and Tuesday to be frosty, so we want to get as many Honeycrisps harvested as possible.

Here's Gonzalo clipping a Honeycrisp stem. He is one of our regular employees and does a great job.

And here's Gonzalo picking.

This is the Red Chief block of Honeycrisps. The whiteness on the leaves is from an organic product called Purshade that protects the apples from sunburn. The off color grass in between the rows of trees is the result of having been covered for a month with a reflective material to promote apple color. That material was removed prior to our first pick.

After we started picking this morning, it rained so we shut down. The forecast predicted 20% chance of rain this morning. However, there's a silver lining. I'm excited to report I have now figured out the Chelan forecast predictions for precipitation. Write this down! If the forecast says 20%, that actually means 100%!  It was true during cherry season and now again in apple season.

 The plan is for everyone to dry out and return after lunch providing it's not still raining, I'm not still blogging, and Bill's not still hunting. This ongoing harvest has really gotten in the way of Bill's hunting this year. Tomorrow is the last day for the season, and now he's trying to harvest and hunt.

 Here are some pictures from his scouting opportunities. Do you see the deer in the above picture?

Hey, I just got a phone call. Bill got a deer and the crew has started picking again. Gotta go!

This blows!

I know you've been on pins and needles to find out the answer to the Farm Quiz Game, so I'll not make you wait another minute.

The answer is.......

a. One of my parents and specifically my dad! If you guessed my dad, then you get a bonus point!

Here he is kayaking in the Chelan River a couple summers ago. Kayaking is one of his favorite hobbies. His big news is that his latest health report was excellent. Yay, Dad! Way to go! You're my favorite Follower!

Back to farming. Do you want to know what blows? This does.

This is the large air compressor Bill rents every year to blow all of his irrigation lines. Here he is attaching the air hose to the irrigation valve.

While I was observing, it came unattached, and since the compressor was going the hose hissed and whipped around like the Basilisk in Harry Potter. I'm not gonna lie. I felt imminent danger. Then Bill shut the compressor down and reattached it.

When it builds enough air pressure in the lines, water shoots out of the sprinklers until it drains all of the lines.

The sprinkler at the far end of the blueberry field has water spurting out of it. Bill does this at each of the blocks we farm in preparation for freezing temperatures in winter. He uses the 4-wheeler to race around and open valves during the draining process. It takes about 1.5 days to get all lines drained.

There he goes!

While Bill was doing this, the crew color picked our Pinata blocks.

 

Pinatas are a club variety with Stemilt Growers. According to Stemilt Growers this apple thrives on a select few locations where the soil, elevation and climate fit it perfectly. We've had good success in our location. Pinatas are from Germany and are a cross between Golden Delicious, Cox Orange Pippin and the Duchess of Oldenburg varieties. They are stripy, bright red over a yellow orange background. I had one for lunch yesterday and thought it was pretty darn tasty!

The crew has since moved back up the canyon to finish Triangle C's Honeycrisps. They'll start on our final pick of Honeycrisps Friday morning. The weather forecast is predicting night time lows in Chelan around 32 on Monday and Tuesday night. Since the canyon is usually ten degrees colder at night than Chelan temperatures, we're anticipating lows of 22 degrees. Hay caramba! That's too cold! Hopefully we'll have a picking crew of at least 30 people for the next four days before the low temperatures get here.

We'll keep you posted!

Farm Quiz Game #2

Hey, time to celebrate. Maybe you didn't notice but 2 Fun Farming has 2 Followers now! Yippee!

To have a proper celebration, we need to play the Farm Quiz Game. The first Follower is me. I know that's lame. ... ANYWAY, the second Follower is a mystery person, and you get to guess who it is!

a. One of my parents? Yes, they look like they have fun on the farm.

b. My niece, Leah? She's a senior in high school. Need I say more?

c. Mr. Cool, the local FFA teacher? Is he more interested in farming with animals or fruit trees?

d. Leo? Could I be desperate enough to make him a Follower? Heeheehee, Of Course!

e. Natalie or John in Dubai? This would be their pre-farming look?

f. Shyla or Grayson in New Orleans? Future proprietors of a "farm bar"?


I know. This is another tough Farm Quiz Game. Look for the answer tomorrow!

Honeycrisp Harvest

We finally started harvesting our largest block of Honeycrisps this week. Like I mentioned previously, we're two weeks later this year than last. This makes us a little nervous to have so much fruit still hanging on the trees this late in the fall. We're watching the weather closely!
Besides the late harvest, the labor supply is tighter than in years past. We have a crew of 13 that are with us for the season, and most of them live in the housing we provide. We definitely need a bigger crew and consequently more housing so they will stay with us year round. Making a plan for this next year will be our winter project.
We've advertised on the roadside and through the local Spanish radio station that we need more pickers. No response, so Bill started calling fellow organic growers at the river level who would be finishing varieties that we would be starting. Voila! We've had a crew of 22 pickers for most of the week.
A farmer with smaller acreage next door hired a couple of caucasian pickers. They take eight breaks a day, an hour lunch and each picker gets one bin a day. We have ~1000 bins (this includes Triangle C's remaining 150) yet to pick, so that kind of pace wouldn't work.
Here's our group of 22 pickers. This includes 3 women that I have such respect for!

This canyon grows great Honeycrisps but is very chilly in the mornings! Bill provides hot coffee and  donuts every morning to help ease the chill.
The stem on a Honeycrisp is very thick and rigid. If it's not clipped short when picked, it will puncture other fruit in the picking bag and bin. The skin is quite thin which is part of its eating appeal, but it also makes it more suseptible to punctures. The pickers keep a pair of clippers in one hand as they pick. It takes finesse to pick and clip without bruising or breaking the skin of the apple.

Here I am ticketing and checking bins. This process is so much easier with apples than cherries! How do you like my apron custom made by Grandma? It has a pocket for every item imaginable. Bill really likes it, and he uses every pocket when he checks bins.

Here are some full bins.

Honeycrisps are absolutely my favorite apple in the world for three reasons:

1. The name Honeycrisp in itself is fabulous
2. The thin skin
3. The crispy burst of sweet juicy tangy flavor

Gosh I want one right now! Actually, I just thought of another reason they're my favorite.
    4.    Their gorgeous color.

We've spread our Honeycrisps between three packing sheds: Columbia, Phillippi and Stemilt. This is a little tricky because each of the sheds has specific field staff, bins, tickets and truck/truckers. Bill especially likes the Columbia trucker Norm. First things first. Norm complimented our Honeycrisps by saying they're the nicest he's seen all season. Then Bill and Norm had a lively literacy discussion. Turns out Norm wasn't much of a reader a few years ago, then he tried a John Grisham book on a vacation with his wife. He reads books all the time now by the same authors that Bill likes: Patterson, Baldacci, Follet, Crichton. They really hit it off. Bill had to take a picture of Norm's truck with a full load.

Honeycrisps are a challenging apple to grow well. They biannual bear and are suseptible to bitter pit. We've minimized the biannual bearing issue by pruning more on the light crop years and with semi-annual fertilizer applications. We apply weekly foliar sprays of calcium to minimize bitter pitting. The calcium has made for better pressures/crispiness in the apples so we're able to let the apples hang longer for better color. The elevation and cold environment of this canyon provides an ideal growing environment similar to Minnesota where this apple variety originates.

Blueberry Soil and a Wedding Kiss

The blueberries grew really well this year. Next year will be their fourth year so we're looking forward to both varieties having good crops. The leaf analysis on the blueberries showed they are short in phosphorus, boron, iron and copper, and the soil sample showed the pH at 6.8.
The pH result alarmed us since we know blueberry plants need to be between 4 and 5 for good growth and fruitfulness. When  we tested our pH levels in July, our average level was around 5. This new information meant I needed to grab the Bluelab Soil pH Meter and check for myself! Here I am checking. You can see the pH here is a little high.

The average pH that I got with five samples was a 5.74 on the lower block and a 5.42 on the upper. My tests were close to the plants. Nitrogen fertilizer along the drip line will lower the pH level which could explain the discrepancy between my results and Wilbur Ellis'. If Wilbur Ellis tested soil on the outside edge of the planted row, the pH level would be higher because it would be farther away from the fertilizer. Regardless, we know we need to lower the pH so we'll add some elemental sulfur after dormancy and maybe some dry citrate powder when we fertigate in the spring.
We applied a foliar spray yesterday with boron and True Organic to address the nutrients we are low in. Boron deficiencies are relatively common in Oregon and Washington and if not corrected can reduce fruit set and cause shoot die-back. The True Organic will address the three primary elements for blueberries: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K).
It's always a  juggling act to organize foliar sprays when we are in the middle of a harvest. Just like the cherries, our apple harvest is two weeks late. This is yesterday's early morning shot of our full apple harvest moon.

Two months ago today Shyla and Grayson were married with a full cherry harvest moon.

The Annual Leaf and Soil Analysis

When we were having "bad luck" with our cherry blocks, we decided to take the luck out of it and add science. Every fall for the past couple of years, Bill and I review results of leaf and soil analyses that we have done on each of the blocks we're farming. We have Northwest Wholesale do the leaf tests and Wilbur Ellis do the soil tests. The leaf results are easy to interpret and plan for. The soil results are more complicated. We usually have a two hour meeting with Gary Johnson, Wilbur Ellis' soil scientist, to have him explain the results and recommendations. Last year's results showed we were very low in zinc and nitrogen in most of our cherry blocks. Even though we had been applying maintenance amounts in the fall and spring, the test results showed we were deficient. This was exciting news because we hoped it would explain why we were having so much difficulty with our cherries. We then increased our nitrogen and zinc applications last fall and spring and thankfully saw healthier trees and double the cherry production this summer.
I put together an Excel chart showing the results for this year to compare the leaf and soil results. Both types of samples show our cherry trees and soils look healthier and better balanced than last year. Nitrogen and zinc levels are good, however several blocks were low in calcium and one was low in magnesium. Bill is using this information to plan the last sprays that will go on the cherries and blueberries tomorrow. Since we're still picking apples and we may be for quite awhile, he's not planning any sprays for apples.
He's also planning ground applied nutrients that we'll order in bulk to apply when we finish apple harvest. We've gotten conflicting information about release rates of different organic fertilizers such as DPW (dried poultry waste) and feathermeal. This is no longer an issue since we now know about Oregon State University's organic fertilizer calculator at http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/calculator.
An interesting suggestion by Gary, our soils expert, was that we could apply bat guano to our apple blocks in the spring because they're low in phosphate. That, of course, made me think of Billy and Bettina in Mexico. I wonder how they're doing and if they have lots of friends?

Fall Food & Flowers

Most of the garden is ready for harvest now. I've been canning and drying tomatoes anytime I get the chance. We've had such a bumper crop this fall compared to last year! You know the fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk? OK, I could have written a version of Jack and the Tomato Plant. The problem last year was that there were no tomatoes. They were plants on steroids. We had some young horticulture friends visiting, and when Will saw our tomatoes he exclaimed, "Dude, those tomato plants are trees!" A more horticulturally correct way to put it would be that the tomatoes had too much vigor. We had used a lot of compost in the newly raised beds creating too much fertilizer. Oops.

But not this year! This is an heirloom variety called, Brandywine. I like to dry and can these.

To dry, I use a Harvest Maid dehydrator with four racks that I spray with olive oil no stick cooking spray. Then I lay tomato slices (cut ~ 1/4 inch thick) on to cover the rack completely. They dry for 24 hours and look like this when their done. We love to crumble them on salads and soups in the winter. Bill will eat them like potatoe chips if he can. I don't let him for two reasons: 1. I'm mean. 2. They're too much work to eat them that fast!

This is an easy salad that impresses guests. It's a Caprese Salad with fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and reduced balsamic vinegar. Have you tried reducing balsamic vinegar? Simply simmer the vinegar until it thickens. If you have any head congestion this process can clear your head immediately. Bill accidentally put his face in the steam and his reaction was epic. He said he now has new nasal passages he never had before.

I have lots of fresh basil and garlic in the garden. I've never grown garlic before and decided to try it this year.

This is my elephant garlic. The cloves are huge!!
So with all the basil and garlic, guess what I've been making?

Guess again. I even added parmesan cheese!

No, this is not the farm quiz game so relax. Wait! Did you say, pesto? Yes, that is what I've been making and freezing.

Here Bill is about to check it for quality. Yes, he reported it passed the quality test.

Enough about food already. Let's talk about flowers for a minute.

This dahlia is the size of a dinner plate! I have white and purple varieties this fall, and I LOVE THEM! I will definitely grow them again next year.

Here's a parade of my dahlias.

Do you have a favorite?