Salem Harvest came today!

We had a big harvest today but there are lots of apples left I am told. So we are changing our mind about this Saturday being the last to come pick! We will stay open until the weather turns nasty.

Here is what was going on today:

Since it was nearing the end of the year and the weather is sure to turn to rainy and cold, we had Salem Harvest come out and pick some of our apples. It was a great turnout!
I've included some pictures of the day!

How it works is that each person that signs up with Salem Harvest gets to keep half of what they pick and the other half is donated to the Marion Polk Food Share. I guess they harvest all kinds of crops.

Here is the check in line. Everyone has already signed up ahead of time and only those people are let in the field. Salem Harvests coordinates it all!

So many apples were picked that all the bins were filled by the first round of pickers! There were 2 sessions and they still had the 2nd to go!


Loading up the truck!

Happy picker :)

And a great helper!

Thank you!

Thank you so much for all who came out this year!  It was a good year for apples and for that we are thankful!  It was fun to see all the families with kids, people from out of town and for some people it was their first time!  What fun!

Pink Lady is ready!

Pink Lady apples are ready!!  They are the last apple to ripen in our orchard so come get them!
  We still have almost ALL the varieties of apples that can still be picked.  Although the Gala apples are fewer in number and the Honey crisp are nearly gone.
    If you still want a Winter supply of apples, please come get them within the next two weeks.
We should have a good apple supply until the middle of the month at least.............

We also have WE-PICK buckets of apples available for $10 each.  Just call and say what varieties you'd like and how many and we can pick them for you.  Or we will also have a selection in front of the office ready.
Great option for if it's cold and rainy, or if you're unable to get around easily.

Still plenty of apples on the farm available for picking!!!!!

Pink Lady apples are ready!!  They are the last apple to ripen in our orchard so come get them!
  We still have almost ALL the varieties of apples that can still be picked.  Although the Gala apples are fewer in number and the Honey crisp are nearly gone.
    If you still want a Winter supply of apples, please come get them within the next two weeks.
We should have a good apple supply until the middle of the month at least............. 

Granny Smith are now ready.

Granny Smith just came ripe. 
Great for making pies and for those that like a tart apple!...Especially good dipped in caramel!

Checked the Pink Lady and they are not quite ripe....maybe another week.  I will let you know when they are.

Still have plenty of other apples still available that are super yummy!  Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Melrose, Red Delicious, Braeburn, Cameo and Rome.

Honeycrisp and Gala are about gone but if you really want some, you can probably find some if you look. 

Best time to come for a wide selection!!

Right now is when we have the widest selection of apples!  If you like to mix apples in your bucket, come now!  Fuji, Braeburn and Cameo just came ripe, but there are also tons of perfectly ripe Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Honeycrisp and Gala. 

Plus looking outside the weather is beautiful!!

FINALLY Fuji and Braeburn apples are READY!!

Grandpa Beilke checked the Fuji and Braeburn apples today and
he says they are ready to be picked!  It does seem like it has taken
forever to get them there but finally they are!

Open 7 days a week....Dawn to Dusk

 

Jonagold: Above

Walking around the Jonagold and Golden Delicious yesterday...the apples are BEAUTIFUL and a nice large size.  The Jonagolds above are all the way to the back of the orchard near the railroad tracks on the south side.  Lots left!!  Get them while they are available!!

Golden Delicious: Above

what beats the taste of a crispy apple ?

 This crop is probably our best Quality we have ever grown. The apples look good.

Come taste one.


Bring your camera, enjoy the day

Gala
JonaGold
RubyMac
HoneyCrisp
Rome Beauty
Melrose

Make this your farm day.

I met a farmer from Saskatchewan,Canada, he had come down to pick apples with his daughter. He farms 5000 acres. I couldn't imagine that. He raises wheat and Lentels. He farms all this with only two people.
I asked him if it is flat land up there in Saskatchewan.
He said it is so flat, you can watch your dog run away for three days.

GALA and HONEYCRISP are now ready!

The Gala and Honeycrisp are both ready!! 

Pick the apples that have more red on them, and you'll be picking the riper ones. 

We have a row of Honeycrisp that are especially beautiful.  Ask specifically for them, but they won't last long.  The row is in a different place than the main two rows.  We will have a large white sign directing you to them or just ask.

The Jonagolds will probably be ready in a week or two.  We will post when they are ready.

Gala Apples ready at this time. . . .

Gala Apples are ready now, but just barely ripe.
You may need to keep them for a week in your garage to ripen them up the last bit. .

\Remember, all crops are 2 - 3 weeks late in the Willamette Valley this year.
With our cool spring, we just do not have the heat units to ripen the crops as fast as a normal year.
" heat units" that is how farmers measure timelines for crops now days.
We can predict when insects emerge, and when to fertilize, etc.

Also we do not at this time have a VISA machine this year.  Please come prepared with cash or check instead.  Thanks!!

Baby Silas has arrived!

Yes this is our U-pick apple blog but we couldn't resist sharing the news!

Our little guy, Silas is here!  He came early on Aug 25th...happy and healthy. 
Just thought I would share our good news and a picture or two!

But also starting tomorrow we are open for Red Gravenstein!  They make great pies.

Red Gravenstein are ready to pick on Wednesday (Aug 31st)

The Red Gravenstein are ready to pick on Wednesday! 

Still $8 per bucket....about 22 lbs in a bucket.  We have buckets to pick into, just bring boxes or bags to bring your apples home!

Hours 8am-8pm 7 days a week.

We are hoping to get the Gravenstein row marked better for you so you can find it.  It is on the south end of the orchard.  One half of the row is Red Delicious and if you keep walking south, you will see the trees get a bit bigger and those are the Gravenstein.  You will see apples on the ground below the trees.

Hope that helps!

Working away....

Sorry for the blog hiatus.  I was having problems with it but with help, it now works!!  Thank you to my brother!

Update on Apples:  Apples are not yet ready but getting closer.  Tried a Gravenstein yesterday and they are still a little too firm and tart.  Those will be the first to be ready so I am thinking another week or two.  I will post when they are ready.  The next apples after that will be Honeycrisp and Gala.

I will be doing a better job updating the blog, especially since it is apple season.  Although I am due to have a baby Sept 2nd so I'll have to con it off onto someone else for awhile :)  My hope is that we will be updating every Thursday or Friday so you will know what is going on before the weekend.  If apples come ready during the week, we will also update then.

Other than that, we are more than halfway finished with blueberry harvest.  Our beans are getting picked today and we finished wheat and grass seed harvest last week.  We still have some vegetable and flower seed fields to harvest later in the season, and also corn.
So we are keeping busy but not out of control :)

Young blueberry field.

What we've been up to.....

Beans being irrigated.




Our earliest blueberries are starting to ripen up. Maybe start picking sometime this week. They are much later this year than last year because of all the cool weather. Actually all the crops are that way. It was weird not harvesting anything over the 4th of July weekend.







Radish crop, also grown for seed. These are the big pods that produce the seed. We hope they keep getting bigger and bigger.



This is a flower field grown for seed. We have to keep it really clean of weeds so we have cultivated it several times...teeth that drag through the soil and pull up the weeds. Then we have also hand weeded it 2x. And I'm sure we will have to do it again.