Things are starting to pick up around here.

How would you like this header coming at you down the road! Actually this header is far too wide to drive down the road, so we have to take it on and off between fields and ferry it around on a trailer. It is actually a wheat header. We are working on converting it to fit on our combine.

We took out most all of our grassfields and are growing many different crops this year. Wheat, corn, beans, spinach and cabbage seed, along with blueberries and of course the u-pick apples.

Since it keeps raining so often, we are working on fixing/updating some of our equipment. As soon as the ground dries out more, we will be working up fields and getting ready for planting the crops.

We just finished fertilizing our blueberries...much earlier than normal this year. Pretty crazy. Below we are fertilizing the apples too.

Apple Blossoms.
This is the time of the year that it is most important to protect the apples from getting disease like apple scab, etc.



Next project that will need to be done in the future is thinning the apples. Once the apples are about the size of your thumb, we head out to start thinning. Some rows are especially more important to thin then other...The Gold Rush are really important to thin, otherwise there will be many many apples, but all a very small size. We thin to give the other apples more space to grow.

We also planted a brand new row of Honeycrisp. Since the Honeycrisp produce a large crop one year, and minimal to no crop the next, we are hoping this new row will produce opposite than the old rows. We would like to have Honeycrisp available every year.

I am also busy getting ready for our flower nursery to open on the 24th! The greenhouse is full of beautiful plants! We are also doing hanging baskets this year. Come check it out! M-F 9-5, Sat 10-5.

Apple Tree Pruning

BEFORE (above)

AFTER (above)


We are in the middle of pruning the apples trees right now.

First we prune the sides, then we go back and prune all the shoots going straight up from the top. We like to keep the trees nice and short so we don't have to use ladders for picking.

After the pruning is done, we rake all the sticks into the middle of the row. Then we take the flail mower and mow up the sticks, going over them a couple times.

It takes 4 people about 3 1/2 weeks to get it all done.


BEFORE (above)

AFTER (above)

You can see all the branches on the ground that were cut off. That is what needs to be raked into the grass row.
Side by side shot...

Merry Christmas

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone.

Apples sold out.

Thank you very much.

The winter pruning, raking, mowing, disease protection, irrigation maintenance, equipment repair and future planning begins.

Two Apple Varieties Still Available

After the weekend, we have Braeburn and Gold Rush left.

The Pink Lady are all gone.

Update

Looks like Granny Smith are gone.

Still have Gold Rush, Braeburn and Pink Lady.

We will also try to keep a few already picked buckets of apples up here by the office so if you come when it's raining, you can just pick up one of those. They are $2 extra, so $10 per bucket.

Bring your kids, they will love it! Show them where apples come from, not just from the grocery store shelf.

Four Varieties Still Available

It's wet, wet, wet but there is still apples. Check the post below for what apples are still available.

We still have apples!

Drove through the orchard this morning and we still have lots of apples!

The Gold Rush trees are still loaded once you walk halfway down.
Plenty of Pink Lady left...also walk halfway down the row to find them.
Lots of Braeburn.
There are still some Granny Smith. We have 3 rows of them. One of the rows is long and two of the rows are shorter and set back aways. If you go to the two short rows, you will find some Granny Smith apples left there.

The Red Delicious are all gone.

If you have your heart set on Golden Delicious we still have a little bit left. We'll just have to show you where to find them.