This Week on the Farm

Sweet Corn Planting and Apple Blossom Time

This week we have seen the cherry blossoms fade and the apple blossoms come out into full bloom.

Within the next few days the bee man will be coming by in the middle of the night to pick up the bees we rented for pollination. We have had good pollination weather, it has to be warm or the bees won't leave the hive.

Casey has been mowing the orchards. That always looks so nice, all mowed and cleaned up.

The sweet corn has been planted and is starting to come up. (Good job John on those straight rows!) Rose has planted pumpkins, beans, zucchini, and cucumbers. (How's your back doing Rose?) Jim has finished the tree planting and after a slight math mistake (the Honeycrisp trees were planted at 3 1/2 feet apart instead of 4 feet) John is now looking to buy more trees to finish that block. I've been sitting around eating bon-bons and working on my tan!

Snowball Bloom

The tart cherry trees are in snowball bloom right now and it is fun to see the hillside white with blossoms. The honey man has delivered the hives and they seem hot (active with bee movement). The bees like the warm weather. There have been past years when it was cold and rainy during bloom which made us worry about pollination. But not this year.

Casey has been hedging the tart cherry trees now that they are in full bloom. He does this by driving a tractor with a hedger hooked on the front and just cuts off the tip of the trees. This promotes flower bud formation for next year and fruit set for this year. Not every farmer does this but John likes to push those trees.

On top of hedging, we have been busy planting trees. We put in more that 2000 tart cherry trees and 1500 Honeycrisp apple trees. Honeycrisp apples are the bright spot recently in the apple industry. We are excited because it is a high quality apple that takes "know how" to grow. We feel we have this expertise and can grow a quality Honeycrisp apple.

Apples are just starting to bloom. Our Russel Ridge Block, which is all apples and located behind our US 31 market, is just beautiful. We have to thank Mark Doherty, our partner at Russel Ridge for his energy, expertise and dedication. Really everyone is working hard. Rose has marked all the fields for the new trees. Tom has picked up the trees and helped plant them. And of course Jim has had the make sure everything is getting done right.

It has been a busy week but there has been a lot of progress. I've got a senior graduating this year so I'm a bit distracted but we are having fun!

bees working the orchard; May 2003

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