This was a hard year for strawberry and apple farmers. The warm weather early in March meant that both the berries and the apples started growing too early. When the inevitable cold weather returned, the apple blossoms were frozen. Most of the strawberry blossoms were protected by watering - starting somewhere between 11:00 pm and 2:00 am and watering until the temperatures rose above freezing well after sunrise. But excessive watering encourages fungal growth and a leafspot problem developed that cut the strawberry crop about in half. The apple crop was about 5% of last year's crop when all was picked and done. The raspberries suffered damage from the frosts and an invasive pest newly arrived from the south. The blueberries came through pretty well and are a better stand than we first thought. They take a loooonngg time to 'green up' in the spring. We'll be better prepared for the wait next year and less prone to panic.
On the bright side, the tomatoes raised in the hoop houses did very well and because we had some of the first tomatoes, both grape and slicers, they sold for a very good price. Once the field-raised tomatoes came in, the prices dropped significantly and Farmer Bill will think this winter about whether to bother with field tomatoes. The cantaloupe also did well this year and customers continued to be amazed at the size of our melons. I have my doubts as to whether sweet corn makes any money, but it does create cash flow... and farmers always need cash.
All in all, a mixed bag of crop results; but Farmer Bill was able to make the mortgage payments and pay the property taxes and the help (less help needed, of course). So that's a positive. And of course, there's always next year. [This year we've used the phrase 'wait until next year' about both the farm and Farmer Bill's baseball team.]
We do have many things to be thankful for. Our daughter was married this year, and the couple bought a house and are settling into married life. Our son & d-i-l moved to Maine and her new job is proving to be a good one, with possibilities for future growth - and we actually talk somewhat more often than we did when they were just an hour away. Both Farmer Bill & I remain healthy. My job has never been in danger and I continue to enjoy most aspects of the work. I hope to be able to find more time for writing over the winter and into the next year. I get a lot of great ideas during my long drive to and from work, but rarely do they make it to print. Maybe next year...
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
And it's over...
Amazing. Farmer Bill will pick the last of his strawberries on Monday - and that's it for this year. The crop suffered from frost damage & angular leaf spot. The frost was one that was missed - possibly when we were in Scotland for our daughter's wedding, or possibly shortly after we came back, or maybe even earlier. We really don't know... which indicates it might be time to think about a different frost alert system. Food for thought for next winter. Angular leaf spot was a problem across our area, wherever people used sprinkler irrigation to do frost protection. The bacterium lives in the soil and spreads to the strawberry leaves via splashing water. It is hard to control, but there is a spray that seems to get good results - and is labelled for organic use, which is an added bonus.
[If you haven't read my previous diatribes on whether organic producers spray, they do. None of us wants to poison the earth, the people eating our produce, or ourselves. But farmers who are in farming to make a living need to have a crop to sell, and sometimes (often) nature throws us a curve ball that we have to figure out how to hit. An organically-approved pesticide means that the chemicals in it have been proven to break down rapidly, leaving little or no residue on the produce.]
We started picking the summer raspberries this week and the response has been good - because the crop looks pretty good.
We're seeing splashes of red in the grape tomato hoop house, the melons are blossoming like crazy (get busy, you bees!), and the slicing tomatoes look good to me, but I haven't seen any red yet. There's a LOT of sweet corn planted - on our place and at a neighbor's place - but Farmer Bill says he's not planting off the farm after this year. It's too hard to keep up with the additional acreage during strawberry season. I've been encouraging him (okay, maybe I've been nagging a little bit) not to expand every year. We're not getting any younger, and the 16-hour days seem harder every summer. In the middle of strawberry season he usually agrees that he should cut back, but in the middle of the winter when he's rested again, almost anything seems possible.
It looks like the Zestar! might actually be our most plentiful apple variety for this year. After the April 10 frost, where all the existing blossoms were frozen, the Zestar! put out a few new clusters here and there. Most trees actually have a few apples on them!
It's still a long slog through the summer. I'm hoping that the tomatoes, melons, and sweet corn continue to do well. And that Farmer Bill can find a couple of good marketing staff to help him get them sold.
[If you haven't read my previous diatribes on whether organic producers spray, they do. None of us wants to poison the earth, the people eating our produce, or ourselves. But farmers who are in farming to make a living need to have a crop to sell, and sometimes (often) nature throws us a curve ball that we have to figure out how to hit. An organically-approved pesticide means that the chemicals in it have been proven to break down rapidly, leaving little or no residue on the produce.]
We started picking the summer raspberries this week and the response has been good - because the crop looks pretty good.
We're seeing splashes of red in the grape tomato hoop house, the melons are blossoming like crazy (get busy, you bees!), and the slicing tomatoes look good to me, but I haven't seen any red yet. There's a LOT of sweet corn planted - on our place and at a neighbor's place - but Farmer Bill says he's not planting off the farm after this year. It's too hard to keep up with the additional acreage during strawberry season. I've been encouraging him (okay, maybe I've been nagging a little bit) not to expand every year. We're not getting any younger, and the 16-hour days seem harder every summer. In the middle of strawberry season he usually agrees that he should cut back, but in the middle of the winter when he's rested again, almost anything seems possible.
It looks like the Zestar! might actually be our most plentiful apple variety for this year. After the April 10 frost, where all the existing blossoms were frozen, the Zestar! put out a few new clusters here and there. Most trees actually have a few apples on them!
It's still a long slog through the summer. I'm hoping that the tomatoes, melons, and sweet corn continue to do well. And that Farmer Bill can find a couple of good marketing staff to help him get them sold.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Strawberry Season
It's officially strawberry season again. We took our first strawberries to the markets on May 31 and June 2. Farmer Bill opened his strawberry patch to pickers on June 5. This is about the earliest we've ever opened. The strawberry crop looks good this year, mostly. There is some frost damage in the upper field, and the early variety - Wendy - really isn't working out. There just doesn't seem to be a really good early strawberry variety. Farmer Bill used to grow Annapolis as his early variety. It is good tasting and does well for size, but doesn't get sweet until it's very ripe, so if you let the field get ripe, the mid-season berries are ready to pick... and you've lost your advantage of having an early variety.
The apple crop is mostly non-existent for 2012. We had incredible, record-setting warm weather in March, which woke the trees up and got them blooming early. Then April came in with normal April weather and the blossoms froze. It looks like we'll have 5-10% of the normal crop of apples. There will be, almost literally, a few of everything, but not very many of anything.
Other crops will have to take up some of the slack - there are an awful lot of cantaloupes and watermelons planted this year. Both hoop houses are full of tomatoes - grape tomatoes in one and slicers in the other. The hope is that Farmer Bill will have some of the earliest tomatoes that bring the best prices. There is also a LOT of sweet corn planted (and more plantings being planned, I'm sure - Farmer Bill knows better than to tell me how much sweet corn he's growing).
The raspberries look really good this year. They are covered in berry buds now & I expect them to start turning red any time (actually I've eaten a few almost-ripe raspberries). We'll definitely start picking them early - maybe as much as 2 weeks early. Farmer Bill is hoping to do well with the raspberries this year - partly to help make up for the apples, partly because it's time for the raspberries to start pulling their weight & producing some income.
It was a busy day today at the strawberry patch. Our picking crew worked hard for 4 hours picking several hundred pounds of strawberries that were almost all sold by the time we closed at 2:00. The PYO operation was steadily busy, too. We're still in the beginning stage of picking, which means that the berries are a bit larger, but further between. Next week there will be more clusters of berries, and that's when the PYO customers are really happy. A huge part of Farmer Bill's job is to manage the customers' expectations & keep them happily toiling on their knees through the strawberries. He's really good at it.
The apple crop is mostly non-existent for 2012. We had incredible, record-setting warm weather in March, which woke the trees up and got them blooming early. Then April came in with normal April weather and the blossoms froze. It looks like we'll have 5-10% of the normal crop of apples. There will be, almost literally, a few of everything, but not very many of anything.
Other crops will have to take up some of the slack - there are an awful lot of cantaloupes and watermelons planted this year. Both hoop houses are full of tomatoes - grape tomatoes in one and slicers in the other. The hope is that Farmer Bill will have some of the earliest tomatoes that bring the best prices. There is also a LOT of sweet corn planted (and more plantings being planned, I'm sure - Farmer Bill knows better than to tell me how much sweet corn he's growing).
The raspberries look really good this year. They are covered in berry buds now & I expect them to start turning red any time (actually I've eaten a few almost-ripe raspberries). We'll definitely start picking them early - maybe as much as 2 weeks early. Farmer Bill is hoping to do well with the raspberries this year - partly to help make up for the apples, partly because it's time for the raspberries to start pulling their weight & producing some income.
It was a busy day today at the strawberry patch. Our picking crew worked hard for 4 hours picking several hundred pounds of strawberries that were almost all sold by the time we closed at 2:00. The PYO operation was steadily busy, too. We're still in the beginning stage of picking, which means that the berries are a bit larger, but further between. Next week there will be more clusters of berries, and that's when the PYO customers are really happy. A huge part of Farmer Bill's job is to manage the customers' expectations & keep them happily toiling on their knees through the strawberries. He's really good at it.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Looking over the fields
We'll be picking some early strawberries to take to market this week. Yesterday was a blistering 90+ degrees with lots of wind & the berries ripened as I watched (and we had a lovely compote of fresh strawberries & bananas and frozen blueberries for dessert - yum!). The temperatures going forward are much more moderate - with even a potential frost one night (in our low-lying field). Moderate is good for the berries. Too much heat & they ripen faster than we can pick them and before they can grow big & fat. However, we can get by for an entire week with no more rain... the drought of last fall is completely broken, we've had record rainfall for the month of May (and our basement hasn't flooded once -- hurray!), but now we need things to dry up a little bit.
This will be our 9th year selling fruit from SRF. Our mailing list has grown to over 1000 names, and I'm finally biting the bullet and have contracted with a company to create an email list. Earlier this year I set up a Facebook page for the farm and I'm trying to post on it occasionally. The website that I created years ago is still our main focus on the interwebs, but FB is a force that must be acknowledged. I'll be putting up a sign at the checkout stand for people to 'Like' us on FB. The average age of our customers is probably about 50 or so, but every year we get new, younger people coming out to pick or buy berries. And there are a lot of 50+ folks on FB now, too.
This will be the earliest we have ever started picking strawberries. Including the 10+ years of Bill's Backyard Berries in White Bear Lake.
My journey through the orchard was a sad one, as it has been since April 10 when the frost hit the blossoming trees. If we get 5 bushel of Honeycrisp I'll be amazed (a 'normal' harvest would be 250-300 bushel). The SweeTango dropped most of their apples, too, so not much help from them this year. They, however, are still young trees, and we wouldn't want too much crop on them anyway. The Zestar! put out some new blossoms after the frost, and there may actually be more Zestar! than we'd guessed - which was zero - but again not even 1/10 of our normal crop. Last year not much strawberry crop, this year not much apple crop. I wonder if we'll ever get a year where we get a good harvest from both main crops.
The raspberries look very good; it's a new patch that was planted 2 years ago & produced lightly last year. The bees, who didn't get much out of the apple blossoms, are crazy busy in the raspberries. Farmer Bill hopes to get a decent crop - and some sorely needed cash - out of the raspberries - which will be ready early too - before the 1st of July for sure.
Tomatoes in the hoop houses are growing like crazy. If the pollination happens as expected Farmer Bill should have some of the first tomatoes on the market - which bring very good prices from Minnesotans starved for real tomato flavor.
The melons were transplanted last week. One batch got planted a bit deep and is taking a bit longer to get going... the other field looks very good. If you like cantaloupe you should really buy a locally grown & ripened cantaloupe. Of course, then you'll never be able to buy supermarket melons again... Did you know that cantaloupe do not ripen after they're picked? They do soften (begin to break down), and their smell intensifies (as they spoil), but they are as sweet as they will be when they're picked. We have to tell customers that our melons are ripe & they should NOT under ANY circumstances leave them sitting on the countertop for 3 days. Eat them that day, cut them up and store in containers, or refrigerate them & eat within a few days.
Farmer Bill has planted peas every year for the past 4-5 years - he mostly does edible pods now, after trying shelling peas and snowpeas in the past. Many of our strawberry customers will go out and pick a pile of peas to take home, or buy some if they're already picked. This year the peas won't be ready until late in strawberry season so he'll have to try to sell them at markets and to raspberry customers. And I'm not sure who's going to pick all the green beans Farmer Bill planted this year. I'll pick enough for the two of us to eat next winter, but I really don't do picking any more - between work and home duties (and arthritis in the knees) I don't have much time.
The sweet corn is growing, but the planter struggled again this year and the fields will be a bit spotty. I like sweet corn, but one ear once a day is enough for me. Farmer Bill is known to eat 4 or more ears of corn at a sitting. And he'd probably do that twice a day if he could - if he had time at lunch - or at least until his stomach rebelled. I don't mind picking sweet corn sometimes (you do it standing up, which is a plus), but it always seems like a lot of work for the return. Sweet corn takes a lot of space on the load, and it's a lot of work to sell. Farmer Bill grows one heritage sweet corn variety - Jubilee - that I use for freezing and we love having it in the freezer to put in soups and stews and to eat as a side dish. It has real corn flavor as opposed to most of the new varieties that are like eating corn-flavored sugar. But the old varieties turn starchy soon after picking, so Jubilee has to be cooled (we use well water & Farmer Bill turned our garage into a drive-in cooler) and then sold with the caveat that customers must eat it that day or the next. It will not hold in their refrigerator all week.
Well, Farmer Bill just came in from his round of the fields & announced "There's nothing to do out there, so I came inside." We'd better go have lunch and then get back to it... because of course there's so much more to do than we'll ever get done...
This will be our 9th year selling fruit from SRF. Our mailing list has grown to over 1000 names, and I'm finally biting the bullet and have contracted with a company to create an email list. Earlier this year I set up a Facebook page for the farm and I'm trying to post on it occasionally. The website that I created years ago is still our main focus on the interwebs, but FB is a force that must be acknowledged. I'll be putting up a sign at the checkout stand for people to 'Like' us on FB. The average age of our customers is probably about 50 or so, but every year we get new, younger people coming out to pick or buy berries. And there are a lot of 50+ folks on FB now, too.
This will be the earliest we have ever started picking strawberries. Including the 10+ years of Bill's Backyard Berries in White Bear Lake.
My journey through the orchard was a sad one, as it has been since April 10 when the frost hit the blossoming trees. If we get 5 bushel of Honeycrisp I'll be amazed (a 'normal' harvest would be 250-300 bushel). The SweeTango dropped most of their apples, too, so not much help from them this year. They, however, are still young trees, and we wouldn't want too much crop on them anyway. The Zestar! put out some new blossoms after the frost, and there may actually be more Zestar! than we'd guessed - which was zero - but again not even 1/10 of our normal crop. Last year not much strawberry crop, this year not much apple crop. I wonder if we'll ever get a year where we get a good harvest from both main crops.
The raspberries look very good; it's a new patch that was planted 2 years ago & produced lightly last year. The bees, who didn't get much out of the apple blossoms, are crazy busy in the raspberries. Farmer Bill hopes to get a decent crop - and some sorely needed cash - out of the raspberries - which will be ready early too - before the 1st of July for sure.
Tomatoes in the hoop houses are growing like crazy. If the pollination happens as expected Farmer Bill should have some of the first tomatoes on the market - which bring very good prices from Minnesotans starved for real tomato flavor.
The melons were transplanted last week. One batch got planted a bit deep and is taking a bit longer to get going... the other field looks very good. If you like cantaloupe you should really buy a locally grown & ripened cantaloupe. Of course, then you'll never be able to buy supermarket melons again... Did you know that cantaloupe do not ripen after they're picked? They do soften (begin to break down), and their smell intensifies (as they spoil), but they are as sweet as they will be when they're picked. We have to tell customers that our melons are ripe & they should NOT under ANY circumstances leave them sitting on the countertop for 3 days. Eat them that day, cut them up and store in containers, or refrigerate them & eat within a few days.
Farmer Bill has planted peas every year for the past 4-5 years - he mostly does edible pods now, after trying shelling peas and snowpeas in the past. Many of our strawberry customers will go out and pick a pile of peas to take home, or buy some if they're already picked. This year the peas won't be ready until late in strawberry season so he'll have to try to sell them at markets and to raspberry customers. And I'm not sure who's going to pick all the green beans Farmer Bill planted this year. I'll pick enough for the two of us to eat next winter, but I really don't do picking any more - between work and home duties (and arthritis in the knees) I don't have much time.
The sweet corn is growing, but the planter struggled again this year and the fields will be a bit spotty. I like sweet corn, but one ear once a day is enough for me. Farmer Bill is known to eat 4 or more ears of corn at a sitting. And he'd probably do that twice a day if he could - if he had time at lunch - or at least until his stomach rebelled. I don't mind picking sweet corn sometimes (you do it standing up, which is a plus), but it always seems like a lot of work for the return. Sweet corn takes a lot of space on the load, and it's a lot of work to sell. Farmer Bill grows one heritage sweet corn variety - Jubilee - that I use for freezing and we love having it in the freezer to put in soups and stews and to eat as a side dish. It has real corn flavor as opposed to most of the new varieties that are like eating corn-flavored sugar. But the old varieties turn starchy soon after picking, so Jubilee has to be cooled (we use well water & Farmer Bill turned our garage into a drive-in cooler) and then sold with the caveat that customers must eat it that day or the next. It will not hold in their refrigerator all week.
Well, Farmer Bill just came in from his round of the fields & announced "There's nothing to do out there, so I came inside." We'd better go have lunch and then get back to it... because of course there's so much more to do than we'll ever get done...
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Strawberry blossoms & weddings
It's a good thing I only have 2 children - if I had a third child, s/he would want to get married in May and I would have to commit murder - either the child or the husband, I'm not sure which.
Our wonderful d-i-l really wanted a June wedding. But raising strawberries just doesn't allow for June weddings. Late May was a compromise. That was the first child, married 4 years ago this month.
Now the second child is getting married in May, too. In Scotland. In a castle. This is a wonderful and romantic and exciting thing to do. Farmer Bill & I will be there with bells on & love every minute of it. But we'll also be thinking about the farm while we're there & we'll need to hit the ground running (that's the royal 'we' since it's mostly Farmer Bill) when we return.
I went for a walk across the berry fields today - the raspberries are starting to bud out - the blueberries have finally decided to put out leaves - and the early strawberry varieties are blossoming like crazy. One month from blossom to strawberry. So there may be berries to pick for the farmers' market as early as Memorial Day weekend. We'll be opening for berry picking the 1st weekend in June is my prediction. And that's 10 days earlier than average.
We're still waiting to see about the apples. It does look like we'll have SweeTango, Haralson, Sweet Sixteen, and Keepsake. It doesn't look like we'll have much for Honeycrisp, a real blow because that is the best selling apple. SweeTango will sell very well, too, but the trees are still young and can't be allowed to have many apples on them. There don't appear to be many Honeygold or Regent either. But we're still several weeks from really knowing.
Last night we had 15 minutes of hail. We've been a virtual no-hail zone for many years, but it couldn't last. Since the strawberries aren't bearing yet and the apples are just at petal fall, there wasn't as much damage as might be. Still, we know there was some. It's hard to stay upbeat and positive when nature throws these things at you. All I can say is at least it's not a grasshopper plague...
Our wonderful d-i-l really wanted a June wedding. But raising strawberries just doesn't allow for June weddings. Late May was a compromise. That was the first child, married 4 years ago this month.
Now the second child is getting married in May, too. In Scotland. In a castle. This is a wonderful and romantic and exciting thing to do. Farmer Bill & I will be there with bells on & love every minute of it. But we'll also be thinking about the farm while we're there & we'll need to hit the ground running (that's the royal 'we' since it's mostly Farmer Bill) when we return.
I went for a walk across the berry fields today - the raspberries are starting to bud out - the blueberries have finally decided to put out leaves - and the early strawberry varieties are blossoming like crazy. One month from blossom to strawberry. So there may be berries to pick for the farmers' market as early as Memorial Day weekend. We'll be opening for berry picking the 1st weekend in June is my prediction. And that's 10 days earlier than average.
We're still waiting to see about the apples. It does look like we'll have SweeTango, Haralson, Sweet Sixteen, and Keepsake. It doesn't look like we'll have much for Honeycrisp, a real blow because that is the best selling apple. SweeTango will sell very well, too, but the trees are still young and can't be allowed to have many apples on them. There don't appear to be many Honeygold or Regent either. But we're still several weeks from really knowing.
Last night we had 15 minutes of hail. We've been a virtual no-hail zone for many years, but it couldn't last. Since the strawberries aren't bearing yet and the apples are just at petal fall, there wasn't as much damage as might be. Still, we know there was some. It's hard to stay upbeat and positive when nature throws these things at you. All I can say is at least it's not a grasshopper plague...
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The Vagaries of Farming
The morning of April 10 the temperature sank to 15.3 degrees (Fahrenheit). Because of the warm March temperatures - especially several nights when it was 60+ - the blossoms on the early varieties were well advanced. They could probably have survived 28, maybe even a bit lower for a short time. But no apple blossoms can survive 15.3. In one fell swoop, all those potential apples were done for. There may be some of the later varieties - maybe some Honeycrisp & SweeTango - we'll have to wait and see what the weather does as those blossoms appear.
On Monday night (April 16) I woke Farmer Bill at 11:00 to send him out to frost protect the strawberries. The temperatures were dipping below 32. The strawberries are not really blossoming yet - although the buds are starting to poke up in the center of the plants - but with a near total loss of the apple crop, Farmer Bill is not taking any chances. There are a couple of freezing nights coming up and Farmer Bill will go to bed early and get up about every hour to check the temperatures (I'll stay up until about midnight to give him a chance to get 1-2 hours continuous rest). If it gets to 32, he has to drive down to the river and start the pump that runs the sprinklers. The overhead sprinklers keep the blossoms wet. There's an old adage that "it's always coldest before the dawn." Turns out it's true. The coldest temperatures that our data logger records generally happen in the hour right before and just as the sun rises. So the overhead sprinklers have to run for as much as an hour after sunrise until the temperatures come up above freezing. Makes for a wet field... but saves the strawberry crop - and when we actually have blueberry blossoms, we may have to save the blueberry crop the same way.
Years ago Farmer Bill remembers someone asking his dad (the original Farmer Bill) about crop failures. The home farm outside of Welcome, Minnesota has never had a crop failure. To what, Grandpa Bill was asked, did he attribute the record of no crop failures? "We always got rain when we needed it," he replied. That was slightly simplified but mostly accurate - Grandpa Bill was a simple, honest man. Straight River Farm has had 4 weather-related disasters in the 8 years that it's existed. A 100-year flood in 2004, a frost on Mothers' Day 2010, a 500-year flood in September 2010,and now a frost in April 2012. It's hard, but you can't take it personally or you'd never be able to carry on. Farmer Bill will work hard to get the most out of his other crops.
On the up side - we'll be done selling apples early so I'll be able to start quilting early. I'm already thinking about the projects I want to complete...
On Monday night (April 16) I woke Farmer Bill at 11:00 to send him out to frost protect the strawberries. The temperatures were dipping below 32. The strawberries are not really blossoming yet - although the buds are starting to poke up in the center of the plants - but with a near total loss of the apple crop, Farmer Bill is not taking any chances. There are a couple of freezing nights coming up and Farmer Bill will go to bed early and get up about every hour to check the temperatures (I'll stay up until about midnight to give him a chance to get 1-2 hours continuous rest). If it gets to 32, he has to drive down to the river and start the pump that runs the sprinklers. The overhead sprinklers keep the blossoms wet. There's an old adage that "it's always coldest before the dawn." Turns out it's true. The coldest temperatures that our data logger records generally happen in the hour right before and just as the sun rises. So the overhead sprinklers have to run for as much as an hour after sunrise until the temperatures come up above freezing. Makes for a wet field... but saves the strawberry crop - and when we actually have blueberry blossoms, we may have to save the blueberry crop the same way.
Years ago Farmer Bill remembers someone asking his dad (the original Farmer Bill) about crop failures. The home farm outside of Welcome, Minnesota has never had a crop failure. To what, Grandpa Bill was asked, did he attribute the record of no crop failures? "We always got rain when we needed it," he replied. That was slightly simplified but mostly accurate - Grandpa Bill was a simple, honest man. Straight River Farm has had 4 weather-related disasters in the 8 years that it's existed. A 100-year flood in 2004, a frost on Mothers' Day 2010, a 500-year flood in September 2010,and now a frost in April 2012. It's hard, but you can't take it personally or you'd never be able to carry on. Farmer Bill will work hard to get the most out of his other crops.
On the up side - we'll be done selling apples early so I'll be able to start quilting early. I'm already thinking about the projects I want to complete...
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Apple blossoms at pink and frost in the forecast
I spent a couple of hours in the apple orchard with Farmer Bill the other day. We were feeding the apple trees. We do this with one person driving the tractor pulling a small sprayer and the other walking behind with a spray wand aiming the spray at the base of the trees. The mix was a bunch of micronutrients - boron, calcium, and about a dozen more - intended to make the trees happy. It's a chance to take a good look at the orchard when you're on the tractor, because you go so slowly. Overall, we liked what we saw.
The buds on the early varieties are at pink. It was April 1 and my calendar of 'Orchard Events in Minnesota' for southern MN indicates that pink should be May 1-9. This makes it a full month ahead of schedule. The later varieties are still at tight cluster - or not even tight cluster for some. The pruning has been finished in the original part of the orchard, so the trees look really nice right now. The newer part of the orchard - mostly Minnieska trees that produce the SweeTango apples - still needs to be pruned and shaped.
What we didn't like is that the weather forecast is for freezing temperatures for the next several nights. How cold it gets and how long it stays that cold will both play parts in whether we get apples this year. Farmer Bill will go out and spray protective nutrients on the trees every day, but that's the most he can do, and we have only anecdotal evidence that it works. It helps if the wind blows - the hardest frost comes when the air is still - so I'll quit complaining about the wind that's been blowing like crazy for about a week. The strawberries are not even close to bloom yet, so we don't have to worry about them. Same for the raspberries and the blueberries.
The buds on the early varieties are at pink. It was April 1 and my calendar of 'Orchard Events in Minnesota' for southern MN indicates that pink should be May 1-9. This makes it a full month ahead of schedule. The later varieties are still at tight cluster - or not even tight cluster for some. The pruning has been finished in the original part of the orchard, so the trees look really nice right now. The newer part of the orchard - mostly Minnieska trees that produce the SweeTango apples - still needs to be pruned and shaped.
What we didn't like is that the weather forecast is for freezing temperatures for the next several nights. How cold it gets and how long it stays that cold will both play parts in whether we get apples this year. Farmer Bill will go out and spray protective nutrients on the trees every day, but that's the most he can do, and we have only anecdotal evidence that it works. It helps if the wind blows - the hardest frost comes when the air is still - so I'll quit complaining about the wind that's been blowing like crazy for about a week. The strawberries are not even close to bloom yet, so we don't have to worry about them. Same for the raspberries and the blueberries.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Family stuff
Our daughter recently decided that she didn't want to have the traditional wedding she had started planning last year. The venue had been booked, we'd gone dress shopping once, she & her fiance were checking on caterers, details were being worked on, etc. They have decided, instead, to go to Scotland and get married in Castle Dunnottar - former stronghold of the Clan Keith to which Farmer Bill can lay claim through his mother's family - on May 22, 2012. [Google the castle to see images.] It's pretty exciting - and Farmer Bill & I are looking forward to attending. Since May 22 is smack dab in the middle of getting ready to open for strawbery season - and still in the window for a late frost - Farmer Bill will have to be very well organized in order to make a whirlwind 6-day trip to Scotland. Attention to details is not his strongest suit, so I expect the last days before the trip to be a bit fraught.
At some point, Ellen & Noah mentioned eloping to Scotland - but then they invited their parents and any friends and family who are able to make the trip... so I guess it's not really eloping. I have to admit that I don't mind her not having the traditional wedding. Our son did have a fairly traditional wedding - and it was lovely - so we know what it's like to be the parents at a wedding. This change of venue will make some wonderful memories for Ellen and Noah to look back on - a great place to travel back to one day.
At some point, Ellen & Noah mentioned eloping to Scotland - but then they invited their parents and any friends and family who are able to make the trip... so I guess it's not really eloping. I have to admit that I don't mind her not having the traditional wedding. Our son did have a fairly traditional wedding - and it was lovely - so we know what it's like to be the parents at a wedding. This change of venue will make some wonderful memories for Ellen and Noah to look back on - a great place to travel back to one day.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Spring
We've had what can only be called weird weather - even for Minnesota. A virtually nonexistent winter, with little snow & far above normal temperatures. Now spring is coming early as well. The soil temperatures indicate that we should uncover the strawberries as soon as the ground is dry enough to get the tractors in the fields - a good two weeks ahead of normal. Tomatoes are growing - in a greenhouse and not in our back bedroom this year (thank goodness) - and will be ready to plant in the hoop houses on April 1. Farmer Bill and his helper have been pruning the apple trees all winter because they weren't hampered by snow or cold, and that job is on schedule. Machinery is being pulled out of buildings, oil checked, fittings greased, bolts tightened, tires filled. The robins are back & Farmer Bill saw a bald eagle last week. I'm keeping my eyes open for the bluebirds, expecting them any time now. Some much needed rain has fallen over the past few days and the grass is turning green. The elms have sprouted tiny leaves and the maples are almost done blossoming. All normal spring events that just feel weird when they happen in mid-March rather than the first of April.
City dwellers rejoice in the beautiful weather that lets them shed their coats and boots, eat al fresco, and feel the sun on their skins again. We eye the early warm weather more warily. An early bloom on the strawberries and the apples can mean the blossoms will be out and susceptible if we have a late frost. And there has been a late frost pretty much every year here. Often the frosts are not even noticeable in the city - even a rural city like Faribault. But late frosts mean nights without sleep as Farmer Bill runs the irrigation sprinklers over the strawberries. Farmer Bill doesn't have any real frost protection for the apples at this point. Overhead sprinklers are not an option with trees, and the wind machines available are not economically viable for an operation of his size. Nutritional foliar sprays help, and Farmer Bill will prepare his air-blast sprayer to drive up and down the orchard rows, moving the air and keeping the blossoms wet. You do what you can do, and hope that it's enough. Another farming year is upon us.
City dwellers rejoice in the beautiful weather that lets them shed their coats and boots, eat al fresco, and feel the sun on their skins again. We eye the early warm weather more warily. An early bloom on the strawberries and the apples can mean the blossoms will be out and susceptible if we have a late frost. And there has been a late frost pretty much every year here. Often the frosts are not even noticeable in the city - even a rural city like Faribault. But late frosts mean nights without sleep as Farmer Bill runs the irrigation sprinklers over the strawberries. Farmer Bill doesn't have any real frost protection for the apples at this point. Overhead sprinklers are not an option with trees, and the wind machines available are not economically viable for an operation of his size. Nutritional foliar sprays help, and Farmer Bill will prepare his air-blast sprayer to drive up and down the orchard rows, moving the air and keeping the blossoms wet. You do what you can do, and hope that it's enough. Another farming year is upon us.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
I also quilt
I've been quilting in the winter months for a long time now. I made my first quilt in 1991 in Australia. A friend there invited me along to a 'Quilt in a Day' class. I enjoyed it a lot - and I had a lot of time on my hands since I had no outside job & both kids were in school. After I finished that quilt, designed for our son, I made another for our daughter. When we came back from Australia, I had no time for quilting because I went back to school to finish my degree. Once I graduated, I went to work outside the home, and was busy raising kids, so didn't do much for myself. It wasn't until we moved to Straight River Farm and the kids were gone to their own lives that I really had time to think about an avocation. Things I like about quilting: I get to be creative - while still being orderly (the librarian in me). The things I create are useful and (usually) beautiful. There is no end to the learning process, so I don't get bored. I can do it by myself - or if I want to, I can join a group and work with others.
This winter I have been working on a new bed quilt. A couple of years ago we bought a king-size bed. We've been using a queen-size quilt as a covering & it's adequate, but not really large enough. It took me a long time to decide on a pattern and even longer to decide on the fabrics to use. In the end I just had to say 'enough' and get started. I'm pretty happy with the result - and Farmer Bill thinks it's great. He's always postive about my quilting, but he also has a good eye for color and design, so I appreciate his input. Here's the quilt:
I'm not a great photographer but you can get the idea. The quilt is hanging on my display wall in the basement, which is where I do my quilting. I have a large table that Farmer Bill & I built one winter, cupboards to store my stash of fabric, space to leave all of my stuff out & ready to go when I have time to work on it. The display wall is a large piece of felt tacked to a board and hung. It gives a place to work on designs and placement of quilt blocks before they're sewn together. The blocks stick to the felt without pinning so they can be moved around until one is happy with them. This quilt has 72 blocks - and I spent a good several hours arranging and re-arranging them. I'm just now beginning to sew the rows together (you can see one is missing from the left). I love quilt designs that contain optical illusions. This quilt does not have any curved pieces. Every seam is a straight line. Both Farmer Bill and I love the fabrics and the colors in this quilt - it will look great in our bedroom and be lovely to sleep under for years to come once it's finished.
The other project I'm planning for this winter is a duvet cover for Ellen. I've never done a duvet cover, but don't see why a quilt top couldn't be made into one. We looked through my mass of quilt magazines and chose a pattern. Then we made a trip to SR Harris to choose fabrics.
[Fabric shopping is almost the hardest part for me because there are so many gorgeous fabrics available & I just want to have a piece of all of them, just in case. I've had to make a rule that I don't buy fabric unless I have a purpose for it.]
I should be done sewing together the king-size quilt in another week or so. Then I'll clean up the leftover scraps, clean and oil the sewing machine, change the needle, sharpen the rotary cutter and start on the duvet cover. The actual piecing is not difficult at all, but the pattern includes a large appliqued design in the center of the quilt. I've done applique and have basic skills. This will take more skill and more patience than most of what I've done before, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.
This winter I have been working on a new bed quilt. A couple of years ago we bought a king-size bed. We've been using a queen-size quilt as a covering & it's adequate, but not really large enough. It took me a long time to decide on a pattern and even longer to decide on the fabrics to use. In the end I just had to say 'enough' and get started. I'm pretty happy with the result - and Farmer Bill thinks it's great. He's always postive about my quilting, but he also has a good eye for color and design, so I appreciate his input. Here's the quilt:
The other project I'm planning for this winter is a duvet cover for Ellen. I've never done a duvet cover, but don't see why a quilt top couldn't be made into one. We looked through my mass of quilt magazines and chose a pattern. Then we made a trip to SR Harris to choose fabrics.
[Fabric shopping is almost the hardest part for me because there are so many gorgeous fabrics available & I just want to have a piece of all of them, just in case. I've had to make a rule that I don't buy fabric unless I have a purpose for it.]
I should be done sewing together the king-size quilt in another week or so. Then I'll clean up the leftover scraps, clean and oil the sewing machine, change the needle, sharpen the rotary cutter and start on the duvet cover. The actual piecing is not difficult at all, but the pattern includes a large appliqued design in the center of the quilt. I've done applique and have basic skills. This will take more skill and more patience than most of what I've done before, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
The holiday season has come and gone. Business at the library has picked up again to its normal pace. Farmwork is mostly planning and paperwork (taxes). Although Farmer Bill has already started pruning his apple trees because we're having such a warm, dry winter. [Mouse damage will probably be less, but cold damage may be higher with no snow for insulation.]
Our son and d-i-l are moving to Portland, Maine next weekend. I went over last weekend to help pack some boxes & will probably go today or tomorrow to help some more. So far I've contained my emotions, but one of these days I may not be able to. We're going to miss having them so close. But the job that Aimee was offered is a great opportunity & I would never want either of them to pass up something so good to stay close to us. Farmer Bill wouldn't either. He did say that when they have children they have to come back. Since living overseas has always been an ultimate goal for both of them, I don't really see a return to Minnesota in their lives. If Farmer Bill wants to see and spend time with his (future) grandchildren, he'll have to give up farming and take up traveling instead. Personally I'm looking forward to visiting people who live near big water -- even cold water like the Atlantic Ocean. I have been in love with oceans since our time in Australia. But I will definitely miss being able to have both my kids come visit for family time. So far, Ellen and Noah are pretty adamant that they will be staying in Minnesota, specifically the Twin Cities, forever. Airfare to come 'home' for visits may be our gift to Will & Aimee in years to come...
Our son and d-i-l are moving to Portland, Maine next weekend. I went over last weekend to help pack some boxes & will probably go today or tomorrow to help some more. So far I've contained my emotions, but one of these days I may not be able to. We're going to miss having them so close. But the job that Aimee was offered is a great opportunity & I would never want either of them to pass up something so good to stay close to us. Farmer Bill wouldn't either. He did say that when they have children they have to come back. Since living overseas has always been an ultimate goal for both of them, I don't really see a return to Minnesota in their lives. If Farmer Bill wants to see and spend time with his (future) grandchildren, he'll have to give up farming and take up traveling instead. Personally I'm looking forward to visiting people who live near big water -- even cold water like the Atlantic Ocean. I have been in love with oceans since our time in Australia. But I will definitely miss being able to have both my kids come visit for family time. So far, Ellen and Noah are pretty adamant that they will be staying in Minnesota, specifically the Twin Cities, forever. Airfare to come 'home' for visits may be our gift to Will & Aimee in years to come...
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