Updates From The Farm

Methley plums sized and showing the very first signs of ripening.This week we’re beginning to harvest a few new crops on the farm – ribes and cherries! We’re balancing harvests with weed management (strawberry weeding post-harvest, and lots of weedwhacking and mowing...

Ripening Pink Champagne currants.This week top of mind is summer pruning on pome trees (especially apples), fungal and insect pest management, fertility management in young trees and grapes especially, and preparations for more harvests to come. While things are all a...

Fruit Set on Kiwi BerriesThis week we’re coming through yet another cool wet period. There are some warm dry days in the forecast for later this week which will be much appreciated, but it looks like we will continue to have relatively rainy and cool conditions...

Kiwi berries in bloom.This week we’re keeping busy with fruit thinning, strawberry harvest, starting some summer pruning on young apples, and doing some burning of left-over stone fruit prunings before the weather turns too dry for such things. We’ll also be doing...

Gravenstein apples sizing quickly.This week we've got fruit set and sizing on the brain - we'll be doing our first harvest of the season (June-bearing strawberries are right on time) and working to get quickly-sizing apples and peaches fruit thinned. The wet, cool...

First red strawberry off our June-BearersThis week we're back in the prolonged PNW spring with plenty of rain holding off the need to irrigate. We started this early spring about 2 weeks ahead of last year in terms of tree development and degree days, but the cool...

An impressive fruit strig on a Rovada Red Currant.This week top of mind is managing early season fertility, pest and disease, as well as catching up on mowing, cover crop seeding, and understory management. With trees leafing out we’re seeing signs of spring insect...

Rapidly sizing Methley plumsThis week we’re getting after the early summer blitz of tasks brought forth by the beautiful weather we had last weekend. Grape shoot thinning, irrigation setup, weed management, hydromulch application, foliar fertilizer sprays and cover...

Honeycrisp apples in full bloom (pre-blossom thinning)This week we’re preparing for a blast of sunshine and heat later this week that will surely speed up growth on things across the orchard/vineyard (weeds included). Apples are in full bloom or past bloom on some...

Jonagolds with a robust full bloomThis week we’re doing all the things! Weeds are growing, trees are blooming, fruit is setting, scab spores are afloat, deer are browsing, future plantings are being planned and cover crop fields are being prepped! We are rapidly...