Stan's Notepad - May 2012

Dear Friends,

Fruit blossoms were beautiful works of art this year and I hope you enjoyed the sight.  As I complete this column on April 29^th, apple blossoms typically would just be starting to open.  This year, however, most petals have already fallen from the trees and the very small fruits are beginning to grow.   Each apple variety has its own number of days to hang on the tree until it matures.  Imagine yourself, being suspended by a small stem for up to 5 months, subject to all types of weather as you grow with no protection except perhaps a leaf!   A perfect fruit it indeed a miracle!

Many of you have expressed concerns about the weather this year and believe me, we growers were holding our collective breaths!.  Peaches were in full bloom 3 weeks ago, when we awoke to a temperature of 25 degrees in some locations! This can spell peril for tender fruit blossoms.  By noon, we were finding black, frozen blossoms, most alarming!  However, the good news is that God often puts many more blossoms on the fruit trees than we need.   This was one such year…..all the trees were loaded.  It seems that they were being prepared for the cold onslaught to come.   

Apple blossoms are normally arranged in a circle of 5 to 7 individual blooms, with the center being the “King”, which opens earliest.  Ideally the grower would like this one to be pollinated because it would be the largest apple.  When the freeze hit, many of the kings were lost along with others.  Through all this, the grower keeps thinking positively.  A weekend later, we had beautiful warm days with light breezes, great pollinating weather.   Brown’s mascot, Blossom, had every worker bee from the hives out working the fruit trees.  And yes—we see results!

It’s still too early to predict the crops for certain as the smaller fruits could still drop.  Because of the very cold month of April, we anticipate that crops will only be one to two weeks early instead of three.   All crops will need rainfall for them to do well.  We were grateful that there was good, soaking rainfall la week ago.   That would be nice once a week!  All in all, despite damage, ….from the first to bloom Apricots and Plums,  to Sweet and Tart cherries, Blueberries,   Peaches and last to bloom Apples, there’s a potentially good crop! 

We look forward to seeing you often as you shop for your local, fresh and healthy fruits and vegetables!   As always, “Thank you for shopping at our family farm market!” 

Your friend,

Stan