The Beautiful Transition of Summer to Fall

I know that we are sitting in our air conditioned homes and cars currently – but Fall is just around the corner!  Our crops know this too.  We are beginning to see the Fall crop of apples getting ready to ripen so that you can enjoy your Summer berries AND your Fall apples – truly the sweet spot.

The berries are the focus of the U pick – but the apples are in the very near future!!!! I know it doesn’t seem possible – but we are talking a mere few weeks

Once again, our raspberries are the star of the show this week.  They are beautiful, ripe and in abundace.  The deeper the color, the more ripe they are – and if they give resistance to being picked – they are not ready quite yet.

The very hot temperatures are a strain on our strawberries, though we do have some out in the fields.  Please ask the shopkeepers on availability.

Don’t forget – you can always mix and match your berries in your baskets.

Blackberries are still in various stages of ripeness, as evidenced in the photo.  The darker the better.  The red or white berries are not ripe and should be left on the vine for the upcoming weeks.  As is our constant reminder – our blackberries are of a heritage variety – so they are not your “grocery store” commercial blackberry.  They are a complex berry that really shines when put in recipes.

We are officially done with the Olallieberries.  We were fortunate to have an extended season this year – and we will just have to look forward to next year’s crop.

While up with the blackberries and strawberries – you may see pears on the ground – this is caused by 2 factors – 1. Our pear crop is large this year and they are dropping to make some room on the tree so that the ones left can aquire the nutrients.  2.  Pears do not like hot weather – so rather than have the entire tree stress – it drops some fruit to relieve some stress.   The pears are not ripe yet – so please, do not try and pull pears off the trees as the amount of force that would have to be exerted to dislodge the pear from the branch would most likely cause damage to the branch.

Don’t forget – we have tons of Mulberries that are ripe for the picking – the darker the color – the riper the berry.  We have 1 mulberry tree – and that is down in the Colonial Chesterfield green – between the shop and the sheep.

The flower field is really filling in and the Zinnia’s are bursting with flowers, just waiting to be picked.  The pollinators are just loving their time spent in the flower field.

Some of our other flowers are showing signs of budding – so we may have some new flowers for you next week as well!!

The pumpkins are starting to put on their first flowers (these are the male flowers) and the bees just cannot get enough of them.  Pumpkins MUST have bees to pollinate them to produce a pumpkin.  Now that we have seen our male flowers – our female flowers will start to come on within the week.  How do we know the difference between the male and female pumpkin flower?  The male flower produces BOTH pollen and nectar (though the amount of nectar is small).  The female flower will produce ONLY  nectar.  So what will happen is that the bee will visit the male flower first, gather the pollen, which is sticky and adheres to the bee;s wee little legs.  The bee then travels with that pollen to the female flower, nestles down in that flower and the pollination is complete.  The more pollinator activity in our pumpkins – the better the pumpkins will be.  By the amount of bees in the flowers – it is looking up to be a wonderful season.

Our corn is really loving the heat.  We grow decorative corn – so get your Pintrest boards full of ideas for your fall decorating 🙂

The peaches are still taking their good, sweet time – but they are always worth it.  We will see how they look next week.

Our Gravenstein’s are almost ready for U Pick!!  Their texture is crisp and the flavor is just about a week off – They will be ready to go by Labor Day Weekend for those that really crave the sweet and tart all in one apple.

Categorised in: U-Pick

This post was written by Jim Riley