What’s Ripe 02

Greetings- Was nice to see you all last weekend, thank you!

This week we’ll have:
Peaches, SpringCrest – $4.00/lb.
Montmorency Tart Cheries – $8.00/lb.
Rainer Cherries – $6.00/lb.
Mulberries – $4.00 1/2pt.
Red Currants – $4.00 1/2pt.
Raspberries – $4.00 1/2pt.
Summer Squash – $3.00/lb.
Honey – $20.00/pt.

If you’d like to preorder, send an email to:
grousemtfarm13@gmail.com
and I’ll send you an invoice and you can pick it up at the University District market on Saturday.

We’re still just getting going, so not a whole lot of varieties yet. Next week I’m expecting Bleinheim Apricots, North Star and Balaton Pie Cherries, Gooseberries and Santa Rosa Plums. And probably more..
The bear is inching closer in every night, so we’ll have the afore mentioned fruit if we can keep him/her from eating it. Zora, our bear dog, is doing a great job keeping them moving along, but the bears are always hungry and persistent.
Thanks and see you on Saturday.

What’s Ripe 01

Greetings- Due to the Covid 19 pandemic we are going to attempt to have more of a weekly pre order format to help expedite the time shoppers spend at the University District farmers market. One of our favorite things about the market is the time we spend with our customer/friends to visit, catch up, share recipes etc. So it does pain us to contemplate having to speed through our transactions and forgo the usual camaraderie, but considering the situation we’ll do what we need to. We are lucky to have the market there at all, THANK YOU to all the market employees and volunteers working hard to keep in going! As with everyone, we look forward to when things can get back to ‘normal’. For more info about the market and details: https://seattlefarmersmarkets.org/udfm

Pre ordering isn’t required, but if you care to read on.

This is what we’ll have on July 11 2020:
-Montmorency Pie Cherries $8.00/lb.
-Aprium and Eari-Blush Apricots $4.00/lb.
-Red & White Currants $4.00 -1/2 pint
-Mulberries $5.00 -1/2 pint
-Raspberries $4.00 -1/2 pint
-Summer Squash $3.00/lb.

If you’d like to pre order, email us at
grousemtfarm13@gmail.com
We’ll send you an invoice where you can pay and confirm your order.

The next weeks we will have more Montmorencys and possibly North Star and Balalton Pie Cherries, more apricots; Bleinheim and Tiltons, Peaches, Red and Black Currants, and MORE! It’s starting out slow, as is usually the case, but if all goes well it looks to be fruitful Season. I look forward to seeing you all and THANK YOU! See you Saturday.

The Hummingbird Chicks Today 7 8 20

Market News

Greetings.
This Saturday, the fourth, was scheduled to be our first market of this season, at the University District Farmers Market in Seattle. But as it usually turns out, the weather has cooled a bit and the fruit ripening has slowed, so we won’t be there this weekend but for sure (if I dare) be there the next weekend, July 11th.

Phacelia

We are going to try, through this blog to set up a way for anyone who cares to, to preorder with us. Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, we want to facilitate a speedier way to shop with us at the market. It isn’t necessary to preorder, we plan to be set up somewhat as usual, but since only so many people are allowed in the market space at on time, we’d like to make it as easy as possible to expedite flow.

Some of our cherry trees and motion sensors with radios and lights to deter bears.

My plan is to list what will be available the coming week and you can write us at:
grousemtfarm13@gmail.com
to let us know what you want, we’ll send you an invoice through Square where you can pay, and then pick up your order at the market on Saturday. It may be a little bumpy at first while we’ll figure out what we’re doing. Feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions or requests.

Apriums

I expect we’ll have Apricots, Apriums, Red, Black and White Currants, Summer Squash, maybe Pie Cherries (Montmorency), Mulberries. Next week I’ll post a more definitive list and prices. Thank you! And I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Humming Bird Nest in Pear Tree

Grafting 101.5 and We’re Still Here

Today is May 12th, 2020. It’s been just about six years since my last post, we are still here and still farming and trying to deal with the current situation, which is of course the Corona Virus pandemic, or Covid19.  We’re planning on being at the University District Farmers Market this Summer and Fall but with the pandemic things have changed, not sure how it’ll work for us, but we do plan on being there. But before too much of that I want to finish the thread from six years ago, the pear tree grafting..

Here’s a photo of the Red Anjou pear I grafted six years ago, just post bloom. as you can see, it has grown a bit. We have gotten a little bit of fruit from it, but this year is its biggest bloom and potential crop (It’s still too early to tell how many of the blooms have set fruit). A couple more pics:

These grafts did pretty well. Last year or the year before I took off the bamboo poles and string I used to secure them. I try to prune it as if it were a regular tree, with that many scions put in, it’s easy to have too much growth in there. It’s been pruned so that there are three or four main leaders or main limbs, your basic open center tree.

We’re going to try, either here with this blog or another app or format to have a weekly list of what will be coming to the market to facilitate pre-orders to expedite the process at the newly configured market. As it is now, these are the  Neighborhood Farmers Market Associations   rules for the market as of today. Check the link for current information about  the markets.

We hope everyone is doing okay, we miss you all and look forward to seeing you in late June or Early July. It is going to be different, but it won’t last forever. Thanks.

 

 

Fire & Bears

On September 8, 2012 we had an incredible electrical storm, and the following two days there were high winds, which took whatever fires had been started on the 8th and kicked them up in to a handful of brush/forest fires. There was a bit of rain with the storm, but the next day was warm and dry and with the wind, many fires were started around the cities of Wenatchee and Cashmere, Washington. There is also a fire on a ridge above us, the First Creek Fire, which at the moment isn’t  a concern for us right now (except for our friends that live in that valley), but it has made for smokey conditions.

Another smokey day, some days better, some days worse

 

There’s a lot of people working to contain the fires and keep peoples houses from burning.

Thank you to all the firefighters!

Firefighting helicopter making its rounds from the lake to the fire

 

Our friends Liz and Eric at River Farm in Ellensburg lost their home in August to the Taylor Bridge fire. They’re hard working and resilient folks and will do alright despite their losses but still a tough go. Here’s a link for more info: help  

So a little smoke really isn’t too bad..

 

We’ve been having some bear activity here lately. When it gets as dry as it is in the wild lands our peaches, apples, pears and etc. must smell pretty good to a bear. So far we haven’t lost too much, some apples, Asian pears and grapes. Our current dog isn’t as interested in chasing the bears as Blaze was, not sure why… One of our tricks to dissuade the bear from sticking around is a motion sensor with a light and tape deck (in the plastic bag) to, hopefully, startle and move them along.

It’s effective in the area where it’s set up, limited to how much extension cord we have.

The bears only eat what’s ripe, we often find fruit still hanging on the tree with a bite taken out, usually not ripe enough.

I came across this recent bear feast :

Remnants of Yellow-jacket nest (in ground) dug up and the larvae eaten by bear, that’s some hardcore dining! Those are some fierce insects. It’s no wonder they want fruit.

This week we’ll have:

-Many more Tomatoes (Brandywine, Aunt Rubys German Green, San Marzano, Stupice, Cherokee Purple, Sungold, Matt’s Wild Currant)

-Friar Plums

-Fantasia Nectarines

-HoneyNectarCot Peaches

-Akane, Swiss Arlet, McIntosh, Tydeman Apples

-Hosui and Shinseiki Asian Pears

-Red Kalle (Clapp) Pears

See you Saturday.

Pie Cherries

They’ve  been slow in coming and still slow to ripen but we will have some pie or sour cherries this weekend ( July 28, 2012). Not as late as last year but as far past years go they’re on the late rather then early schedule. We’ll have North Star and Montmorency varieties this week, still not a whole lot but a good start.

Montmorency Pie Cherries

We still have many on trees, so we’ll have them for a couple of weeks yet.  Also the Balaton variety is yet to come, they’re another dark fleshed sour cherry.

We’ll also have more Attika and Bing sweet cherries, some Bleinheim Apricots, and some early Springcrest Peaches. Only a modest amount of Cots and Peaches, that fruit is just beginning to come on for us. We’ll have some Red Currants and Mulberries as well.

See you Saturday!

 

First Seattle Market for 2012

We’ll be in Seattle on Saturday July 14th for our first farmers market of the season.

We’re looking forward to seeing our friends and customers and to spend a little time in the big city.

The fruit is just starting to ripen, a little bit later then “normal” but quite a bit earlier then last year, which was the latest we’ve ever had. We’ll be bringing sweet cherries, black and red currants, peas (snow, sugar snap, and shelly) and mulberries.

I’m pretty sure that we’ll have pie cherries next week.

We hope to see you then.

 

 

 

Walnuts – They’re here !

We will have walnuts at the University District Farmers Market in Seattle, this Saturday, October 22. These walnuts have quite a following, we have people asking about them all season. They are good tasting, easy to crack with a well filled nut and good sized. There is a limited quantity, so we recommend being at the market early. We will have more walnuts in the following weeks, some smaller ones and our bigger BIG  nut as well.

Walnuts on the tree, the cracking husk indicates a ripe nut

A couple of years ago we made a short video about part of what we do to harvest and process the walnuts. Here’s a link: http://youtu.be/arpGitU-S6o

When the husks on the nuts begin to crack is a sure sign that they’re ripe. In a vacuum the nuts would all fall from the tree as they ripen and we could pick them up minus the hull. But with squirrels and Stellar Jays getting the jump on them we have to shake the trees and gather them, husk and all before they all disappear. Once gathered the nuts need to be de-husked. With a nut whose husk has begun to crack the nut pops right out but since I shake the tree, not all the nuts are as ripe so those not need to be put aside for a few days before the husk will  release itself from the walnut. After husking the nuts are quite wet and need to be dried for three to four days in a food dehydrator. If they’re not dried fairly quickly, the nuts will mold inside. We’ve found that if we remove the husks and store the nuts, still wet, while waiting (more then a few days) to put them  in to the dryer they’ll mold. But storing for up to a couple of weeks in the husk they won’t mold. Once dried, then at last: ready to eat!

Walnut Exposed

Also this week we’ll have:

Nickajack, Prairie Spy, Gala, King David, Belle de Boskopp, Macoun (not many), and a few Coxs Orange Pippin Apples.

Hosui and Shinseiki Asian Pears,

Bosc and Abate Fetel European Pears,

Elephant Heart and Italian Prune Plums,

Hardy Kiwis,

Concord Grapes,

and O’Henry and Honey Nectar Cot Peaches (Last peaches of the season)

See you Saturday.

Belle de Boskoop Apples

Walnuts, not yet…

 

Everyone is waiting for the walnuts, but they won’t be ready until next week. With a shortened week due to rain, there isn’t enough time to pick, husk and dry the nuts by market time. Next week for (almost) sure.

Hardy Kiwi Fruit on the vine

We will have this week:

Hosui and Shinseiki Asian pears, Italian prune plums, Elephant Heart plums, the last of the Fantasia nectarines and Honey-Nectar-Cots, and new this week the O’Henry peaches, Abate Fetel European pears, (next week: Seckels and Boscs). And apples: Gala, Prairie Spy, Swiss Arlet, Jonathan, Nickajack, Coxs orange Pippin. We’ll have the little Kiwis again this week and next as well, a few green beans (Romano)

                                                        Shinseiki Asian Pear

Everything is a couple of weeks later then it was last year, which was five to seven days later then is or was usual, due to the late spring and cooler early summer weather. As a result everything is later then we’re accustomed  to. ( Fresh Peaches in mid October?!)

See you Saturday.

Fresh for Market – August 6, 2011

Montmorency Sour Cherries

We’re finally having some real summer weather, not too hot but it is feeling like summer. We missed the market last week because the fruit wasn’t quite ripe. Usually this time of year all the cherries have been picked, but we’re right in the middle of cherry harvest now. Everything else is late as well, I’m hoping our late apples and pears have enough time to ripen before it gets too cold this fall. The reason everything is so late is that we had  a cold, wet spring and a cool summer here in the Northwest.

This week well have :

Van Sweet Cherries

Bing Sweet Cherries

Rainer Sweet Cherries

North Star Sour Cherries

Montmorency Sour Cherries

Springcrest Peaches

Mulberries

Red Currants

Shallots

Summer Squash

Harvesting Pie or Sour Cherries

Unlike sweet cherries, when we pick pie cherries we have to cut them off the tree. The sweet cherries stems come off the spur pretty easily, whereas if you pick a pie cherry that way the stem rips the spur off ( the spur is the tree bud on a branch where the flowers come out of and hence the fruit) and lose the potential for fruit to be there next season. And if you pull the cherry , often times the stem and pit will be left on the tree, which is fine if you’re going to eat the fruit right away, but it won’t store well. It takes much more time to harvest this way, but pretty much the only way we’ve figured out to pick them for so they’ll hold up for  fresh market. Most sour cherries are grown for processing so storage or appearance of the fruit is of little concern.

See you on Saturday.