Happiest of longest of solstice days! I absolutely adore these golden times of extra hours of light. I get downright giddy about this time of year. These endless warm hours when absolutely everything on the farm is growing, fruiting, blooming, beaming with the sheer joy of sweet living. Aren’t they just the best?
I’ve been snacking on the very first sun ripened stone fruits in the orchard. Puget Gold apricots and Burbank Plumcots are the first to ripen, and I see some Avalon Pride peaches coming along right behind them.
Farm Stand
Next Sunday we are going to open the farm stand to share the first stone fruit harvest with all our local farm friends. Come on by, June 30th, 10 am - 2 pm, 613 Lakeview Rd, Watsonville. We plan to be open on Sundays throughout the season. Check out our Instagram and Facebook feeds for an up to date look at what will be available.
Summer Pruning and Fruit Tree Care Workshop
Summer pruning can be as important as winter pruning, but is often neglected amidst other garden chores, even by me! Let's got for a walk through the summer orchard together. We will discuss and demonstrate what to summer prune and how as well as what to leave alone til wintertime comes round again. We will cover pruning new, young and mature trees, discuss appropriate tools and different pruning styles.
Sauntering through the orchard, we will look at how pruning decisions effect growth and productivity in walnuts, apricots, peaches, plums, figs, apples, pears and roses. We will also talk about and demonstrate fruit thinning for an optimal harvest, summer watering, and taste a few ripe fruits along the way.
Tickets and more information are available here!
More Summer Workshops & You Pick Roses Too
We still have some space in our Flower Crown Workshop, come join us for a floral jewelry extravanganza. Tickets are on sale here.
Tickets are also still available for Books in the Boughs. Come read under the trees, share a good book with friends, and snack on a box of farm fresh fruit. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon? Reservations are available here.
People keep asking me if we still have roses available for you pick. Hah! The roses keep blooming well into the Fall. Reservations are available on Sundays only for now, and can be made here.
Green Walnuts
The first green walnuts of the season are at a good size for harvest right now. Green walnuts are the immature form of the walnuts you already know and love. They have hands down one of the best scents in the orchard. Our ancestors figured out how to capture their essence in various ways, the most famous of which is nocino, an indescribably rich liqueur. Here is a recipe. They can also be pickled, turned into jam or molasses.
You can order them for pick up at the farm here.
I will also ship them across the country. Get in touch if you are interested.
Weird Fruit of the Month: Burbank Plumcot
Among all the pluots, apriums, pluerrys and other stone fruit crosses, the Burbank Plumcot is my all time favorite. It fruits early, generously, and combines the best of its parents. The fruit of the Burbank Plumcot is golden yellow with blush covering of rose revealing juicy, plum-like flesh inside with an aromatic touch of apricot. I should have some at the farm stand next Sunday.
Eat Your Roses!
Nature is as regardless of a planet or a sun as of a bubble upon the river, has one no more at heart than the other. How many suns have gone out? How many planets have perished?… She has infinite worlds left, and out of old she makes new… Nature wins in every game because she bets on both sides. If her suns or systems fail, it is, after all, her laws that succeed. A burnt-out sun vindicates the constancy of her forces… In an orchard of apple trees some of the fruit is wormy, some scabbed, some dwarfed, from one cause or another; but Nature approves of the worm, and of the fungus that makes the scab, and of the aphid that makes the dwarf, just as sincerely as she approves of the perfect fruit. She holds the stakes of both sides; she wins, whoever loses…
- John Burroughs