Summer, it’s almost here and the fruit is ready to pop. I ate the very first sweet, plump, juicy fig today, and that’s always the signal of the start of the harvest season for me. In a few weeks, we will also have apricots, peaches, plums, green walnuts, shitake, goumi berries … it’s all happening!
To kickoff the 2021 harvest season we have a brand new website, new art for sale, and a new subscription offering for our local friends.
New Summer of Joy Subscription Box Available
This is a box of the very best summer fruit and flowers Birdsong Orchards has to offer. Each box will contain 12-15 pounds of the rarest, tastiest and most interesting fruits of the 100+ varieties we grow plus a vase of our most gorgeous flowers. This is a three month subscription for July, August and September. Pick up will be at our farm or in Santa Cruz city, final location and pickup dates TBD. Each monthly delivery will be $75, plus an additional 15% discount on other Birdsong offerings. There are only 25 spots available in each location, so claim yours soon!
To learn more and sign up, please click here.
For our friends outside of the area:
I am sorry to say that I am not planning on shipping for this first year. It's really hard to ship perfectly ripe fruit, without using a lot of wasteful packaging. and until I can solve that quandary, I can't do it in good conscience.
New Website and So Much Art
We have a brand new website, and finally have all of our writings, art, fruit and flowers available in the same place. This work is a lot more tedious than growing fruit, and I am very glad it's done!
Stickers & cards, shirts, prints and totes all featuring our floral and fruity art is available from our store. Each purchase helps support our farm, so please take a look!
As we start to have fruit available for sale this summer, it will all be listed here too.
Private Gatherings on the Farm
Another new offering this year is private gatherings on the farm. Looking for a unique family offering? Interested in a work offsite that is off the beaten path? We can host groups of 4 - 25 people for a farm tour, unique fruit tasting, flower picking and onsite picnic in our garden. Please get in touch to book an event.
More Roses, and So Many Flowers to Come
We still have lots of roses to pick in the field and new ones blooming ervery day. Adding to the flower mix, the gladiolas are not opening, the sweet peas are at their peak, and the dahlias are just starting. We plan to keep the flower field open for many more months to come, probably through October, so make a reservation to bask in your own bucket of blooms.
Early Summer Tasks on the Farm and in the Garden
The weeding, it never stops, am I right? There are two other timely tasks for June that I recommend to everyone in their home garden as well. If you haven't already, this is a good time to thin the fruit on your trees. We have finished thinning most of the peaches and apples by now, with the persimmons as the next big task. If you would like to read more about fruit thinning, I wrote a detailed post about it a few years ago. Learn all about fruit thinning here.
This is also a good time of the year to give your hungry feeders a bit of an extra boost. For us, that means extra fertilizer to our citrus trees and roses. Tomatoes also are hungry for more food, and a seaweed/fish emulsion foliar feed benefits just about everything. Remember, food is love, and love is food :)
