Finally, the time of year we want and wait for, stone fruit season. On July 1st, we harvested our very first flats of Beauty plums, Avalon Pride peaches, and Puget Gold apricots. And, as I promise myself I won’t do and still do every single year, I ate far too many, and it was glorious.
So how do you get some of these fine fruits of your own? There are two ways we will be selling fruit this year.
We still have just a few spots open in our Summer of Joy Subscription box, which comes with 12-15 pounds of fruit a month and a glorious bouquet, for the best three months of fruit season. Learn more and sign up here.
We will also continue to sell through our online fruit store with pickups at the farm on Fridays and Sundays. I will announce when new fruit is listed on Facebook and Instagram. We only have limited quantities of any particular variety, and do sell out fast, so keep an eye out for new fruit listings. Apricots, plums, figs and peaches are available at the time of publishing this blog post.
New Floral T-Shirts for the Hot Summer Days to Come
I looked in my dresser a while back, and realized I didn’t own a single t-shirt without holes. Farm life is seriously hard on clothes. So I decided to turn some of my floral illustrations into bright fun tees. I liked them so much, I put them in our store for everyone else to wear and enjoy as well.
This purple poppy was the delight of our front garden bed last month. Available in women's and unisex sizes.
The Peace rose was developed by French horticulturist Francis Meilland, in the years 1935 to 1939. When Meilland foresaw the German invasion of France, he sent cuttings to friends in Italy, Turkey, Germany, and the United States to protect the new rose. It is said that it was sent to the US on the last plane available before the German invasion, where it was safely propagated during the war. My parents grew this rose, and I grow it their memory and eternal hope for everlasting peace. Available in women's and unisex tees.
A wee bee nestles amid this peta-floricious sunflower. I drew this pen and ink illustration by hand, several years back, inspired by the bees and sunflowers in my garden. As always, available in women's and unisex sizing.
Roses: They Can’t and They Won’t and They Don’t Stop
One of the ever so many reasons we grow and adore roses is that they are so generous. If roses are fed, watered and deadheaded, many varieties will keep sending out new flushes of flowers every 6-8 weeks. So, yes, we still have you pick roses appointments available for the rest of the summer - come and get some!
Orchardists Order Ahead and Never Ever Stop Pruning
I saw that Trees of Antiquity just opened up ordering for barefoot trees this winter. They are our favorite tree source on the west coast, but wherever you like to order trees, now is the time to start planning your order, before the best varieties sell out.
The summer is the season to get excited about harvesting the fruits of your labor, but it's also a great time to take a good look at your fruit trees, and see if a little pruning is needed. I look to remove dead branches from the winter that aren't coming back, anything that looks diseased, and any suckers emerging from the root stock around the trunks of my trees. Really long new branches, can be cut back by 50% to create a sturdier and more manageable tree. Finally, I prune all of our cherry and apricot trees this time of year, since they are the most vulnerable to infection if pruned in the winter (don't do that).
As always, if you need advice about your trees, feel free to reach out to us anytime.
The next blog post or two will cover some of our very favorite fruit tree varieties out of the 200+ we grow, including those beautiful glass bead currants in the picture below.
Until then, happy summer everyone!
