Orchard Notes

Opening day is this Saturday. We are so excited to see pickers on the farm again. Judging from the social media interest, it might be closer to a Black Friday or rock concert than a tranquil walk in the country. Although we have scheduled multiple picking sessions over the weekend, we fear that we may get picked out on Saturday morning, in which case we would have to close for a few days to give the orchard a chance to recharge.

The new blackberry block has loads of big beautiful ripe berries and the picking will be best and easiest here – all of the varieties are thornless and erect. We’re proud of our trellising job – all the fruit is easy to reach on two trellis lines, one head high, and one knee high. Makes for easy picking! This is the first year for this block to fruit; we planted it last year. The Ponca blackberries are every even-numbered row from 2-10, and they are ripening the earliest and heaviest. It’s a great berry and a great healthy-looking plant. In the same block, Osage and Ouachita are ripening as well. Osage is a sweet great tasting berry – one of the best for eating fresh. Ouachita is a great all-purpose berry, but ripening later than the Osage and Ponca.

In the old blackberry block, we have Arapaho starting to ripen. In previous years, it was our earliest blackberry, but it appears Ponca is even earlier. We have three rows of a new variety for us, a thorned variety called Kiowa, which is beginning to ripen. The berries are big and have a great texture. We’re hoping it’s worth the thorniness. Further back in the old blackberry block are some Triple Crown. We planted several rows of Triple Crown only to realize that our climate is not cold enough for it. The past 2 years it was sluggish and didn’t like to fruit. We’re planning on pulling them out, but never got around to it before this winter, which ended up being cold enough to suit the Triple Crown. It’s fruiting like crazy and the berries are plentiful and pretty nice. It’s fun to compare the different berries! Also back in the old blackberries are some random peach trees, some of which might have ripe fruit.

We also have a new blueberry block, but so far the rabbiteye varieties have not yet started to ripen save for the odd southern highbush blueberry planted at the head of some of the rows. In the old blueberry block, the first 2 rows are southern highbush varieties that ripen a few weeks before the rabbiteyes. The early rabbiteyes are just beginning to ripen this week, especially Climax. They seem to be a week behind their schedule from last year. In the back of the old blueberry block, marked with pink signs, are the Pink Lemonade blueberry. When these blueberries ripen, they turn dark pink. They have a unique sweet and sour flavor, so Pink Lemonade is the perfect name. They ripen just as early as the southern highbush.

In the middle fig sections, we have some random blackberries and blueberries that are ripening. Some plum trees have some fruit that are starting to turn from green to purple. The Santa Rosa plums are best when dark purple, and make a delightful fruit that’s sweet and tender enough to eat with the skin, but even sweeter when peeled. And it makes a superb jam.