Potatoes

Summer Apples and Veggies Official Kick-off

by

DSC_3644_4x6It is that time of year when we truly appreciate growing, selling, and more importantly eating locally produced food.  Tomatoes are always more delicious than we remembered and cucumbers are a cool and refreshing contrast to the heat of late July.  In contrast eggplant, zucchini, new potatoes, and beets give us comfort and satisfaction.  We take delight in the sweet and sprightly early apple as we eat our first Pristine apple.  Not far behind we start enjoying Redfree and Dandee Red apples which provide a hint of the beloved fall Jonathan and McIntosh, while still reigning over summer with their straighforward flavor.

Pristine apples are an apple that always initially knocks us off our feet with its juiciness.  It requires much care in harvest and packing to prevent bruising and of course it has a tendency to drop off the tree at a concerning rate making us cringe whenever there is a breezy day on the farm.  However this extra care is rewarded with an apple that packs a powerful sweet tart punch.

DSC_3666_4x6DSC_3710_4x6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Redfree apple is preview of the future fall Jonathan apple and the name references it’s red color and somewhat disease resistance.  A much better name for this apple is early-Jon because it truly is a crunchy tart apple with a hint of sweetness.

Dandee Red is such a great early apple with its firm dense texture and tart flavor.  We often compare the flavor of the Dandee Red to a McIntosh but without the snap – this description grossly underestimates how wonderful this apple is on the tastebuds.  The firm dense finely grained texture has a creaminess missing from the fall McIntosh.

Milestones Big and Small

by

DSC_2086_4x6
Success! Emma graciously accepts the Rhubarb Torch Award for the “Most Tangy [some say Bitter] During Bloom.”  She is hoping for thicker skin next year.  Photo provided by the talented Jessica Rilling.
This year marks several milestones big and small.  Mary and Vern have been farming for close to 40 years.  This will be the tenth season of apple trees in production on the farm.   And coincidentally, tomorrow Marcus and Emma will be celebrating ten years of marriage.  So how is this year shaping up on this adventure called farming?

After several cool nights that made us all have heartburn over the apple crop this spring, we find ourselves wondering why we volunteered to be in the boxing ring with Mother Nature.  We had flashbacks to 2012, when we lost close to 100 percent of our crop due to an early bloom, followed by what were seasonably low temperatures for early April.  Over the past few weeks we surveyed blossoms and estimated fruit set.  In a typical year we thin the fruit down by 50 to 60 percent to ensure a return bloom for next year and for fruit size.  However, there are plenty of other variables that can affect fruit set, including cloud cover, temperature, and pollination.  This year we estimated that 4o percent of blossoms would set fruit, which would essentially be close to a normal crop.

Funny how a few weeks can change your outlook on life and growing year.  The apple crop looks strong, the potato spuds emerged, we started the market season well, and we are almost done planting our vegetable fields.  We are already happily complaining about all the fruit thinning we need to do in the orchard.

I am not sure how Vern and Mary have survived 40 years of farming, except that they seem to have a skill that I think you only obtain after years of practice – adaptability!  Things do not always go as planned – actually that is the only thing you can plan for.  But if you are good at observing cycles and can anticipate changes that need to be made, you’ll be able to sleep most nights.

 

Piles of Potatoes

by
A pile of Dark Red Norlands
A pile of Dark Red Norlands

This year has been a fantastic potato growing year with record yields.  It looks like we will have close to three times the quantity of potatoes that we had last year.  The past couple of weeks Vern and Mary have been working hard to harvest close to 2,000 pounds of potatoes every week.  During these weeks we found ourselves cursing the extra work caused by the timely rains this Spring that provided the ultimate growing conditions for our spuds.

Finally we realized that we were complaining about success.  As one of our farmer friends from Pennsylvania stated several years back, “you have to make sure your attitude doesn’t get too farmerish!”  So this week we had to press the reset button on our attitude as we march full force into apple season with only half the potatoes harvested.  What a blessing that we have piles of potatoes!

And apple season is really starting to kick off as well; our fall varieties are finally coming on in full force!  After a bit of a meager showing last week, we’ve already harvested McIntosh, Sweet Sixteen, Jonafree, Honeycrisp, and Gala apples (and it’s only Wednesday morning).  So we’ll have all of those at market this week, plus the last of our Silkens.