It’s time to get our Felco’s out and get our apple and pear trees shaped up for 2014. There’s only about a month and a half to try to work through our 2,700 apple trees and 250 pears, but with sub-zero temps for a high, I spent this afternoon breaking down all possible ‘secateurs’ that we could find on the farm and getting them sharpened and oiled to get them in ship-shape for pruning. I don’t know that we’ll break the freezing point before we get more snow and another cold snap in a few days, but warming spring temperatures will get here eventually, and I’m sure that those apple blossoms will pop open once they do!
Well, 2013 has now come and gone and we’re already almost 1/12th of the way through 2014. We’re still working our way through the last few remaining tubs of 2013 apples as we start to discuss our seed orders and planting plans for 2014. We’re sharpening our pruners to get out into the orchard and get the trees ready for another productive season, while coring, slicing, and drying more apple chips and baking up more apple butter. Apples have a way of keeping us busy throughout the year, but lately the blasts of snow and cold temperatures are keeping us inside.
But there are still some other crops that continue to survive despite the weather outside. With our moveable hoophouses we’re able to keep spinach and carrots alive, even though the soil has now frozen. We have some over-wintering crops waiting patiently as seedlings under protective coverings of plastic and snow until increasing sunlight and spring temperatures prompt them to continue their growth and productivity. And, as seen above, we even have some Belgian Endive that we’re able to keep indoors where we’re forcing new ‘chicon’ sprouts from roots that we harvested and held in storage from last fall.
Before too long, we’ll be rushing through our pruning to make sure that every tree in the orchard is ready for their spring blooms to burst forth and set fruit for the coming year. And planting and warmer weather won’t be far behind. Before we know it, or are ready for it, we’ll be back in the thick of things and heading to our summer markets once again. So we’re actually doing what we can to enjoy this wintery, blustery weather as 2013 has quickly transitioned into 2014. Hopefully you are too.
We are in the height of apple season. Yesterday we sold out of Dandee Red, an early McIntosh type apple. Never fear; in a few short weeks we will have Pioneer and Ruby McIntosh to bring to the Farmer’s market. This is the time of year that another flavorful apple is just around the corner.
We will continue to update what apples are available on our apple varieties page. Click on each seasonal variety for information on the texture, flavor, and use.
The head lettuce is a beautiful display in the garden.
It was warm enough earlier this month that we unveiled the lettuce from under the row cover that has been on it since it was planted in April. As usual we got carried away with varieties and have over twenty different types of head lettuce. My favorite so far has been Red Leprechaun – an heirloom romaine with beautiful red-purple savoyed leaves that have a tender buttery flavor. I wish I could find more information on how this lettuce got its name; perhaps the breeder felt that harvesting it was like like nabbing a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
Many of the spring and summer veggies have been planted and we are ready to start planting squash next week. We decided to plant a few rows of ornamental corn including a few varieties that make outstanding cornmeal. Mary’s favorite corn is Hopi Blue which she grows primarily for Vern’s famous blue cornbread. Sowing the corn by hand felt humbling after transplanting over 1,000 plants the previous morning with our waterwheel transplanter. It didn’t help that my cousin was planting soybeans several rows at a time in the adjacent field while I was on my hands and knees dropping each seed into its hole. Similarly, last year Marcus found himself planting radish seed with our walk behind single-row planter when the surrounding fields were being planted with field corn. Perhaps it is suiting to have a low-tech planting day to contrast with how industrialized agriculture has become. We are constantly finding efficiencies and coming up with better ways grow certain crops here on the farm, but perhaps it is good to take a step back and realize that growing food is not always about the quantity of land under production.
These spuds aren’t even old enough to be New Potatoes yet!
It has been a busy couple of weeks! After having a stern talk with mother nature we were finally able to get the rest of the apple and pear trees planted. Marcus pointed out that we must be paying tribute to our past life in Pennsylvania with some of the varieties that we planted this year. For all those Penn State fans out there, Buffalo Ridge Orchard now has Nittany apple trees, which is a cross between Golden Delicious and the York apple. The York was always one of our favorites to purchase at our neighborhood farmers market in Overbrook. It’s somewhat flattened in shape, is very firm, and has a cidery flavor.
We also planted 40 Seckel pear trees, which is a sweet dessert pear that was discovered as a wild seedling in Philadelphia’s Roxborough neighborhood in the early 1800’s. Of course it is also likely that the pear was planted by German settlers and then later discovered. Either way hopefully in a couple years we will have a supply of pears from July to October. We were also able to get all of our onions planted – all five bushels of plants and two bushels of sets. We had hoped to plant the hoophouse tomatoes, but are grateful that we waited until after this last cold spell. Although we did not have snow, we did have 30 degree temperatures.
Mary and Vern got the potatoes planted as well. There were lots of herb seeds that got planted, 4 long beds of lettuces (with another 3 on their way), and lots of other loose ends have been tied up in getting ready for the summer markets, which started last week. So stop on by and see us at our summer markets; you can check out the link for our Farmer’s Market Calendar on the left to see when we’re scheduled to be at a market near you!
The sky was particularly lovely while pruning apple trees last week.
What a successful couple of weeks. We are excited to be done with pruning and have starting planting head lettuce and apple trees (not together). We have been enjoying the ease of using the water wheel transplanter for our lettuce starts. As much as Mary loved her fancy wood dibble, she has willingly retired this tool for a comfortable seat on the transplanter. No more kneeling along the plant bed or meticulously watering each plant start. It is so fun that even other family members have willingly taken a turn at planting. Maybe we will be able to charge ride fees before long!
Garden Log March 19th – April 1st:
Pruned 700 apple trees (Sansa, Senshu, Chieftan, CrimsonCrisp, Honeycrisp, Sweet Sixteen, Suncrisp, Cameo)
Grafted the second batch of our tomatoes for our summer hoophouse
Potted up 50 more flower seedlings into hanging baskets
Delivery of new equipment is the big news at Buffalo Ridge Orchard! With the new tractor we’ll be able to move the hoophouses through their seasonal rotations and use this second tractor so that we can do two jobs at once. This New Holland replaces an older, larger Case that was too big to dig potatoes, fit between orchard rows, or maneuver along vegetable rows. And speaking of those veggies, we’re hoping that the new water-wheel transplanter will make quick work of getting them planted now that Spring really does seem to be just around the corner. Our brassicas and lettuces are ready for some longer days in the bright sunshine! With any luck, Winter has had its last laugh this April Fools’ Day, and we’ll all be enjoying nice Spring weather for the next couple of months!
Garden Log March 19th – April 1st:
Pruned 500 apple trees (Sweet 16, Crimson Topaz, Jonagold, Fuji, Snowsweet, Pristine)
Grafted the majority of our tomatoes for our summer hoophouse tomato rotation
Potted up flower seedlings into hanging baskets
Potted up herb seedlings into planter boxes
Moved all of the vegetable, herb, and flower seedlings from the sun-porch nursery to the greenhouse
Received delivery of our new tractor and water-wheel transplanter
Micro lettuce greens are ready to be harvested in the warm, sunny, Spring-y greenhouse.
Just think, this time last year our orchard was nearing full bloom! Of course, 2 weeks later we were getting frosts that wiped out nearly 100% of our apple crop for the year. This year we’re still waiting for warm, sunny spring weather to break out from the greenhouse to the rest of the farm. The snow was all but melted away over the past few days, only to have a couple more inches dropped on us last night. And that north wind is still blowing mighty cold! I for one am starting to lose hope in Punxsutawney Phil’s claim of an early spring this year. However, spring will certainly arrive soon enough (likely with summer not far behind) and we’ll all be looking forward to April Showers and May Flowers until it does.
Garden Log March 12th – March 18th:
Pruned 500 apple trees (Honeygold, Grand Gala, Zestar!, Suncrisp, Winecrisp, Alkmene, Candy Crisp, Braestar)
Harvested 2 tubs of spinach & micro lettuce greens
Orchard row after winter pruning – just 50 more rows left
Garden Log: March 5th – March 11th
Pruned 200 apple trees (Snowsweet, Galarina, Smoothie, Valstar)
Harvested two tubs of spinach
Harvest two tubs of micro lettuce greens
Planted 26 flats of lettuce
Transplanted tomatoes and rootstock
Planted one flat of creeping thyme
Planted one flat of oregano
Planted one flat of thyme
Transplanted sage from soil blocks to plug trays
Painted final coat in walk-in cooler
We are already running out of room in the heated greenhouse, which is filled with herb plants and plant starts. When we first built the heated greenhouse we thought we would never be able to keep it full. Four years later we have had to be very creative to get everything to fit. We look forward to Spring so that we can start moving plants into the garden.
We had great time this Sunday brushing up on our grafting skills at Plum Creek Orchard in Swisher, Iowa. Jerry and Kazumi Fottral have been grafting heirloom and specialty apple trees for several years and invited the crew here at Buffalo Ridge Orchard to join them for the afternoon. It was a very successful day and we even managed to graft a few Holstein apple trees for our orchard.
Pruned 80 apple trees (Cortland, Gala, Snowsweet, Gingergold)
Harvested two tubs of spinach for the Mt. Vernon winter market
Planted one flat of sage, thyme, and oregano
Planted three flats of basil
Planted three flats of tomato rootstock
Painted walk-in cooler floor
The greenhouse is getting filled with plant starts. The rosemary plants that we use for cuttings are blooming in the greenhouse. The orchard has an addition of 12 inches of snow this week. We have been spending our snowy days painting the walk-in cooler and working in the greenhouse. Day-time temperatures in the hoop houses are well above 60 degrees. The spinach is benefiting from the long days and is growing strong.
