What to do when you have close to 500 fruit and nut trees to plant?  Call on your friends (especially those without farms) and promise to feed them!  Sixteen of us planted 430 fruit trees on Sunday – while the kids free ranged – and the orchard looks great.  We could really use some rain in the next week (quite the opposite of the 2011 endless spring rain).

Got down to 30 degrees in the orchard last night, not a temperature to worry about.  John didn’t even light the brush piles.  The plums are finishing their blooms; the pears, cherries, and gooseberries are in full bloom; and the apples and currants are just beginning.  It looks and smells beautiful at our home orchard.

All they need is a rock pile.

I am tired and a little sad this morning.  No matter how much hard work and skill you put in to the orchard, some conditions are just out of your control.  Last night mother nature brought us one of those events.  With our tree crops over four weeks ahead of an average year in development, they were susceptible to a hard frost.   We had extended low temperatures over night.  It was below 26 degrees F in the orchard last night for over 5 hours.  We had a low of 22.5 degrees F at about 6:30am and than the temperature started to climb back up.  With the wind last night it was impossible to use any frost protection methods effectively.  It’s frustrating when there is little you can do to stop damage.

The important question is what does this mean for the fruit trees?

The Asian and American plums in full bloom and first bloom could have up to 90% damage to the buds.  This is the predicted level based on cold damage research.  It could be more or less in our orchard depending on several factors and we won’t know for a few days or weeks.  No matter what there was serious damage on the plums last night!

The Hungarian cherries were not quite in bloom yet, so the buds can take lower temperatures, but I’m sure they were damaged to some level.

The apples and pears were in a stage of development that I believe allowed them to escape most of the bud damage.  Even these trees may suffer a little damage.

The grapes had swollen buds and may have also suffered a little damage.

The small fruits were generally in a stage of development that should have allowed them to escape most of the cold damage potential.

All of the perennial fruit plants will be monitored and evaluated for damage in the next couple weeks and the real picture will become clearer.   This is an unprecedented season for New York fruit growers.  Nothing comes close to this in the recorded historical temperature records or from the memories of many “old timers” that I’ve spoken to about this season. What other crazy events are in store for us this season?

You can at least enjoy the visuals of the plum blooms, if we won’t be enjoying much of the fruit this year.  The picture is from a couple days ago.  I’ll keep you posted.

Our Asian and American plums are in full bloom and not a good thing to be on March 26th.  With the cooler daytime temperatures we run the risk of not having enough pollinators working the flowers.  We spotted a few solitary insects in the flowers yesterday, but no honey bees.  Considering it takes 6-8 visits per flower to actually set fruit, warmer days are needed during bloom.  Tonight the temperature will drop in the mid 20s – yikes!  We plan to cover as many plum trees as physically possible along with the flowering seaberry plants.  John plans to stay up all night to monitor the temperature.  He may have to light a fire to help create a protective inversion layer of air within the orchard once we reach 27 degrees.  When things get down to 25 degrees, that is when damage can begin to occur.

I looked back through our blog posts to 2010 when we had an early spring.  Our Asian plums began blooming April 19th and we noted that this was 15 days ahead of schedule.  This puts the 2012 season into perspective!  2010 turned out to be a great long season and our melons were fantastic that year.  Perhaps, after this nail-biting week, we will cruise through a warm spring.  The alternative is not too pleasant to consider.

It was another warm day in a winter feeling like the balmy Carolinas.  The black currants show signs of buds wanting to stretch in the sun. Crocus, snowdrops and green grass were not really the things I needed to see, to know the fruit plants will awake this year very early on the calendar.  This sets up a greater potential for a possible hard frost during bloom time.  We do have a few tricks up our sleeves, but the risk is real especially for certain types.  I find myself wanting to think we’ll just have a really long intense season to produce amazing fruit.

The high tunnel for raspberries is slowly being assembled, we’ll post some photos soon.

The signs of spring made me view again one of my favorite photo collections by an artist Jane Alden Stevens.  The pictures speak for themselves.  Humbling.   Check them out at Fraction Magazine!  The apples sell for $5.00 or more a piece in Tokyo and other cities.

We had a great time at the CSA fair today in Boyton middle school.  We always enjoy meeting new people who have an interest in the diverse world of fruit.  Thanks to all the folks who came out and talked to us.

We would like to announce a new service for our CSA members.  Garden Gate Delivery will bring the fruit share to your home/job on Tuesdays throughout the season.  Marlo offers a great service and will be working with several local vegetable CSAs for many different personal options.  The delivery will cost $50 for the season in addition to our CSA share price.  Contact us for more info.

All the Ithaca area members can stop reading the blog post now.  For our Friday pickup members and all the other Seneca County residents keep reading:

The horticulturally talented Karen McCabe of Lodi, New York will be offering an organic vegetable CSA for Friday pickup at our barn on County Road 138 in Ovid. Karen has extensive experience working on local farms, including many years at Blue Heron Farm in Lodi, NY.  Her crop list looks delicious, you will not be disappointed.  The season will begin mid June and run through October or early November depending on the season.  It will be $300 for a half share and a full share for $500.  For those that prefer chicken eggs (vs. duck), she has an egg share with 1 dozen a week for $80 a season and 1/2 dozen a week for $40 a season.  Please contact her directly for more info. at 607-279-2123 or karenmccb@gmail.com.   The queen has spoken! ……sorry Karen, couldn’t resist this pic

We have been extremely busy this winter w/ a million different projects.  After a hard day, Idunn needed a shot of maple syrup (locally bought) for stress relief or something.  I obliged and took a shot glass out and poured the syrup thick and cold.  Idunn asked when we were going to tap our trees, something I mentioned in the fall and was now hoping the idea had been lost.  This is an activity we haven’t done on our farm in the past.

So we started tapping on the 10th,  a week or two later than many maple producers.

The taps started slowly the first couple days.  Idunn and I walked the bucket line on the third day w/ the aforementioned shot glass to taste some sap but  really just check the buckets to make sure sap was not cascading over the edge.  No, I was told we had to taste from every bucket!  It was amazing to detect subtle differences between taps in what is a very mild tasting liquid, that in no way resembles the final product.

We had enough sap for a cook down on the 18th.  Now mind you, I haven’t had time to buy a pan to cook the sap down (deep pots take longer to cook due to the small surface area for evaporation).  We didn’t let that stop us, we only had about 25 gallons to cook down (~1/2gallon+ syrup).  Got it done in the end and man is fresh maple syrup tasty.  The south can keep their Karo knock off, the north east got it good.  I will be in Ithaca to pickup a large pan before we cook 60 gallons this weekend!  John

Finally, a true winter storm!  The ducks run outside to steal quick snatches of food while the chickens refuse to exit their snug house.  The ducks are still laying and Greenstar is well-stocked with our duck eggs.

We have shares available for our 2012 fruit CSA.  For twenty weeks enjoy a diverse array of fruit that will delight your taste buds and challenge your culinary skills.  All fruit offered will be grown at Daring Drake Farm.  CSA pickups are Tuesday or Saturday at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market or Fridays at the farm.  New this year:  a duck egg share option for fruit CSA members.  Visit our CSA page for more information.

Farm Crew

Thanks to the qualified folks who took the time to contact and meet with us regarding the intern position.  The position has been filled for the 2012 season.