2010 Season Update

May 19:  Winter finally gave way to spring and apple blossoms opened about 10 days earlier than normal this year.  We keep bees for honey and for pollination but we also brought in additional hives to help get the job done.  Apples are pea-size right now and some trees are loaded.  It looks like a very good crop of apples this year!  We're actually thinning (taking off apples) to prevent crowding, improve color, size and quality.  We don't use chemicals to thin our crop so we do it all by hand!   

June 1:  The planting is done.  We're hoping for rain and another great year for pumpkins.  Some areas have had alot of rainfall this year but we haven't been that fortunate.  Severe weather is in the forecast for today - hopefully strong wind and hail will stay away but bring on the rain.  Apple thinning continues.  We'll soon be starting summer pruning which is a process similar to winter pruning but less extensive.  Summer pruning will help bring sunlight and air into the canopy of the trees which in turn will help apples color-up and minimize any fungal problems.  We've kept up with organic sprays and we use traps to monitor insects.  This helps us determine how and when to manage insect pressure.

June 8:  We finally got the rain we needed and our pumpkin, squash and gourd crops are off to a great start.  We have a full tank of water in the ground now from over 3 inches of rain received since June 1st.  A dryer warmer period would be welcome for awhile.  We have plenty of work to do, rain or shine.  If it's raining we work in the apple barn.  If it's dry out we're thinning the apple crop, mowing, trimming, weeding, cultivating, and more recently putting up deer fence.     

June 18:  Rain, rain and more rain!  That pretty much sums up the past couple weeks.  The apple crop looks fantastic!  We just hope that it stays that way through all of the storms.  The pumpkin, winter squash and gourd plants are growing fast with the heat and rain but it's been difficult to keep the fields weeded.    

July 9:  We finally had a nice dry-out period during the days leading up to the 4th of July weekend.  We were able to cultivate all of the gourd, squash and pumpkin fields - they look so much better!  The apples are sizing up and still looking very good.  We should be picking Pristine by the first week in August - maybe sooner.  I recently checked our beehives and found that they've put up alot of honey already.  Hopefully they'll keep packing it away.  I'll harvest honey sometime around Labor Day.   

July 22:  Our work has been focused on the pumpkin fields over the past couple of weeks.  The pumpkin plants are growing vigorously but so is the grass.  Since I had cultivated some time ago, the area betweeen the rows is fairly clean.  But grass has filled in near and around the pumpkin plants threatening to choke them out.  So we've had a great team of family and friends working in the morning and evening hours just pulling out grass and weeds so the pumpkin plants can continue to vine out.  The heat and humidity this year has made this one of the most challenging jobs on the farm.  Right now morning is a great time to watch bees visiit the large yellow/orange blossoms.  The bees actually get nearly totally covered with bright yellow pollen from the blossoms.  The better the pollination the larger and more uniform the pumpkins will grow.  Little pumpkins are now starting to grow on some of the vines and it looks like we could have another great crop by this fall.  Winter sqauash and ornamental gourds are also well on their way.  We planted a one-acre corn field but got it in late due to all the rain in June.  Deer have been grazing on it and grass has moved into that area too so we'll see if we end up with a good enough stand to cut in a maze.  the apples are still looking good and we're still on schedule for picking Pristine next week or the week after. 

August 5:  Pumpkins are growing, growing and growing!  So is everything else it seems.  The heat and rain have not let up.  It's hard to believe that we were burried in snow and sub zero temperatures this past winter.  We continue to dodge severe weather this summer.  Right now we're just trying to keep up with mowing, taking care of crops and getting ready for the fall.  We split up our evening hours between washing, grading, and bagging apples and painting and trimming out our retail area.  Once we get the retail area finished we'll be opening for sales on the weekends.  Until then, we're selling apples at Campbells Nutrition and New City Market in Des Moines and Wheatsfield Cooperative in Ames.

August 11:  We had another storm move through last night; more rain and stronger wind than I thought at the time.  I didn't get a chance to look at everything but at a glance it appears that there wasn't any damage to the crops.  The ground is saturated with water.  We're picking apples just about every day now and the cooler is starting to fill up.  In a couple of weeks we'll be harvesting honey and before too long we'll be heading into fall!  Cooler weather would be welcome relief.   

September 2:  We're almost finished putting our retail area back together again for the season.  It will look much better than it did last year - we're looking forward to using it.  It is amazing how quickly we get to this point each year.  This is the time of year that we add another coat of paint to picnic talbes, fences and the barn; clear away unwanted brush and shrubs; smoothe out the lane; put signs in place and put up fall displays.  It seems like there is more to do than what we can get done but somehowe it all comes together.  I walked through the pumpkin patch recently and pumpkins are nearly ready to pick.  It is amazing what all of our crops have had to endure this year in terms of rain, heat and wind.  We're thankful that we will have a crop after one of the hardest summers we've ever experienced.    

2009 Season Update

Apples:  We really worked the orchard hard this winter pruning out alot of unneccessary top growth in the trees.  All of the prunings were chipped and will be used as mulch.  We have burned prunings in the past but find that chipping is the way to go.  Every one in this area of the state knows that we had another wet spring.  This made it difficult to get machinery into the orchard.  We keep 8 hives of our own on the farm but the bees didn't seem very interested in getting into the blossoms.  They strongly preferred dandillons.  Some of our early apple varieties didn't produce much this year due to weak pollination and the fact that these particular trees tend to produce a heavy crop every other year.  We managed to avoid most of the hail and damaging wind.  Our fall varieties look good and should be right on schedule.

Pumpkins:  The pumpkin crop looks great!  Weed control takes most of the time we spend on pumpkins.  We cultivate when we can and pull weeds once the pumpkin plants fill up the drive rows.  We have pumpkins of all sizes and shapes.  We planted more white pumpkins this year due to customers asking for more of these.  I think the cool weather has made the pumpkins turn orange earlier in the past.  I walked through the patch on Monday and it is loaded!

Deer Fence:  We spent much of the summer putting up deer fence around a 4 acre plot.  We definitely live in deer country and over the years the deer pressure has increased exponentially!  We decided that to continue to plant apple trees and other crops we would have to put up an 8' fence.  There is instant peace of mind once the gate is closed.  We will continue to put fence up around other plots.

September 21st:  We're spending this week putting up displays and getting ready for our applefest weekend.  Trying to polish-up a farm is no easy task!  There's always more that we'd like to do than is humanly possible.

New Apple Barn:  After we finished the fence we began working on our new retail space in the red barn located on the hilltop just north of our home.  We've been framing, running electric lines, plumbing etc.  It's not a pretty sight at the moment but we're working nights and weekends on it and even some weekdays in between and hope to have it ready to go by mid September.   

September 1st:  Moved our walk-in apple cooler from the garage into the Apple Barn.  It went up alot easier than it came down.  Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working on the retail space in the barn.

September 18th:  The school group tours have begun.  Children are eager to walk through the orchard, check out the animals in the barnyard and learn about apples and honey bees.

September 19th:  We opened the pumpkin patch today.  Visitors took out huge ones and small ones; white ones, odd-shaped ones and even pie pumpkins.  There's plenty to choose from.  This looks like our best crop ever!