The u-pickers have started picking the Montmorency tart cherries and they look good. The tart cherry pitter is running smoothly so when a u-pick customer picks a large lot of cherries they can get them pitted and into bags with the juice for freezing. We won’t be machine harvesting the Monts for another 4-5 […]
Well the rains that came early in the week were wonderful for most of the crops but they have a big negative side effect on the sweet cherries. When sweet cherries are getting ripe the sugar in them draws in water. The rain is absorbed through the roots but the cherry itself will draw in […]
We received almost an inch of rain today. That is great news for the parched trees and crops. The raspberries finally are ripening and tomorrow (Tues July 9) will be an excellent day because so many berries are ripening for easy picking. They are $4.00/pint but deals can be had on a flat of 8 […]
The cherries have ripened faster than I expected the last few days. After a freakout yesterday (July 4) we opened up the u-pick and the black sweet cherries are coming in beautifully. This weekend should be very good picking.
I am pleasantly surprised at the fast pace of the ripening fruit. The raspberries will be open for u-pick in time for the Fourth of July. (Probably the M88 location will open first as apparently there are earlier varieties there.)
The cherry crop is coming along beautifully. We received 8/10 s of an inch of rain last night which was very much appreciated. So cherries are sizing up. The sweet cherries are probably going to start around July 10-12. We will pick as early as we feel they are sweet enough and dark enough color. […]
It is shaping up to be a banner year. Our biggest acreage, Montmorency tart cherries appears to have a very nice crop coming. This is so important for us because we send most of our Montmorencies to be made into concentrate and concentrate has been in very short supply.
Planting sweet corn with a brand new tractor. We traded in two John Deere tractors last fall on two New Holland tractors that were delivered recently. The John Deeres were completely worn out and will be sold to salvage yards. The New Hollands are built on smaller frames that loan themselves easily to orchard work. […]
A new Chinook wind machine went up at King Orchards last week. Due to the widely variable weather we hope this thing will provide some protection from frosts on cold clear nights. The idea is that on clear nights with no breeze the heat from the blossoms (and car windshields) is radiated away to space. […]
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