Our Essential Business is Still Open

   As producers and sellers of food for people, our business is deemed essential by the Governor of Kansas, and is still open by appointment.  As long as you haven't had any contact with COVID-19, you can phone 620-597-2450 a day or two ahead and leave a message with your name, day and time you'll come, and what you want to buy.  State your phone number (with area code) in your message, and we'll return your call after dark to confirm your appointment.
   We're very busy working all over the farm at this time of year.  There's always a huge amount of work in early spring, but even more so this year, since winter cold and excess rain prevented us from getting much winter pruning done until recently.  This past week, great weather enabled our workers and us to do a lot of pruning, but there's still much more to do.  Plus I'm still sorting and packing apples as more sell, and Bill cracks more pecans as they sell.

Our 'China Pearl' peach trees are beautiful in bloom now. We work outside all day, all over the farm, so we get phone messages when we come in, and return calls after dark.

   We still have many harvested apples and cracked pecans for sale.  We'll have #1 'GoldRush' apples for sale until we sell out in June or July.  We also have a few #1 'Enterprise' apples and some #1 apples of some selections from my apple breeding program.
   We also have #2 apples, with small cracks or other surface damage, which are fine for making apple butter, apple pecan pancakes, applesauce, apple pecan topping for waffles, apple pie filling, etc.  We have many #2 'Enterprise' apples for sale now until whenever we sell out, and they're excellent for making apple pie filling, apple butter or other apple products.  We also have a few #2 'GoldRush' apples with rain cracks, and some #2 apples of some selections from my apple breeding program, excellent for blending in applesauce or apple butter.

Many 20-lb. boxes of 'GoldRush' apples like this one have sold recently, so I keep sorting and packing more.

   Small amounts of harvested #1 apples cost $1.30 per pound + tax.  I pack them in 20-lb. boxes, which I then weigh to exactly 20.0 lbs., so you save $1.00 if you buy a 20-lb. box of apples for $25.00 + tax.  You can get a 10-lb. bag each of 2 different apple varieties, and still get the 20-lb. discount.
   Our harvested #2 (2nds) apples sell for just $0.93 per pound + tax, so a 20-lb. box costs $18.60 + tax, which is $7.00 less than a box of #1 apples, including tax.  If you get 40 lbs. or more of #2 'Enterprise' apples, the price goes down to just $0.88 per pound + tax, so each 20-lb. box costs $17.59 + tax, and 40 lb. of #2 'Enterprise' apples costs just $35.18 + tax.
   We'll have harvested, cracked pecans for sale now until we sell out, probably in May or June.  Our high-efficiency pecan cracking machine blows out most shell fragments, so our bags of cracked pecans contain over 75% nutmeats and less than 25% shell fragments, which come off very easily.
    We sell mixed selections from Bill's pecan breeding program in 4-pound bags.  Each bag has the equivalent of 6 pounds of in-shell pecans, and when you pick them out, you get at least 3 pounds of nutmeats.  These are all large pecans with thin shells and great taste.  Each 4-lb. bag costs $16.67 + tax.
   We also sell smaller, 1-pound bags of cracked 'Kanza' pecans.  You get at least 3/4 pound of nutmeats when you pick out these pecans.  Each 1-lb. 'Kanza' bag costs $4.63 + tax.
   Asparagus harvest should start in early April, as shown in the sidebar at left.  Asparagus is sold harvested only, and will be the same price it's been for the past 5 or 6 years: $2.78 per pound + tax.