Thinning Peaches, Harvesting Asparagus

   Our workers and I have been busy thinning excess young fruit in our peach orchard for the last few days, and we'll keep removing excess young peaches for the next week or so.  This greatly reduces disease spread by keeping fruit from touching, and enables the peaches left on the trees to grow to a salable size and develop best flavor and sweetness.

Our worker Andrew Coberley, on the ladder, helped twist off excess young peach fruit in our peach orchard.

   As I posted on this blog in March, our peach crop looks good now and we hope to still have a good crop at peach harvest in July and August, but we'll have only about 20% of the crop that we had in previous years.  We now have just 82 bearing peach trees, only 40% the number of peach trees we had from 2012 to 2019, and most of the peach trees that will bear this year are just 4 to 5 years old, so haven't reached full bearing capacity yet.  We'll take orders for peaches in July and August, a few days ahead, but not before then.

   Asparagus is still growing well, and I'm harvesting it 3 times per day now that high temperatures are in the 80's F.  I break each spear where it snaps off easily, so almost the entire spear is tender and usable.   Asparagus is still just $2.78 per pound + tax, harvested.

We have lots of asparagus for sale now until early June. Phone 620-597-2450 a day or two ahead to order it and say the day & time you'll come for it.

   We'll have asparagus for sale for the next 3 weeks or so, until early June.  You do need to phone 620-597-2450 a day or two ahead and order it.  Our peach orchard is located at the east end of our farm, over 1/4 mile from our sales building, and while thinning peaches, I can't see or hear vehicles come in if you just drop by.

   We still have many harvested, cracked pecans for sale, now until mid- to late June.  We had a very good pecan crop this past fall, and fewer people come to buy them from Feb. to May, so we probably will not sell out of pecans before late June or early July.

   We sell cracked pecans in 4-pound bags, which are over 75% pecan kernels and under 25% shell fragments.  Each bag has the equivalent of 6 pounds of in-shell pecans, and when you pick out the pecan kernels, you get 3 pounds or more of nutmeats.  Each bag costs $18.52 + sales tax.  Again, phone 620-597-2450 a day or two ahead and order pecans.

We sell cracked pecans in 4-pound paper bags. Each bag has over 75% pecan kernels and under 25% shell fragments, as shown in the sample box at front.

   Our first pick-your-own crop, red raspberries, won't start until about June 4 or 6.  Red raspberry fruit are developing more slowly this year due to cooler than average temperatures in April, so I've pushed back the start of red raspberry harvest by a few days.  With all our berry crops, only a few fruit are ripe at the very beginning of each crop's harvest season, and often many people come during the first few days of each crop's season.  Each berry crop gets plentiful by the second week of its season.

'Natchez' thornless blackberries, the row at left, have been blooming for almost a week now, so their pick-your-own season will start about June 20. 'Apache' thornless blackberries, the row at right, just started blooming, so their harvest will start about June 28.

   Sales dates for all our crops are listed in the sidebar at left under Crop Sales Seasons. That also tells which crops are sold pick-your-own and which crops are sold harvested.

   From Dec. 1 to May 31, we’re open by appointment.  That means to phone 620-597-2450 a day ahead and leave a message on our answering machine with your name, day and approximate time you’ll come, and what you want to buy.

   Our phone rings in our house, so I'll answer it if you call while it's really hot out, and I'm working on the computer as I am now.  If you call while the weather's good, we're working in the orchards, so leave a message on our answering machine. We have no phone in our sales building or pecan building and we don't carry cell phones with us.  So we'll get your message when we come in from working in the orchards.  That's why you need to call a day ahead.

   For payment, we accept cash and checks (from any state), but NO credit cards or debit cards.  We have no phone line to the sales building, and no card reader.  Please bring your checkbook or enough cash to cover the amount you want to buy.  Thanks.