HOS All About Fruit Show

This past Saturday, Nick and I went to the Home Orchard Society All About Fruit Show. It is an amazing two day show, in which nearly a thousand varieties of fruit are made available to the public to sample. Apples, pears, grapes, quinces, medlars, and kiwis are on display. For us fruit geeks it is a sight to behold - and taste. There is literally so much that one could not sample every variety there. It was a real treat for me to see, touch and taste, varieties of fruit which I knew only by name. I absolutely love the muscat grapes and the russet apples - like Zabergau Reinette.

Marechal Foch

Here is a wonderful grape variety to grow in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Its name is Marechal Foch. It makes a very dark wine - the type I like. More importantly, the vines grow well in Oregon and the fruit naturally resists mildew. Where pinot noir and reisling grapes succomb to mildew, Marechal Foch will produce a bountiful and beautiful crop without fungicidal spray. In addition, Nick grows many other varieties of grapes with flavors that are absolutely superb. Some of the best are 'Kendaia', 'Campbell', and 'NY GR 7'. Tasting many of the grapes in Nick's collection, was a true delight. We sampled at least 150 different varieties.

Nick and the Grape Stemmer/Crusher

This past week I had the great good fortune to make a trip out to Oregon and visit my friends there. I spent most of my time with the Botner family. The grapes were ready to harvest, so I was able to help Nick pick the wine crop. The birds got some of the harvest, but we still were able to pick many tubs. Shown here is the machine Nick uses to de-stem the grape clusters. At the same time, two rotating drums at the bottom of the hopper, crush the grapes. I love this tool. It is a great time saver. In no time at all it will process many hundreds of pounds of grapes. After the grapes are crushed, yeast is added and so begins the conversion of sugars into alcohol.

Quercus Macrocarpa

Quercus = oak. Macrocrpa = large fruited.

The Burr Oak acorns are so thick this year, a grove of them carpets a city park nearby. One can't help to step on them in any direction. Rarely do we have such a productive year. It seems that only every three years or so is the acorn crop so plentiful. The latin name is justly deserved, for the the Burr oaks produce the largest acorn of all. How I wish I could turn out the hogs to all that incredibly bounty.

Watering the High Tunnel

I think the best way to water a high tunnel is with a tripod sprinkler. The plastic covering keeps the wind down and catches any overshot of water. In this particular instance I like the sprinkler more than drip tape. Here we are watering the high tunnel in preparation of planting it to 'Chicago Hardy' figs.

Believe It Or Not

This 27 pound beauty is Long of Naples. The thing is huge. It was growing up at the parents house in their garden. The neighborhood kids had a fun time watching it grow and grow and grow. One vine made two of these behemoths. This one squash could feed our family for a week or two.

Hayin' Time

I love to see a field hayed. And this year I got to participate in putting the hay by. I had the pleasure to rake. I loved it. You get to drive fast and the fall weather now is really splendid. Basically hay making goes like this: after mowing, the hay is raked into windrows to be baled.

Post Pulling

To grow tomatoes in the Midwest, the plants need to be grown off the ground. The method we use is post and string. It's the most economical way we've found to grow 5000 plus tomato plants. But now that it's time to clean the field, that means pulling out more than 1500 t-posts and rebar stakes. The best way to do that is with a tractor and two people. One drives the tractor and operates the loader, the other lassos the posts with a short chain bolted to the bucket. This method works good and fast.

It's Garlic Planting Time

About a week ago, we planted garlic. The calculation was somewhere around 5000 cloves planted. In no time at all they have already sprouted. When they go dormant for winter they will be covered with a light dressing of straw. My favorite variety we grow is Spanish Rojo. It doesn't store well but it's hot and spicy - the way I like my garlic.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

This is what everybody should have going into winter -750 pounds of butternut squash. It makes me feel rich. It's Waltham butternut. Yes, of all the heirloom, rare squash we grew this year, the winner is terms of bulk productivity is the oh-so-common Waltham butternut. It set fruit in the hottest days of summer, shrugged off the bugs and ripened unbelievable quantities of food. Now I know why it is such a widely grown squash.

Squash Grow Out Update

Here in all its glory is a fraction of our squash harvest. What a fun and interesting year it has been. This year we grew out close to one hundred different varieties. Many varieties suffered in our brutally hard growing conditions this year. Weeks of upper ninety/one-hundred degree temps, no rain for months, and an established cucumber beetle population destroyed many varieties. Of the four species of squash grown, C. moschata did the best. Most varieties performed well. However, Musquee de Provence and Greek Sweet Red withered and died before even flowering. Waltham butternut was the winnter in terms of productivity. Seminole was the winner in terms of taste. C. pepo squash like pumpkins, spaghetti squash and some acorn types did well, but forget about zucchini. The only reason we can supply zucchini throughout the growing season is with five successive plantings. Basically, from the time zucchini goes to the field the farmer has 45 days before the plants are dead from bacterial wilt. C. mixta did ok. The lighter colored varieties like gold striped cushaw didn't sunburn. C. maxima was a near total failure. Sure we got a few fruits - but that was only from late plantings - and considering the total yield I would say all C. maxima varieties trialed this year were a flop. If anyone knows of a maxima type that works in the Midwest when grown organically, please let me know.

PTO Sprayer

Here is yet one more useful tool on the farm. It is a sprayer. Because we are an organic farm we don't use synthetic pesticides, fungicides, etc. What we do use are OMRI approved sprays such as BT and Actinivate. The crops that are sprayed are cabbage and broccoli. They are sprayed to control cabbage loopers. The other crop sprayed is tomatoes. They are sprayed to control tomato hornworm. Here the spray boom can be seen in the upright position. It was set up this way to be driven between the tomato rows while simultaneously spraying both directions. I wish we didn't have to spray anything. But sadly the midwest is thick with hungry bugs.