PEACH FUN FACT. These are strong independent blossoms, and don't need a pollinator like honeybees, or other native nectar lovers. Similar to tomatoes, all these flowers need is a little breeze and they are good to go, unlike apples and many other fruit.
We don't like to count our eggs before they hatch, but I will share this bit of news with you. For the first time in three years, the majority of our peach blossoms are still alive at the end of April! Again, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but we are very excited to see some of the early peach varieties in full bloom at this moment. It is interesting to watch different rows bloom at different times, based on when that variety will mature. These flowers are a good sign that the ovary of the flower is still viable(not frozen), and will produce a fruit. We are not out of the woods yet, however. There are still many hurdles to overcome until harvest, but at least now we are mostly in control of the situation. The blossoms are still in danger if nature decides to send a heavy frost our way.
Early yellow Shiro plums!
Along with peaches, the earliest sweet cherry and plum varieties are in full bloom. Right outside the window of my house, actually. It's only a matter of weeks now until the bird squawker is blasting it's cacophonous distress calls(scaring the birds as well as ensuring I wake up with the first rays of sun). These calls imitate a bird in pain, or imminent danger. It tells the other birds to "Run while you can! Save yourself!" This is a very useful tool when the cherries are ripe and juicy. It helps us fend off the Robins, Starlings, blackbirds, and many other pesky birds while we harvest what we have worked so hard for!
Beautiful morning sun gracing our first pea planting.
As the fruit trees blossom, we are hard at work getting the vegetables in the ground. Planting season is finally upon us, and I couldn't be happier! Sowing seeds in the ground and helping bring so much life and nutrition into this world are some of my favorite parts of being a farmer. The first planting of beets, peas and sweet corn are in the ground. I just checked on the peas yesterday, about a week after I planted the seed and they are already halfway to the surface! Peas, along with the beets, are great at germinating in cooler soil temperatures like we have in the spring. Sweet corn has a little more difficult time with colder soil. However, we can use row cover to help warm it up a little bit. The row cover we use is a very large, white cloth-like material that holds in the heat while keeping out the cold by slightly insulating the ground. This is extremely effective on a cold day when the sun comes out, warming the ground and the row cover even more. More sweet corn, beet and pea plantings soon to come along with lots more veggies and fruits.
I want to apologize for the lack of a Friday Field Update last Friday. I decided to take a holiday blog break, thank you for understanding. Also thank you for reading this week and see you back here next week!
Donut peach blossoms!