Say hello to these baby peaches! The beginning of the season brings all this beauty and some gnawing and gnashing of teeth. Why would that be?
The valley (the Garden of Eden I tell you all about) just made it through a cold front, and we have news of another coming this week. Luckily, the producers of the fantastic peaches we have been enjoying all these years have lots of practice saving these beautiful baby peaches, which are in the pink bloom stage today.
They use two wind machines with water. Last Wednesday night, they were busy saving all your peaches for three hours, and they had to fire the wind machines up again Thursday night/Friday morning. One night of easy frost is helpful as it thins the blooms, much like when we thin our carrots or beets. Multiple nights/mornings of frost can cause trouble.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Marti about how the peach farm works from start to end. I wanted to share Marti’s adventures starting with pruning established trees and continuing with planting new baby trees. Marking out the rows, as Marti puts it, “is VERY important because you only get one chance to rework a field about every eighteen to twenty years for peaches.” Apple and pear trees produce for thirty to more than sixty years if they are well cared for.
The new “baby” trees are only 1/2″ to 5/8″ diameter! That is a little tree. The new trees start to produce an actual crop around year 4.
Stay tuned for more as we follow the peaches, pears, and plums onto the trailer and to a town near you. Pray that we make it through this next cold front with minimal damage. More fruit for all of us is better.
