Fruit Bonds now being offered! You know you want one!

As many of you know or have caught wind of, we are EXPANDING!  In the lovely Bells Bend area of Davidson County, we are planning an extensive Pick Your Own Orchard.  Peach trees have already been ordered from the incomparable Cumberland Valley Nurseries in McMinnville.  But in order to finance the numerous projects that must be done, we are now issuing FRUIT BONDS.

The bonds will be issued as follows:

For $30, you may select one item from the following list.
For $60, you may select two items from the following list.
For $100, you will receive all three items plus a special gift

And the items are:
Two quarts of blackberries
Five pounds of peaches
One peck of apples

The bearer of the bond will receive their selected items for FIVE YEARS from the issuance of the bond, which will begin in June of 2012.  Crop losses will be taken into account, with the bond simply extending for one more year. 

If you are interested in helping your local agriculture expand by purchasing a fruit bond, please contact us.  You may mail a check and your selected item list (3305 Bell Street  Ashland City, TN 37015). You may call anytime and we would be happy to speak with you (615-792-9829).  We are even UPTOWN enough to take your credit card! Or you may email us:  stewartorchard11@gmail.com 

Thank you all so much for coming out to the market or making the drive to Ashland City.  We appreciate all of you, your encouragement, and your support. 

(Photograph by Jenny Mabry Photography.  Call her!  She's awesome!!)

Apologies....but some good news too.

The top photo shows what a hail storm can do to a tender young nectarine. 

This bottom photo is a surefire way to a happy mama. 

The blackberries were a HUGE disappointment.  Last year, we picked 10-12 gallons per day!  This year, we picked maybe 4 gallons every other day.  We are not sure what happened to cause this decline in berries, but we've talked to other berry growers who had the same issues.  Seemingly healthy berries developed white druplets which rendered them inedible.  Again, just a reminder that farmers are at the mercy of forces much bigger than themselves!  If you missed the berries, please accept our apologies.  Hopefully next year will be much better. 

The peaches are coming in beautifully.  Our White Nectars are gone, but we still have a few Contenders left and are waiting patiently for the Carolina Golds to ripen up.  They will be worth the wait!  Call us NOW and we'll go ahead and start a waiting list!! 

We are only doing one market this year, which has been the West Nashville Market on Saturdays from 9am to 12 noon.  It is located on Charlotte Pike at 46th Avenue at Richland Park and is truly an awesome market!  The kids go with Tatum and have gotten good at their yoga, participating in the free classes offered.  A four year old doing a sun salute is one of the funniest things you'll ever see!  The lemonade is wonderful, the music is always good, and we've made some good friends. 

Apple Update:  Golden Delicious---looking really good
                          Rome---it's going to be another slim year with these guys
                          Arkansas Black---awesome!  We're looking at multiple bushels per tree, and there are
                                                        50 of them!! 

Thank you all for your constant encouragement and support.  Please call if there is anything we can do for you.

Blackberry time and new email to share

That's right!  Blackberry time is here again!  Yay!  Time to head to Costco for bug spray and sunscreen!  They are easily going to surpass their production from last year, which means we'll probably be showing up at more farmer's markets.  Wednesdays will be the East Nashville market and Saturdays will be West Nashville and the downtown market.  Of course, Grandma will be selling from the house, so come on by if you are in Ashland City. 

Our new email address is as follows:  stewartorchard11@gmail.com  This address will be devoted to orchard business and communications.  Our phone number has not changed, so if you would like to speak with us directly, please don't hesitate to call. 

We hope to see you soon.  Come back soon for updates on peaches!  We're looking at mid-July. 

So here's what's going on...

1. Someone please tell this one to stop growing up so fast. It hurts his mama's heart.

2. No Hawaii. I so bossily told everybody to go look it up, and now we have none. The grafts just didn't take. Disappointing. We also lost all the Kinnard's Choice we attempted to graft. It's kind of like frying a chicken...do you cut it up yourself or spend the little bit of extra money and buy the chicken already cut up? Do you buy the trees already whip-size, or do you save money and try to graft your own? We are now officially declaring that we will not be trying grafting again anytime soon...

3. New varieties being shipped to us 4- 4- 11 from Adams County Nursery in Pennsylvania:

Liberty

Goldrush

Grimes Golden

Hardy Cumberland

These will be a nice mix of reds and goldens, and will hopefully fill in the gaps in our growing season. They will also physically fill in the gaps in the orchard...where the Red Delicious were taken out. That spot has become the burn pile and it will be so nice to see something growing there again.

4. Talks are currently underway to expand our operation. We tenatively plan to plant out in Bells Bend an extensive Pick-Your-Own operation that includes our beloved apples, peaches and blackberries. We have met with the landowners and they are very excited about having us there. Our ideas are becoming real, offers of help are pouring in, encouragement is all around. Somebody pinch me.

Final post of the season

Yes, you read that right. This is the final post of the season. We expect to harvest MAYBE four bushels of the Arkansas Blacks and other than those, it is over! But I will provide a little explanation...

1. Remember the Red Delicious being bulldozed?

2. Rome Apples will never produce well two years in a row. Last year they were AWESOME! So that means that THIS is THAT year. And there is nothing any human being can do about it.

3. The Golden Delicious only produced about four bushels, which were already sold! We had a few culls and Grandma, she of the era of children raised by parents who survived the Great Depression, is canning apple pie filling. Oh my dear is it good!! Maybe you'll get lucky and get some for Christmas! But I may need to keep most of it for us...

4. Thinning is always tricky. Even seasoned orchardists admit that it is tricky. You always run the risk of it working just a little too well. Add to that our extreme rain events this spring and our Arkansas Blacks become an unfortunately fine example.

So, here we are. Thanks go out to everyone who supported us this season by coming out to the Farmer's Market and stopping by the house. We hope to see everyone again come June when it's blackberry time again.

Swimmin' in Blackberries!!

What a busy last two weeks...we're exhausted! On any given day, picking 10 gallons of berries was the norm! The boy was promised that if he picked 50 quarts, we would buy him a PSP. For an 8 year old, that was encouragement enough to withstand the blazing sun, the multiple layers of bug spray and sunscreen, and having to wear his mom's hat!! We've all had fun, but we are going to see what we can do to open up the orchard for "Pick Your Own Blackberries" next year. Yikes! It was all we could do to keep up with it. Big thanks have to go out to Grandaddy and Aunt Nancy who gave up their time to help us.

Snow. Lots of snow.

Juat wanted to share a pretty snow shot from late January. Dormancy is a strange thing. But amazing if you think about it.