Future Fruit
May 10, 2024
Bloom Season
We may have avoided the killing frosts this year. (knock on digital wood).
It's still too early to run out dancing in the streets, but the 10 day forecast looks favorable and the pollinators have been hard at work visiting the orchard blooms. It dipped down to 25-27F on the coldest nights during early bloom in April. Those temperatures are teetering right on the edge of that magically disastrous number (25F) that means 90% kill for the apple blossoms.
After cutting open many dozens of blossoms, I can say things look promising. We definitely have some dead blossoms out there, but with any luck that will just mean less hand thinning of the fruit later this year. The trees need less than 10% of their blossoms to set a full, heavy apple crop. And this year's bloom is particularly epic, after most trees took an entire year off due to the killing frosts of last spring. Most of the trees look like they are covered in fluffy white snowballs. Laden with possibility.
Fingers crossed. Let's see what the next two weeks bring.
In the meantime, the rest of the farm is bursting with life. The 900 chickens have set sail across the pasture in their moveable coop. The pigs are happy as clams tearing holes in our fields, making mud wallows under their shade mobile. There are dozens of fresh wet lambs bleating in the grass and we're waiting for the first calves to drop. The mama cows are moving to new pasture daily and are looking heavy heavy heavy. We're expecting newborns any day now.
The resilience and simplicity of animals living on good green grass never ceases to astound me. For them a little bit of frost only makes the grass taste sweeter.
I'm sure there is a lesson in here somewhere, like don't put all your eggs in one orchard. Or the grass is always greener the more irons you have in the fire. But it's High Spring and my brain is as sharp as yesterday's oatmeal. So instead, I'll leave you with a quote from old Mark Twain that often comes to mind in the busyness of spring;
"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."
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Garrett and the Cider House Crew
