2019
Ten degree January days were great to enjoy but became a concern as day after day temperatures were above average. We worried that trees would come out of dormancy. Then came February and much to our relief temperatures dropped. It was cold but not cold enough to cause us any damage. And then...cold stayed well into spring. This picture on March 13th with Skaha Lake still frozen solid.
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How about corn waist high by the 4th of July!!! |
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2018
Another long winter
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We pruned
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And on days it was too cold, we played in the mountains and hills behind us.
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The long winter and cool spring kept the trees dormant a little longer than normal. As a result, apple blossom was a little behind average. Then..overnight we went from blossom to petal fall to fruit set. May was one of the hottest ever on record in Penticton.
These are some of our Sunrise trees that we planted last year. May 10th, we are removing blossoms by hand. This gets our thinning done much earlier than waiting for the fruit to set. The result will be larger apples and with the young trees, they will be able to put energy into growing rather than extra fruit that we will later need to thin.
Hand thinning apple blossoms is not something that we will do every year. We do need to have confidence that we are getting good pollination. The weather during bloom this year was exceptional. Warm, dry and lots of bee activity.
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July 22 - The Sunrise apples on these young trees are looking fantastic. Harvest will start early August! We are excited!
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Look at our helpers. A perfect tractor for James and it looks like Colt has taken control of the gator and the garlic harvest. Thank you to our wonderful family and to all our fantastic staff. Each & everyone of you puts so much care and so much fun into our day to day farming activities. THANK YOU!
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2017
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November kept us busy. Weather was good and we got a big head start on preparing the ground for a major replant in the spring. Good thing as by December 1st the temperatures had dropped below zero and the ground was quickly frozen. The weather stayed cold December, January, February and well into March. This was the first year that we can honestly say that we wondered why we were farming!!!
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The cold winds never let up. The wind chill on Feb. 28th was minus 16 and that was pretty much what we had day after day. The ice never left Skaha Lake until the 3rd week of March! Then, very fast, spring was here. April 01 we were planting |
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Our tree planting - 2300 trees - Salish, Ambrosia & Sunrise
Over the last 40 years we have planted thousands of trees. We have bought a lot of shovels and dug a lot of holes. For one or two weeks in the spring, dig, plant, fill & level... all by hand. This year we had the opportunity to use a tree planter. It was truly amazing, 6 hours and all the trees were in the ground. By the end of the next day the irrigation was laid and by the end of a week, all the support systems was in place.
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Our tree planting crew, can't thank each of you enough.
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