It’s been a mixed year for the pears. After a beautiful early lush bloom in spring, they developed fireblight that nearly killed many of the trees. It hit some varieties much harder than others, though, and the varieties that pulled through are producing a nice crop of fruit. The Hardy Buerres and the Seckels came through almost unscathed, and we’ll be alternating these with strawberries in the boxes as our strawberry production is going into a bit of a slump.
Aside from the fireblight, we’ve realized that some of the pear varieties are not producing fruit because they are blooming too early and don’t have other pear varieties blooming at the same time to cross-pollinate with. We may graft some of the non-producing trees over to the ones that are doing well and seem more resistant to fireblight. This is the first year that we’ve experienced fireblight and it seems to be drought/weather related, so it’s probably wise to expect similar problems could occur in future years.
The tomatoes are producing enough now that we can add them to the web store for those of you who need more tomatoes! It will be a mixed flat of tomatoes which may include Striped German, Early Girl, Yellow, Beefsteak, and San Marzano types for your salad, sauce, or canning needs.
Back in the early nineties, when Steve and I were not yet tied down to a farm, we took a bicycle trip across the country. As part of the preparation, Steve cooked up a large batch of tomato sauce and dried it like fruit leather in his dehydrator. We had many many meals that summer from those rolls of dried tomato sauce and pasta cooked over the campstove, including whatever fresh vegetables we could find at a local store. Any backpackers out there? I found this website that describes how to do this!
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