In my first blog you were introduced to us (Paul and Elane), who in 2003 (on a bit of a whim) bought a certified organic orchard in Paonia, Colorado a mere 350 miles (7 hour drive) from our home and paying jobs. Two things are obvious 1. ) countless events have occurred with the Orchard between 2003 and now and 2. ) and yes, we still have the Orchard. I don't want to bore everyone and myself with a complete chronological 7 year history and in part, because there are so many worthy current events. For sure though, I will include in this blog stories of the past years. Orchards are beautiful, soothing and awe inspiring. Compared to other types of farms, they are relatively quiet, occupy a lot of space and are quite majestic. Even though the orchard continually occupies the same space and coordinates each season brings new landscapes and every year each season is never the same. I not only have to introduce you to this dynamic space of earth but to the creatures big and small that occupy our orchard. I walk the orchard with my dogs every day to check the trees, the buds, the blossoms, the fruit, the fences, looking for sign of predators big and little, who came in the orchard last night, who left and who didn't. On an orchard you are never far from Mother Nature and as we have found out, she can be very fickle. The last three years she chose to give us warm February weather thus bringing out the apricot and cherry blossoms early and vulnerable to frost. In fact in 2007 we lost all our crops, 2008 apricots and cherries, 2009 apricots, cherries, nectarines, plums. The blossoms die within minutes of a hard freeze, temperatures below 26 deg F and slowly die with temperatures of 28 deg .. maybe an hour or so. And then.. that is it for the year. It is a very heart wrenching thing to see beautiful blossoms turn brown and ugly within a day or so. This year we still don't have bloom and that seems to be good news. Maybe by the time the early fruit blossoms we may be through the freeze cycle .. maybe. Still to be determined.
In my first blog you were introduced to us (Paul and Elane), who in 2003 (on a bit of a whim) bought a certified organic orchard in Paonia, Colorado a mere 350 miles (7 hour drive) from our home and paying jobs. Two things are obvious 1. ) countless events have occurred with the Orchard between 2003 and now and 2. ) and yes, we still have the Orchard. I don't want to bore everyone and myself with a complete chronological 7 year history and in part, because there are so many worthy current events. For sure though, I will include in this blog stories of the past years. Orchards are beautiful, soothing and awe inspiring. Compared to other types of farms, they are relatively quiet, occupy a lot of space and are quite majestic. Even though the orchard continually occupies the same space and coordinates each season brings new landscapes and every year each season is never the same. I not only have to introduce you to this dynamic space of earth but to the creatures big and small that occupy our orchard. I walk the orchard with my dogs every day to check the trees, the buds, the blossoms, the fruit, the fences, looking for sign of predators big and little, who came in the orchard last night, who left and who didn't. On an orchard you are never far from Mother Nature and as we have found out, she can be very fickle. The last three years she chose to give us warm February weather thus bringing out the apricot and cherry blossoms early and vulnerable to frost. In fact in 2007 we lost all our crops, 2008 apricots and cherries, 2009 apricots, cherries, nectarines, plums. The blossoms die within minutes of a hard freeze, temperatures below 26 deg F and slowly die with temperatures of 28 deg .. maybe an hour or so. And then.. that is it for the year. It is a very heart wrenching thing to see beautiful blossoms turn brown and ugly within a day or so. This year we still don't have bloom and that seems to be good news. Maybe by the time the early fruit blossoms we may be through the freeze cycle .. maybe. Still to be determined.
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