We are entering a new fruit season at the Cloverleaf! We’re excited and nervous for a new season — we’ve got a big beautiful crop of fruit, but the drought is lurking in the back of our minds as to whether the groundwater will last for the season. We don’t have a big deep well, so we could easily lose pressure half way through the season. But we have our fingers crossed (June rains, anyone?) and are working ahead on a lot of water and energy conservation projects, which at least makes us feel productive.
The Cloverleaf, Collins Farm and Hearty Fork farmstand will be opening up this Saturday, May 23rd! We should have the first of the Robada apricots and also amazingly flavorful Zee diamond peaches. Obsidian blackberries, the best for making jam, can be bought by the flat as well. We’ll have pies from both Collins Farm and the Butterfly Vegan Bakery and FatFace popsicles! The stand is open Saturdays and Sundays from 1 – 7 PM — Kidwell exit off of I-80. Ruhstaller also has beer tastings at the same time, as an extra draw.
Also, we will have two U-pick events this year, instead of the weekly U-picks, on July 5th and August 2nd from 8 AM – 3 PM. Mark your calendars! Also, for any Cloverleaf volunteers and CSA members, we’ll be having more frequent U-pick events, so email us to sign up (see picture above for how idyllic our volunteer days are, wine tastings and all). We planted melons this year in a small patch — they seem to be doing great & we are excited to include them in our CSA. This coming 2 weeks we are trying a no-till cover-crop mulched planting (idea from Mike Madison) and we’re excited to see how those turn out.
We are working on a number of water projects (a new solar panel for our pump, soil moisture sensors in a collaboration with Mark Chang, a graywater system for the vegetable washing water) and I feel like an ostrich with my head buried in too much to do (also getting to check out the soil moisture at the same time 🙂 We also have a new farming partner — Mousse the puppy! He has been busy helping us thin the lower hanging fruit on the trees.
Hope to see you out at the farm soon! Emma & Katie