Blackberries get their turn to bloom.

They sure look pretty when they bloom. I can't believe how well everythings grown.

We picked 3 quarts of strawberries for Memorial Day so it'll be sometime this week that they will all start to color up. I'm predicting we'll have some for sale this coming weekend and maybe Pick your own starting June 1...they sure taste good after waiting so long.

Picking up Maple Syrup!

Well, with all the rain I couldn't do much planting anyway... so off to Vermont I went with Clara.

We drove to Brattleboro on Monday and on Tuesday headed off to Albany, Vt.(not quite to Canada) Sonya met us when we arrived and along with her boys helped us load all the maple syrup into the van. I got to see the Sugaring Shack and the Sugar Bush. What a beautiful place! Now we have enough syrup for the season. Last year we sold out, so we are starting out with a little extra this year. Luckily, Kittredge's had a good year for making syrup. This is a picture from along the road.

Strawberries Bloom

This is probably the most perfect strawberry field ever. There are 3 varieties in this field with Earliglow blooming significantly ahead of the other 2. Every blossom is going to be a strawberry, so get ready to pick!

More blossoms...

The sour cherries look great! Guess we better figure out how to pit them.... New Strawberries are happy and ready to bloom...







OK, so a few days of 90 degree weather and we're in full bloom. Everything. The apples are all fluffy with puff balls of potential fruit.

We've been trying to brush the white nectarine blossoms to thin them out a bit, they look like azalea bushes! We did get through many of the donut peaches. If it doesn't rain tomorrow we can keep working our way through the Raritan Rose white peaches. Looks like this weekend will bring full bloom to the strawberries. Yeah!
We dug up the renegade blackberry runners and even got them planted. Now for a little rain for our "reserve" planting.

apple bloom

Isn't this a pretty sight?

Peach bloom

Wow, after a couple sunny days (finally) we see some bloom in the peaches and nectarines. The blossoms are varying shades of pink depending on variety. Even the donut peaches have different colors of pink. The white nectarines are the earliest and they are so fragrant it makes your head hurt.

Wish I could fly up a few more feet to get the whole orchard in the picture...but the top of my car will have to do!

Wild Wind and Apricots

Well, I'm almost done the berry pruning. Canes on the left are done, canes on the right are the "before" idea. The black raspberries were prickly, but one more day ought to finish them.

Gary told me the apricots are blooming and although it's really windy, the temperature isn't too cold. This might be a good year for the apricots! We have 3 varieties and only one is especially early. The rest start when peaches are starting- late July.