Broad Valley Orchard

Hello All,
Whew, we have had two light rains that gave us 0.4 inches (1.1cm), more than double what we have had so far in July. This may not seem like much, but more is forecast, and the days are cooler, which is reducing the evaporation rate.
I was able to till fours rows of recently [...]

Hello all, from a very weary farmer,
Yestre’s chance of rain went ‘poof’. Now, National Weather Service radar shows a long band of rain stretching from the Mid-West to here. Getting a good soak is now crtical for local agriculture.
Yesterday I drove eight miles, to a local farm, to purchase two pick-up loads full [...]

Hello All,
I have held off on this announcement, because here at BVO we received sufficient water(75% of normal rains) thru May and June. But now I look at my July rain record, and see that it is only at 0.5 inches (1.25 cm) for the first two weeks of July, which is 25% [...]

THOM’S WILD UKRAINIAN SUMMERBERRY-RHUBARB SMOOSH (with apologies to Mary Chomasak, my very thrifty great-grandmother, who taught me how to make ’smoosh’).
This sauce can be boiled longer to make a nice jam. To preserve by canning either the sauce or the jam, follow the hot pack method in any jam preserves recipe. You can [...]

Hello,
I nearly forgot to post a Farm Journal entry this week = I have been very busy. Our berry harvest is peaking, and I have been picking from sun-up until noon, and then again after the heat of the day until sun-down. In between, I try to keep up with the maintainance that [...]