Weather, Angels, Thinning, and Help

The weather is the wild card in scheduling harvest. Peaches will do what they are supposed to do given their growing stage and the weather. We can’t slow down their growth, or speed up the sugar production of the fruit. We can only make some reasonable judgment about the current state of the peach growth and when to expect it to be ready to pick. So a week or so ago the fruit looked like it would be ready to pick by the 16th of August.

Surprise. Surprise. The sustained hot weather created conditions where certain parts of the orchard are now ready to harvest. But that’s only the first of the surprises. The second surprise as some would say, it’s the Angels adding more peaches to the orchard. This seems to occur after all the thinning is done. Suddenly some of the trees seem to produce ‘clusters’ of peaches. These usually are in the higher branches and certainly doing their best to hide from us. These clusters are not like grape clusters. Groups of small peaches grouped tightly together. We joke that angels are putting back all the thinned small peaches and just taunting us to find them. Usually we have enough time between the end of the thinning sessions and the harvest season, that the service missionaries can take care of these clusters. The key word here is usually.

So here is where the ‘Help’ of this articles title comes in. The two surprises have nearly drained us and we (the service missionaries) need a bit of help. The orchard manager has put out a request to all the stakes to have ‘some’ help next week (August 9, 11-15) to help with this last bit of thinning, and do some picking of the peaches that have ripened faster than expected. There is no specific number of people being requested, and we aren’t asking for help other than in the morning from about 8:30 to 10:30 or so. If you can come and spend an hour or two helping us catch up, it would be greatly appreciated by all us old folks. Full scheduling starts August 16th.

A word about the thinning. Most of the work will be going through a row of trees and using a 3 to 4 foot PVC pipe to poke around and find the clusters. Some are easily spotted. Some are hiding in thick bunches of leaves. A bit of poking and prodding usually is enough to pop these clusters and leave only a couple of the peaches that can grow. I don’t have any pictures of what a cluster looks like, but the picture on the home page of this website shows you what they are not. That is a picture of a loaded tree. It is so loaded that it is possible that the branches may break. So in addition to everything described above, we tie the branches up or shore them up some way so the branches don’t break. We really don’t want to lose that branch. We want to be good stewards of the Lord’s orchard. But sometime we need a little help.

The Lord has been good to the orchard. The peaches are put to good use and all the help you give is appreciated. The people who benefit from you service may not know your name, but they are grateful that you are all faithful and want to do good things. As service missionaries we are the second beneficiaries of your service, we can’t do it all and for all you do, we are grateful.

Updated Schedule for Harvest and Thinning

The original schedule, produced in the first three months of the year, is at best a guess as it pertains to harvest. So today the harvest schedule is being updated. The new start date is August 16th and not August 11th. The Base Schedule will not reflect the change. However the calendar will now be updated so stakes and wards should plan accordingly.

The thinning for July 22 and 29 are also canceled. The stakes were notified of this a few weeks ago but this is another reminder.

The Burn Pit. One final hurrah before harvest.

So the pruning and thinning is finished. The activity at the orchard from the members is only on youth night. The service missionaries are still working doing many things. Fertilizing, watering, removing large peach clusters, shoring up heavy branches so they don’t break from the weight of the fruit. The list is long and never ending. One thing that is done each year is the burning of all the wood from pruning and removing old trees, trunks, and roots. This is a controlled and permitted burn.

Thinning is done!

The thinning is over as of tonight. If you planned or sighed up to be in the orchard this Saturday, there is no reason to be here.

The orchard service missionaries and orchard manager give everyone who participated a big ‘Thank You.'“ It couldn’t be done without you.

So for the next several weeks while the peaches ripen the work at the orchard will go on. We will be fertilizing the trees, continuing to remove large branches and shoring up branches that are heaving with fruit. Also there is the daily watering for all the orchard and some general and targeted pesticide applications that must be done.
So again we thank you and look forward to seeing you when the harvest begins.

Thinning the thicket

Yes it’s time. Those beautiful buds have dropped from the branches and have produced the start of the fruit. Lots of fruit. Not much to say other than we need a lot of help to get these trees thinned so they will produce large juicy fruit and not small tough fuzzy things. The better we thin, the better the fruit. So the orchard needs help to thin. The weather is such that these have gone from small marble size to some as big as a walnut in just the last two weeks.

As always we appreciate your time you put into the orchard. It will be a blessing to so many who will have no idea of the effort made in their behalf.

The orchard service missionaries.