Sweet Corn

Rain makes corn...and we have had a lot of rain this year...finally we have Sweet Corn ready to be picked!  It's been a longer than usual wait for the corn to ripen and now that it is ripe, we have lots to be picked.  The farmer planted our favorite varieties as well as a few new ones to sample.  Bodacious, Honey Select and Spring Treat are all sweet yellow corn.  We also have two varieties of bi-color ready for you to pick on the farm. 
(There is a coupon on our website for corn this week!!)

The Chester Blackberries are loaded with sweet berries, the thornless bushes make this berry so easy to pick.  Blueberries are coming to an end, and there are just a few raspberries hanging on the vines.

Broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, cabbage are easy picking also!  Our flowers continue to bloom with burst of bright colors! 

Peaches

Monday, August 22, we will open the orchard for Hale-Haven peaches at Sauvie Island Farms.
There are tree ripen peaches ready to be picked, and others that still need to stay on the trees to ripen more, please be selective when picking these peaches. It is hard to predict how quickly the ripe ones will get picked off, you can call our farm line 503-621-3988 for current field conditions.  The Rosas should be ready one day this week also, keep looking for an update about when we can open the orchard for this variety.  The Sweet Corn will begin this week also, thanks to the warmer temperatures we are having! 

thoughts....about the farm, peaches, the weather...life

Thursday at Sauvie Island Farms.....just sitting here trying to sort thru my thoughts and decide what to post on the blog this morning.  The main purpose of the blog is to get information to all interested about what is ripe and ready to pick on the farm, however, a few times I have gone in a different direction.  The first time I posted a personal thought was when our daughter left for college in the fall of 2007.  In the next couple of days our youngest son will be leaving for college resulting in an 'empty nest' for the farmer and myself.  This looming event is perhaps one of the reasons for my scrambled thoughts this morning.  I started thinking about seasons this morning when I saw all the fallen leaves in our front lawn and felt the cool morning air.  Is it fall already?  Did we have a summer?  I think the sweet corn and  peaches are wondering the same thing.  I have always enjoyed the different seasons especially on the farm.  There is always something beautiful and refreshing about each one.  The stark beauty of the trees and empty fields in the winter, the fresh smells and tiny spots of green as new growth sprouts in the spring,  the warmth of the summer sun with new tastes as each variety of berry ripens, and then the cool, calm of fall as the orange pumpkins sit in the field waiting to be harvested.  This year, it feels different, the weather hasn't been 'normal'. Maybe I feel different because of the change of season in my family life, something just doesn't feel right.  It's getting cool at night and fall is coming too quickly this year.  We haven't had ripe sweet corn on the farm yet, we are still waiting for peaches to ripen..and is it really time for school to start? 

Life is full of change & life is not fair....two things I have tried to teach my kids.....so taking a lesson from that, it's time to move on.  NO, we do not have ripe peaches or sweet corn on the farm right now...but we DO have beautiful blueberries, chester blackberries, green beans, pickling cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, summer squash, slicing & lemon cucumbers, peas,....yes, peas in August....peppers, cabbage, and beautiful flowers. Hopefully next week we can open the orchard for Rosa and Hale Haven peaches and the sweet corn will be mature enough to pick.   Just as each season on the farm has its own beauty, so shall this time in our life.....

Monday update at Sauvie Island Farms

Today, we still have  tree-ripened RED HAVEN PEACHES.  Check our phone message for the most current orchard conditions. 503-621-3988.  This variety will be gone sometime this week.  Up next are the ROSA peaches...maybe by the end of the week.  Raspberries season is over, but there are still plenty of blueberries and chester blackberries this week.  Also, a new field of young, tender green beans and a new patch of pickling cucumber are ready to harvest this week.  Peas, zucchini, summer squash, lettuce, cabbage, slicing and lemon cucumbers, and a few peppers are ready! The sweet corn is still a week away.

Beautiful flowers and herbs are waiting to be cut!  It's going to be a great harvest week at Sauvie Island Farms.  Hope to see you on the farm.

RED HAVEN PEACHES

 Red Haven Peaches

 are ready to be picked at Sauvie Island Farms. 

 The orchard will open on Thursday, August 11.  The crop is smaller this year, due to weather issues, so these won't last long.  We usually pick Red Havens for about 10 days, this year we are predicting 5 days or less.  The Red Havens are a favorite for freezing, canning and fresh eating.   Pick your own tree ripened peaches are just $1.50 per lb.  If you pick over 15 lbs the price drops to $1.25 per lb. and over 50 lbs the price is $1.00 per lb. 

Raspberries are still available on the farm. Our Tulameens are done for the season, but we still have some great Coho and Saanich raspberries.  The Blue Crop blueberries are plentiful, and so easy to pick.  It's difficult to find marions at this time, but you are welcome to hunt around for them.  And the Chester Blackberries are just getting started.  Pick your own berries are $1.75/lb.

Veggies for you to pick:  pickling cucumbers, green beans, pole beans, zucchini, summer squash, lettuce, cabbage, slicing cukes, lemon cucumbers, broccoli and a few peppers.

Flowers are blooming all over our u-cut flower garden! It's a great time to come out to Sauvie Island Farms. Hope to see you soon!!

Strawberries in the news......and new policy at Sauvie Island Farms

A recent news story has brought strawberries back into the news, even though our 2011 harvest is over.
As many of you may have heard, the e coli outbreak from strawberries is isolated to just one farm in Newberg, Oregon.  If you froze berries from Sauvie Island Farms, there is no reason to throw them out.
The news of this outbreak has caused us to evaluate our field conditions and the activities that we allow on our farm.  Unfortunately the conclusion we came to will be disappointing to many of you.  We have made the decision to no longer allow dogs in the u-pick area or on the farm.  We want to provide all of our customers with the safest and highest qualitity of fruits and veggies, and since this is a factor that we can not control, we have had to make this decision.  We are hoping that in light of the recent event at the other farm in Oregon, you will understand why we are doing this.  We know that it might take awhile for the word to get out to all our customers, so we will be patient as we hope you will be as we implement this new policy on the farm.

PEACH UPDATE for Sauvie Island Farms

Our Early Red Haven Peaches are completely gone...thanks to all of you who came out in the past two days to pick.  We didn't have a large crop of this variety and had hoped there would be peaches to be picked thru saturday, but unfortunately they are all gone.  Our next peach to ripen is the RED HAVEN, and they are still too firm to pick.  The sugar level and peach flavor comes out in the last few days of ripening, and if the peach is picked too 'green', it is not as sweet and flavorful, so we want to wait to open the orchard for the Red Havens.  It should be toward the end of next week before we have nice tree ripened peaches available for you to pick on the farm.  Thanks for understanding! 

Our raspberries are coming to the end of the season also, so the next few days would be the best time to get raspberries for this year.  The Blue Crop blueberries are excellent right now...lots to be picked. We also have green beans, pickling cukes, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, peas, zucchini and flowers.  Our Chester blackberries and sweet corn should be ripe and ready to pick in about two weeks.

2011 Peach Crop

The Early Red Haven Peaches are ready to be picked!  We are opening up the orchard on Wednesday, August 3rd. 
Our peach crop looks great this year inspite of the weather issues we had earlier in the year.  As usual there were many nights of watching the temperature to see if it was going to drop below freezing,..the lowest temps are usually between  2-4am.... and if it looks like it is going below 32 degrees, out of bed hopped the farmer to go out and turn on our mist irrigation-'frost prevention'.  A light coating of water surrounding the buds and small fruit insulates them so that they do not freeze.  For the most part, it appears to have worked and we will have beautiful tree ripened peaches again this year! 
The Early Red Havens are our first variety of the six that we have in our orchard, so we should have peaches for the next several weeks.    Red Havens will be riping next, then Rosa, Hale-Haven, Veteran, and Elberta.   We are always looking for new interesting recipes, so if you have a great peach recipe to share, email it to us at sauvieislandfarms@gmail.com  and we will post it here on the blog!