PEACHES...Going...Going...GONE

PEACH UPDATE!!!
As of Thursday, Aug 28th, Sauvie Island Farms PEACH orchard is picked out of ripe peaches. We do have a few Veteran Peaches that need a few days to ripen and we still have our Elbertas. We plan on opening the orchard on Tuesday, Sept. 2 for the Veterans and Elbertas....after that...we will see if there are any peaches left to be picked.
SO....what do we have on the farm for the rest of this week??? Bartlett Pears and Nectarines are ready to pick.
The beautiful Chester BLACKBERRIES are still plentiful. This thornless berry is easy to pick and the flavor is excellent. We are also at the very end of BLUEBERRIES... there are just a handful on the bushes. The berries are only $1.50 per lb. for u-pick.
The Honey Select SWEET CORN is ripe and ready for you to pick at 5/1.00. We will also have it fresh picked each day at 4/$1.00, if you don't want to pick your own.
Zucchini, peppers, green beans, broccoli, pickling cukes and cabbage also this week!! AND gorgeous flowers are blooming in the u-cut garden!! We WILL be open on Monday, Labor Day, September 1st!!

PEACHES, NECTARINES & PEARS..oh my

VETERAN PEACHES are ready to pick this week at SAUVIE ISLAND FARMS. This variety is excellent for fresh eating, freezing and canning. The peach comes off the pit very easily and the skins slip off without scalding.
This variety doesn't get the reddish color like some of our other peaches, but the flavor is sweet and juicy!! It looks like the cold spring we had took it's toll on this variety and we do NOT have a very big crop of Veterans this year, so if this is the peach you have been waiting for, this is the week to come out to pick!!

Our NECTARINES are large sized this year! Some of them are ripe and ready to pick....others need a few mores days to ripen!! Some years we don't get ripe nectarines but this year we do have a nice crop!
BARTLETT PEARS are beautiful and ready to be picked. A pear is always picked 'green'...before it softens on the tree. If you wait for it to soften on the tree the texture will be very grainy. Pick the pears now and put them in a cool place or in a brown paper bag to ripen and you will have pears to eat in about 7-10 days!! The pears will turn yellow as they ripen. Once they are ripe, you can refrigerate them for a couple of days. yummy!

BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS on the farm this year!! And did I mention that our 8000 dahlia plants are blooming and ready to cut?

Dahlias at Sauvie Island Farms

DAHLIAS are gorgeous this week at SAUVIE ISLAND FARMS!!
Our u-cut garden also has beautiful zinnias, cosmos, asters, statice, amaranthus...red & green, gladioulus, sweet peas, marigolds, many varieties of sunflowers....and more!!!

a room with a view

I mentioned in a post earlier this week, that I was gone from the farm for a couple of days last week...taking our oldest to college...for her second year. Yeah...it shouldn't be a big deal, I have already done this before....and survived. However, it did seem harder this time....I think because I knew what to expect. I knew how I would feel when I came home and couldn't take a breath when I saw her empty bedroom. I think it was also harder, because she was so happy to be home this summer......not really something I expected after her first year of independence. Basically, she still likes us...and she loves her farm home. The picture above is from her bedroom window. With a view like that, why would she want to leave??? She said that she missed the sound of the sprinklers in the fields and the windchimes on our back deck when she was away at college. Oh how I love that girl!!!
Thanks for indulging me in sharing this with you. AND THANK YOU to all of you who come out to our farm to pick our crops. We are able to continue to offer you this 'pick your own' opportunity because you come to visit us in our farm backyard!! We have made a few changes in how we run our u-pick this year...hopefully you have adjusted to the change. We think they are improvements, but we know that change is hard. I am still adjusting to the change of my kids growing up!!

SWEET CORN

Bodacious SWEET CORN is ripe and ready for YOU to pick this week at SAUVIE ISLAND FARMS!!!
Finally, the sweet corn has ripened on the farm.... the wait is over! We should have corn for u-pick for the next couple of weeks! We also have beautiful PEACHES in the orchard this week. We will continue to pick the Red Havens until they are gone and we also have Hale-Havens and Rosas ripe and ready for you to pick. We should have nice tree ripened peaches for the next couple of weeks. We will be open each day this week, even if it is rainy and cool....it's Oregon after all!!! The Chester Blackberries are nice and ripe and we will be finishing up with the last of the blueberries this week. The season for marionberries and raspberries is over. Along with corn, we have more veggies for you to pick....cabbage, green beans, pickling cukes, zucchini, lettuce and broccoli. Our PEAR crop is great this year and we will begin to pick those within the next week or so.
I was gone for a couple of days at the end of last week...I will tell you about taking our oldest to college...later.....the wound is still too fresh to talk about right now!!....anyway, I was AMAZED by how beautiful our part of Oregon is compared to the beauty of eastern Oregon....which in it's own way is beautiful, but NOT as green!! We are blessed to live where we do!! The DAHLIA garden is full of colorful, vibrant flowers right now and we have other u-cut flowers just waiting to go home with you!!
Hope to see you on the farm this week!!

PEACHES..so many PEACHES!!!!

The RED HAVEN PEACHES are tree ripened and
ready to pick this week at SAUVIE ISLAND FARMS. We have soooooo many peaches and with the hot weather predicted for the rest of this week, these peaches will continue to ripen on
the trees, until they drop to the ground. This is the week to come out to the farm to get a sweet, juicy tree ripen Red Haven Peach!! Our u-pick price is just $1.50 per lb. If you pick over 15 lbs, the price drops to $1.25 per lb. and if you pick over 50 lbs. the price is just $1.00 per lb. We only harvest our peaches by having YOU pick them. There isn't a cannery or market for these peaches, so we need your help in picking the RED HAVENS before they fall off the trees.
There is an EXCELLENT cobbler recipe on our website, "David's Favorite"...go to www.sauvieislandfarms.com and click on the recipe link. Our 'back to college' age daughter made one last night to take to school with her, for her friend from Kenya, who has never had a homemade peach cobbler! It should be a hit!! We also enjoy this recipe with berries, or even combining peaches and berries! Hope you will try it out.....I think it will become a favorite of yours also!!! (Sorry...This isn't a very good picture...don't judge the cobbler by the picture!! You really need to try it!)

Hope to see you soon on the farm!!!

Chester BLACKBERRIES

SAUVIE ISLAND FARMS has a new crop this year....CHESTER BLACKBERRIES!!! These are a cultivated, thornless blackberry that are very large in size and great flavor.
We are excited for you to come out and see how easy these are to pick without all the 'stickers' on the vines!! The Chesters have just ripen and we should have plenty for the next week or two!
We decided to test these berries out over the weekend and make some Blackberry Pie Bars.
I found this recipe on a blog that I like!!.....

Blackberry Pie Bars
Taste and Tell Food Blog
Crust & Topping
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups chilled, unsalted butter
Fruit Filling
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup all purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 (16 oz.) packages frozen blackberries, defrosted and drained or fresh!
For the crust and topping:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.
Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process until fully combined. Cut the butter into 1/2 inch cubes. Add the butter to the flour mixture and process until the butter is evenly distributed, but the mixture is still crumbly.
Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crumb mixture for the topping. Press the remaining crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake the crust for 12-15 minutes or until it is golden brown. Cool for at least 10 minutes.
To make the filling:
Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl, then add the sour cream, flour and salt. Gently fold in the blackberries. Spoon the mixture evenly over the crust. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs evenly over the top. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned. Cool for at least 1 hour before cutting.
The recipe is very rich...and it makes a large 9x13 pan...if you aren't needing that much dessert, you could cut this in half and it would still work great. This is very easy to make. These blackberries would make excellent smoothies, jam or put some in your freezer for a pie this winter!! They are also great just eating them fresh!!

on the farm

The DAHLIAS are blooming on the farm.
The RED HAVEN PEACHES are ripe on the trees waiting to be picked. The raspberries and marionberries are coming to an end....there are still a few hiding under the vines....if you are willing to hunt for them. Blueberries are still on the bushes...not as plentiful as they were last week, but there are still berries to be pick. The Chester Blackberries have started to ripen with lots more to ripen in the next couple of weeks.
All of the berries and the peaches are $1.50 per lb. The peach price drops if you pick over 15 lbs to $1.25 and over 50 lbs to $1.00 per lb.
Green beans, pickling cukes, zucchini, cabbage and lettuce are ready to pick. We are still waiting for the sweet corn to ripen.....maybe by next weekend!! FLOWERS....all colors, sizes and shapes are ready for you to cut!!! Hope to see you soon on the farm!!

Red Haven Peaches

Sauvie Island Farm's Red Haven Peaches are RIPE and ready to be picked this week. We have an abundance of beautiful, sweet, tree ripened peaches right now. The picking is easy since our trees are pruned so the fruit stays low on the trees! We are also still picking raspberries, blueberries, marionberries, and Chester blackberries this week. Our veggies are growing vigorously as well....cabbage, lettuce, pickling cukes, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and green beans! The u-cut flower garden is blooming with a wide variety of flowers and the DAHLIAS have bloomed with vibrant colors!! There are so many choices on the farm this week!! Hope you will come out to visit us.

u-cut flowers at Sauvie Island Farms

Beautiful Flowers...from our u-cut flower garden!!
I spent part of this morning cutting sunflowers for tomorrow's Scappoose Farmer's Market There are so many great flowers blooming right now...I just had to cut some for our kitchen table! Cutting your own flowers is a great experience and the flowers are priced so you can get a nice bouquet for very little!!

Early Red Haven Peaches

We have been picking our Early Red Haven peaches
this week!! They will be coming to an end quickly. We did not have a big crop of this variety and unfortunatley our local deer have discovered how sweet and juicy they are! We have peaches still hanging on the trees with a bite taken out of them...sad. Our next variety to ripen will be Red Havens. It looks like we have a great crop this year and should be picking these next week!! We also still have raspberries, marionberries and blueberries!! The green beans are ready to pick as well as cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and cucumbers! We have basil, dill and beautiful flowers blooming in the u-cut garden!!
Hope to see you soon on the farm!