August 4

This is a good kind of insect shown pollinating a squash blossom. We installed two more hives below the cherries recently. Look for honey at our market stand in a couple of weeks!

Apple worm update

This year the codling moth, or apple worm, has taken hold on Rogers Mesa. There are several possibilities why this is so, but I'll mention only one.

The orchard south of us was recently acquired by an absentee owner. He wants to retain organic certification, but doesn't have a spray program. People, people! Organic does not mean no sprays. Organic does not mean no fertilizers. Organic means we use naturally derived materials that are not dangerous to the environment and/or people and consequently we must use many manual and mechanical means to keep our orchards clean and healthy. Spraying is unavoidable in some cases!

Our neighboring orchardists, the Kropp Brothers of First Fruits, spent days removing wormy apples, then burying them in their compost pile. Today we're borrowing their crew to go through our apple orchard and do the same thing. This way we reduce pest pressure next year. We can continue to use softer pest sprays, like the granulosis virus that is specific only to the codling moth larvae, but that doesn't stop every worm. So why does organic cost more? This crew costs about $1000 per day, if they aren't committed elsewhere, and does not include our labor.

So when we bring you our apples around the first week of September, you know those apples have been examined and cared for many times. The trees are pruned in the winter, nurtured with organic fertilizers in the spring, protected from pests in the summer and watered efficiently with our new micro irrigation system. The soil has been amended to replace the minerals tree and fruit use, and that will add to your body's healthfulness without the herbicides and pesticides that come with conventional produce.

Other news on the farm

The peaches are doing well and sizing up. The trees look good this year, we fertilized them with organically approved fertilizer and compost in June, more about them next week. We're watching closely for ripening.

Bountiful harvests? Can, baby, can!

Wink and I attended a local Slow Food Western Slope event last Sunday, Beyond Pesto 2.0. It was tasty and educational. I will include a couple of fruit recipes and tips in a later newsletter, but here's a few tips about Basil Pesto:

• Don't use walnuts, too oily, almonds are preferable.
• Don't use extra virgin olive oil, you want the flavor of the basil to shine out.
• Did you know you can use arugula, mint or cliantro instead of basil? Or sun dried tomatoes? YUMM!

Gena Bone and Eleni Stelter (Eleni's Restuarant, Paonia) were the demonstrators. I bought Gena's book, Well Preserved, and find her instructions on step-by-step canning intelligent and easy to understand. I'm looking forward to trying many of these recipes, and plan to can cherries to sell at the Farmers Market soon.

To cook or not to cook

Michael Pollan has recently addressed the paradox of more cooking show viewers but fewer cooks in his recent NY Times article: Out of the kitchen, Onto the Couch. I haven't read the article all the way through, being pressed for cooking time myself, but see it ties in with the latest food movie, Julie & Julia.

All the best, Max & Wink.