July 22

Fruit update

A number of our friends and customers have asked about how our fruit is doing and when we'll be bringing our first tree-ripe, hand-picked, organic peaches over the pass to Colorado Springs. We're as eager as you are.

The North Fork Valley cornucopia is showering us with delicious fruits and vegetables. Sweet cherries have been appearing for a couple of weeks. We're enjoying dinners with our own tomatoes, salad greens, green beans, and snap peas, garnished with nasturtiums. Tart cherries will soon be here. Sadly, though, we have none of these early goodies in quantities to sell. Next year though when our perennial crops are more mature, we'll be able to offer asparagus, sweet cherries, berries, and more.

Red Globe Peaches will be our first fruit to market and we estimate they are about three weeks away. The weather and trees are in charge of that schedule so we'll let you know as we get closer to mid-August. We look forward to meeting you then and hope you can endure the anticipation!

Other news on the farm

We started our paper barn about a week ago. Our crew of block-layers is comprised of three brothers and a farm helper. This is Boone, Luke and Tanner's second papercrete building. These young men are excited to be using innovative and environmentally sound materials.

We are pleased to give jobs to local workers at this time of downturn in the North Fork Valley. A Delta County job offer these days turns out about 700 applicants according to one local woman (who fortunately found employment). So when we received the promise of our reimbursement from USDA for completing the farm's micro-irrigation project (EQIP grant) we answered Obama's call: Don't wait to put your money back into the economy! We could hoard it in a self-fulfilling expectation of more hard time ahead but we would rather take the risk, support our President, and trust that, with our help, the recovery is taking hold in the North Fork, Colorado, and the nation. Plus, we'll get the barn we've been dreaming of and have made new friends in the process.

We're planning a fun home wine-maker weekend in October. Watch the web site for announcements.

Thank you for your patience, we will keep you updated.

All the best, Max & Wink.