Bees and Blossoms
Dear CSA members,I’m sitting under some Apache apricot trees. It’s about 1:30 pm and warm…70ish. I haven’t seen bees like this in over 30 years. Every tree has at least 50 bees in it, dancing their dance. Their buzzing sounds like a symphony of violins warming up. The Apache flowers must be sweet, because the bees, finding one they like, bury their heads down into the cup of flower drinking long and deeply of the nectar. I just love it; the sound, the warm sunlight, grass growing knee-high and lush, and intensely green.
It’s hard to believe that just two Sundays ago it was raining hard; there was hail and strong winds, (and snow in the Sierras.) That was the last day of January. The next day was crystal clear and the view of the Sierras was stunning! From the farm I can see about 150 miles of the mountains and they were covered in snow. A beautiful sight to behold!
Since then the weather has been dry, which is great for us because we’ve got a lot of work to do. There’s growing materials to be applied, compost to be made and spread, and trees to be planted. Everyone is energized by the unusually warm February days, and the sights and smells of trees blossoming.
We’re thankful for the rain we’ve gotten. El Nino has delivered as promised. But…these next two weeks, while the apricots are blooming, is our time of greatest risk. Apricot blossoms are the most susceptible to brown rot blossom blight, of all of the stone fruit we grow. So, we are a little anxious. Christophe is prepping the small amount of compost we use to brew compost tea. Once brewed, the tea will be sprayed onto the apricot blossoms. The trillions of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa in the tea will then inhabit and colonize all the delicate parts of each blossom, thus out-competing the brown rot fungi. It’s a biological war, battling it out for possession of each fragrant, fruit producing pollen. This is all new science, and without a doubt, no conventional grower would even believe in it. It has given us good results for two years in a row now: 2014 and 2015. If it works again this year, then we will have achieved a high level of proven results.
Stay tuned…..
Farmer Al