Fruit! Part 1
Sugar Sugar Sugar! The best part about growing fruit in the desert is when the heat is almost unbearable we have some of the worlds best luscious juicy fruit to help hydrate, cool and nurture our senses. The reason we have the potential to grow such great fruit is because of our low humidity and lack of rain paired with intense Colorado sun shine and cool nights. The Colorado River cutting through our valley feeding our crops. We can optimize our water and provide water on a schedule when the trees and the fruit need it. The lack of humidity helps with low pest and disease issues and our clay soils are full of rich deep nutrients. The roots of the trees can grab the minerals they need to produce rich flavors. Obviously we love tree fruit and are completely fascinated with the skill and challenge it takes to grow good fruit. We do struggle with nature growing fruit organically but the risk is so rewarding. We grow deep dark sweet cherries, peaches, nectarines, blood plums, heritage apples and French butter pears. We also grow strawberries, watermelon and sweet specialty dessert melons.
We purchased this farm land from Marc Klocker who was praised for his fruit quality in Mesa County and was so passionate about his fruit and orchard practice. He truly expressed himself through his variety choices, and picking quality. He was a perfectionist on flavor and he taught us and helped us see a high standard for variety and to strive for peak flavors and texture. We select pick and never pick unripe green peaches. We usually comb through our fruit 2-3 times and select pick. This technique is appreciated by many customers come visit us year after year and praise our fruit was the best they had all year. We can not thank Marc enough for planting the Orchard and showing us his passion.
Over the last few years many of the old tree varieties have sadly been dying and coming out. These varieties are hard to find due to the age of the trees. Marc grafted most of the trees on this farm. Grafting fruit trees is a skill any orchardist should and can learn. We hope to learn to graft and continue grafting and growing fruit trees for the next farming generation.
