Since @Mpigg said he has been missing my reports I thought id throw a quick on together. So much of my last year has been about these silly trucks. They are what we use to sell off of…and old trucks are alot of trouble. But so much fun too.
This last fruit season was the lowest chill we have ever seen. Plums (even low low chill plums) didnt produce 20% of normal harvest. Apricots produced nothing except our Amadiocot. But the Amadiocot isnt able to be sold due to being so soft, its a great eatting fruit tho. Low chill apples did ok, higher chill apples hardly even leafed out. Low chill peaches did passably well. Medium chill peaches didnt produce at all. Cherries…pfffft after this year I pretty much ripped out my whole cherry block and planted new rootstock for additional peaches. Cherries are just a complete waste of time in Phoenix.
The business has grown from my wife and myself to us plus 2 full time farm hands plus about 10 other part time people that run the trucks and work in the bakery. Been kinda crazy.
My past summer was taken up in the restoration of an old truck. Your trucks look awesome and were worth it 100% they will add so much to your business in the future.
Love the ‘look’ of those trucks. My house is full of antique furniture because, to me, the ‘look’ of something old that is well taken care of is so charming. I know nothing about trucks, but the first 2 are so charming.
We all look forward to things being better next season, and I wish you the best.
This year was a big eye opener. I have a ton of medium chill and experimental varieties in the ground that are taking up valuable real estate. Ive already ripped about 20 of those out and will likely take a ton more out this fall/winter.
Any cherries this year? I got one off 30 young trees. Cherries in a hot climate have been difficult for me in both vigor and fruit. Colt, mazzard, and z-dwarf.
That’s exactly what we’ve been doing for the last few years (the reliable part, not the low chill part). Our reliability issues are more with spring frosts and a little bit of cold hardiness on some varieties.
It’s been our best year this year too. Mostly because more trees are coming into production, and the one’s coming in are more consistent croppers.
I’m amazed at the diversity you offer and how much you can generate on your land. It seems incredible to me. If memory serves you and your wife have 3 acres outside of Phoenix? Heck of a manager!
Are peaches you main sales, or veggies, or processed goods? If you don’t mind answering, what are you charging for peaches now?
Same old story with cherries in the area. Large mature trees on dwarfing rootstock, tons of fruiting buds on all trees, pollenators blooming together, almost no fruit despite. I give. Done some really really neat work with getting them to grow well and survive here, but whats the point if they dont fruit? Like I said I took out most of my cherry block already. Dont have room for trees that arent going to produce.
Its funny the mindset change when it comes to trying to make a business rather than just satisfy curiosity as a hobbyist. As a hobbyist I wanted to try all this stuff that no one has tried here, to do something different. To discover. All that goes out the window when youve got bills that this stuff has to pay. lol Employees has really changed everything, having to cover their weekly salary is a potent motivator to quit screwing around and make the darn money.
Super glad to hear it Mark! Its frustrating how many years it takes to change course when changes need to be made on varieties.
We are on 1.5 acres. Oh I dont know that I will claim to be a great manager. It seems like most days im running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Our recent planting of winter crops up in our front field (first time we have grown leafy greens there) has been a disaster. Seed didnt germinate but the weeds did! Burn it all down and start over. My saving grace is that im willing to learn from failure. It may take me a few tries to get that field planted efficiently with that crop but im persistent and I watch and learn.
Main profit items are the pies, jams, salsas, honeys etc. We make some money on fruit but not much. Veggies have always been mostly a loss leader. Peaches we sell in 4 pack clamshells. Medium 4pk is $3 and large 4 pk is $6. What makes this business viable is simply this: people like buying pies from a farm.
We have AC in 3 of the 4. Dont have it in #4 because we just got it on the road and havent had time or money. Costs between 3-4K to put AC in one of these old trucks. Yep still have and use the farmall all the time. Our little blue ford loader tractor just blew a head gasket and we have it in the shop fixing it.
We bake just a few pies. lol Usually between 300 and 400 a week now. We do peach, apple, blueberry, cherry, caramel apple, and strawberry rhubarb. On special weeks we add mixed berry, pecan, caramel pecan, and old fashioned buttermilk pie. Also do cobblers, rum cakes, brownies, and sweet breads. Not all the time but on special themed weeks.
How many ovens does it take to bake all those pies? I hope you don’t mind all the questions Eric, but I find your story fascinating. You have scaled up so fast. It seems like was just a couple years ago you had one peach truck. So inspiring.
Exactly. As a hobbyist I would put up with trees producing little for nothing for years and years, just because there was plenty of time to play around with stuff. Now I evaluate every cultivar on earning potential, which for me is production, flavor, and sellability. If they don’t have those three, I pull it.
I’m finally pulling out the rest of my plums this winter, in spite of the fact I’ve got a few customers who love them. They don’t produce very well here (compared to peaches) and only a select few customers want them. I doubt I could charge enough to make them profitable here. I can’t afford the labor to take care of them, when I could grow something profitable in their place.
We invested in double commercial convection ovens much like these. We can bake 40 pies at a time. We built about a year ago a dedicated pie kitchen too that had the space to do this stuff. Today we had 5 women working in the pie kitchen from 7am-1pm and they cranked out 144 pies. They can do around 200 daily but thats a very hard day.
Yeah the scale up came pretty quick. We dont believe in taking out loans for stuff like this so its all had to be paid for by earnings. As a result neither I nor my wife have taken a pay check yet. Hopefully someday soon. The expenses have been pretty heavy. In the 2 years we have been doing the pie thing we have probably invested 110K in the trucks/kitchen equipment. These days its the labor thats eating us up. We have to pay $10 a hour in Arizona for minimum wage. So weed pullers get $80 a day!! Frick!
We do peach, apple, blueberry, cherry, caramel apple, and strawberry rhubarb. On special weeks we add mixed berry, pecan, caramel pecan, and old fashioned buttermilk pie. Also do cobblers, rum cakes, brownies, and sweet breads. Not all the time but on special themed weeks.