Time sink!

Our market season runs May 1-July 4th. During that time we run at full speed 24-7. Its been a outstanding peach year. I think with 2 weeks to go that we have probably sold in excess of 9000 peaches. Sweet corn turned out really well too. Though by the end of hand harvesting and processing im cursing it pretty hard. Almost no one grows sweet corn in the whole Phoenix valley so its a very popular crop for us. Tons of work and trouble tho. We use no machinery other than to help prep the soil for seed. All cultivation and picking is done completely by hand. Which doesnt sound bad until youve picked and inspected a few thousand ears in a afternoon. lol Apples, plums, and apricots have been extremely popular this year. So much so that I believe im going to have to put in more of them. Normally we grow our tomato crop inside a large hoop house but this year we decided on just growing them uncovered. The results have been rather good, although when June got here and 110+ degree days hit we did start seeing sunburn happen on the tomatoes that we dont normally get.

Anyway, thats what ive been up to and why I havent been around much. :slight_smile:

This is what one of our chest coolers full of peaches looks like AFTER a market. Need to go pick more stock.






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Amazing. What a bounty. Are you growing pecans?

Nice crop!

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them peaches, damm :sunglasses:

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Yes, but the tree is somewhat young Its 4 years in the ground and has yet to give us a crop. Fingers crossed for next year. Many many huge pecans around these parts. They love Arizona.

I have seen the great pecan trees on the old farmsteads in southern AZ. Very impressive.

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Here is our setup when we vend at the local boutique dairy.


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Magnificent!

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Wish you lived near me.

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OMG. Just gorgeous, gorgeous.

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Beautiful! With produce that looks like that, I understand why the produce is selling so well.

Coming from you I take that as quite the compliment. Thanks! Vending to the public is a mixed bag. The average american walking about is a pretty strange bird these days…but its the people who come back just raving about never having had a peach/sweet corn/plum etc anywhere near that good.that makes it worth it to us.

We had a lady come up to the door the other day (we also sell off the front porch from a self serve farm stand/honor system payment deal) that was a first timer to the farm. When we answered the door she was all kinds of excited saying that she wanted to give us a hug. Of course im always down for a hug. lol She went on to say that where she came from (Philadelphia) people would have stolen the produce and the chest coolers too! She was just tickled that there were still places in the country where people trusted each other. That right there, thats why we do it. Im pretty proud that we spread a little hope during these days of national chaos.

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Thanks for posting this when your so busy. I love seeing posts on stuff from a real farmer. It’s really inspirational for sure. The idea of the honor system vending is awesome. It is really encouraging that iit is working for you. All of your produce looks spot on.

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eric magnificent work, his fruit has an excellent appearance

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So when does corn come in in Phoenix? I was told Memorial day weekend. As did peaches if you could get them to grow, what with chill hours and all that.

Weird place to grow things as I realized after I moved. People back east are totally unfamiliar with the concept of rushing out to harvest tomatoes before they burn up in June. Hardly anyone back east has even tasted a stewed on the vine tomato. “Full sun” elsewhere doesn’t mean “at least three hours of shade” as it does in Phoenix.

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About 15 years ago I used to buy corn at a stand that not only used the honor system, but also left the money trays sit out so you could make your own change. Then the highway that passed the stand was rerouted and changed to limited access, so the stand went out of business.

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In the southeast most full sun plants prefer afternoon shade.

Yes between memorial day and 4th of July is when we normally harvest. Our best stuff came off just before memorial day. Peaches start 1st of May and continue into July. We are working with varieties that we hope will keep on producing in august and into September. But time will tell.

Our tomatoes are still going strong and usually do up until sometime in July. Once the nights get warm in July the pollen goes sterile and they dont set anymore. You can baby them thru until September and get more set but it really isnt worth it. So we just let them go in July.

Yes this is what we do. Mason jars inside the coolers that you can put payment in and make change out of.

beautifulyou and your family did great job producing such colorful and perfect fruits and veggies.

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