January 21, 2012

Today was a cool overcast day and looked like rain most the day. So what better thing to do than visit a winery.

The Alcantara  Vineyards are nestled up the banks of the Verde River just a few miles from us.

From the road you would never know that this Italian inspired winery exists. Out here you can’t be afraid to follow a steep dirt road where it looks like two cars could not pass each other. Just such a ride unveiled a beautiful vineyard.

The 16,000 vines are pollinated by the spring breezes coming up the valley and watered by plentiful well water.

We sat at their tasting bar and sampled several of their estate red wines and hand crafted whites. With more to try than time allowed we will return to this friendly atmosphere again. The owner and their new chef are planning to open a light menu restaurant before we leave for the summer.

We were then climbed out of the valley to the historic mining town of Jerome and diner at Grapes. We met our friend Bill, Tesa and Kelly for a quick meal before attending a jam session at Crocked River Book Store in Old Town Cottonwood. Two local musicians performed their personal selections. Sorry I don’t have their names right now but we plan to follow them to another location this weekend.

January 20, 2012

I have a few more pictures of Mick trimming the trees. He says now when he looks at the trees he only sees the branches he needs to take off. They go down only certain rows. This opens the canape up for the trees next to them to get more sun shines for that year. Then  the next year they go down the next row. The limbs will branch out and start to produce in two years. Doing every other row assures less decrease in nuts the next harvest.

This funny looking machine has a bucket extended out to lift the men up into the branches. It only has a frame and three wheels so it can be driven under and round the base of the tree to reach all the branches. The men then use a chain saw to cut out the limbs. Hard hats are a must.  Pecan wood is very hard and heavy because of the sandy soil. The tree takes up the same mineral components that make up glass.

Pecan trees are in the hickory family and their branches break off if not trimmed and maintained. They have a tendency to lean away from the windward side and trimming helps maintain a uniformed shape.

January 17, 2012

Make it personal, make it local.

As part of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 initiative, the City of Cleveland’s Office of Sustainability is kicking off the “Year of Local Foods” by hosting a Local Food Fair on January 20, 2012 from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at Cleveland City Hall.
This event is a commitment on a grand scale. They want to see a city wide effort to connect local food and its citizens. No small effort for a city this large, but not impossible for a city that has one of the oldest farmers’ market  in America.

On a personal note when the Prochko family migrated to the United States they first settled in Cleveland. Not far from Lucky’s Restaurant. Later when the family moved to the Jefferson farm, they started to bring their products into the city. They sold eggs and flowers in the 40s. We have come full circle with the family now bringing produce to customers in the same city.

We hope that everyone that knows us and what our farm stands for will support this effort.

January 14, 2012

Well what did you expect I was going to try and blog on Friday the 13th. Not with my luck with things that plug in. I can screw up a computer program quicker than anyone. Just ask Mick.

I  took some awesome pictures out over the Verde Valley on one of my walks. This dirt road turns into Quarter Horse Lane straight ahead and leads back to our place a mile down the valley.

It may not look too Verde (green) at this time of year, but there are small grasses and flowers that like the cold nights. It was 13 degrees the other morning. It then went to 60 by noon. Talk about extreme weather. Well enjoy the view.

January 12, 2012

This is the day I have been waiting for for a long time. My birthday in Arizona. You can’t get much better than that. Even though the air is crisp the ground is clear and I can go for a walk in the sun this morning. I am watching the house wrens at the bird feeder and looking for temps to go around 60 today.

Yesterday I had my first day volunteering at Rainbow Acres. We weeded the garlic patches that are looking pretty good. They are about a month ahead of our growing season back home. They have three green houses in which they grow various vegetables and herbs for the kitchen. They sent me home with carrots and radishes. The kitchen says they are too much trouble to clean and prepare. What a shame. We hear this so often with kitchens that have to prepare large amounts of meals. They do use the herbs and some of the lettuce. It doesn’t matter that it is grown organically the kitchen workers have to be willing to actually prepare a meal from scratch.

In Ohio we are being asked to connect with public school with our locally grown foods. What we find is that many of the schools have to contract their food months in advance with their suppliers. Then the help is too use to preparing frozen entries.  One chicken farmer was told they couldn’t use his eggs because the school used frozen eggs. Some body out there has a great idea but why do you think we have food service companies that make it convenient and a steady supply. That’s why what we need are processing plants for farmers to take their small quantities to to be processed into pickled, canned and/or frozen store-able produce.  You would think there would be someone wanting to start a small business doing this. They could be the middle man between restaurants that want local food and farmers that have the harvest.

Obvious getting older has brought out the soap box speaker in me.

Mick will be trimming more trees today. They cut the wood into four foot lengths and sell it for fire wood for campers. We also sell top soil from around the trees to local gardeners. Just like back home rich soil is always needed to grow vegetables. A local suppler has stopped providing the soil so we might see more sales of dirt.

January 9, 2012

I am watching an old Bonanza show while blogging. I love watching westerns when I’m in Arizona. Especially when it’s one of the many made in this state.

The pecan harvest is done and the pecans have been shipped to the sheller.We heard that our nuts produced 58% meat per nut. The average is 50%. Not bad for a light nut year. A low harvest is being recorded across the state. They think it might be weather related. Pecans rely on wind to pollinate. If it comes at the wrong time then the nuts don’t get a start.

They are individually shaking the trees around the house. One tree went over a hundred pounds. They think it is being close to the house that made the difference.

We are shipping out bulk in the shell pecans to our customers. Look on our home page at coveredbridgegardens.com for details.

I got my bird feeder filled and today the birds discovered a new restaurant. The colorful red breasted house finch arrived first. Mick watched them while he checked his e-mails.

Around 9am a few neighbors came for a walk under the trees. I took this photo out the living room window.

When I went for my walk the western blue birds were every where. That sustained me for a long day working on the computer. Well I better go. Tomorrow is a other day in the sun.

January 4, 2012

I took advantage of the opportunity to get up early and watch a meteor shower. With temperatures in the 20s I had to wrap up in two blanket and sit on the back deck. The skies were clear and full of stars. Within a few minutes I saw my first shooting star and was hooked. I stayed out from 5:30 to 6:30 and saw nearly 20 meteors streak across the big dipper.

A new note on my birds watching , I heard two howls discussing the meteor showers.Though I couldn’t see them the most common is the Great Horned. A flock of Canadian geese flew over in the dark while I sat there. This afternoon I watched a Acorn Woodpecker work up the tree next to the deck.

The warm afternoon just begged for a walk around the property.

And with those images I say so long today.

January 3, 2012

Today felt the coolest in days. There was more over cast most of the day. By afternoon it was in the 50s. Layering up is the order of the day. I spoke yesterday about the birds. Toady I saw a flock rise up and the next thing a hawk was flying by with a bird in it’s talons. Nature in the raw.

The guys were bagging the pecans in large shipping bags.  They will go by freight to a sheller  in Texas. We will sell some of the nuts to them and have some shipped back for us and the Summer Place Farm Store here in Camp Verde.

January 2, 2012

One thing we have a lot of here are birds. The pecans attract ravens and crows that actually eat a good bit of the crop if you don’t get them picked in time. The small sparrows flutter around the waste pile at the sorting building looking for small bugs that live in the hulls. They also will scavenge the cracked shells for small morsels of nut. We have ducks on the river and red wing black birds in the bamboo along the water.

 We have our own “wet area” of brush, cactus and trees near the Verde River.

Today I found a local bird watcher who pointed out some interesting feathered friends. She quickly found a vermilion flycatcher. This small bird is bright red with dark wings. We then saw a western blue bird. Right next to it was a red breasted robin. Maybe that doesn’t seem so remarkable but it is January. I guess they are wintering here like us.

This is a very active bird watcher’s area and I will keep my eye out for more varies.

Remember to help out the birds this time of year and put out feeders. I’m putting this on my birthday gift idea list.

December 28, 2011

Some of you might remember that we grow pecans in Arizona. The short story is we were looking for a retirement investment and found a small pecan grove in the heart of the Verde Valley.

Over the past five years we have tried to spend as much time as possible out here. This year we came with the intent to stay four months. Plenty of time to enjoy the sunshine and help develop the pecan business in the valley.

We have partnered with Dick Tinlan to learn the business and hopefully shake it up a bit. Dick is the go to man on pecans. He was the first to person to find a variety of pecans that would grow in the valley. He now grows three different kinds here. His grove, Summer Place, has a retail store for selling his pecans and shipping them anywhere the customer wants.

Dick also loves to host educational tours of the trees

and processing plant. To the right you can see the nuts in large bags on pallets.

Right now the grove produces over 45 hundred pounds of in the shell nuts. That is a light year due to poor pollination in the spring.

They are shipped to a professional sheller to process them and have them shipped back.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be developing an informational website. I will be sharing what I learn here at the blog as it is developed.