Although students may be away enjoying their vacation time, much important work continues during the summer months in the School’s Burpee Garden, Orchard and Vineyard.
Recent harvests from the Garden include the very first tomatoes of the season, beets, carrots and kale. The tops of onions, which students planted last March, are just starting to fall over and that means it will soon be time to harvest them.
While there will not be a major harvest from the Orchard this year, there have been some very tasty samples of things to come (apples, pears and several varieties of plums). Peach and apricot blossoms, unfortunately, did not survive the frost.
Last spring, students thinned out most of the fruit in order to give the young trees a chance to put all of their growth energy into the roots and not the fruit. The same is true in our table grape Vineyard. Casey and Joan Jones, along with student Eli Smyth (who is helping out over the summer – thank you, Eli!), have been trimming 200+ grapevines in order to help them develop stronger roots.
The Orme School is featured in the Summer 2016 issue of Edible Phoenix, where you can read more about our Farm-to-Table Program.
Yes, summer may be here, but our Garden, Orchard and Vineyard are working overtime; getting bigger and better with each passing day!
Figs have been served in Founders this week and they are delicious.
I hope we get to sample some Orme Wine someday!
Liz, Orme is only growing a nice variety of ‘table grapes,’ but we would always welcome you to stop by for a sample of those!
Has anyone tried to plant Hatch Chiles? Seems like a similar climate to southern New Mexico.
We have planted 50 Big Jim peppers, a variety of New Mexico pepper, which is grown in the Hatch Valley of New Mexico. We are planning on lots of salsa this fall.