Whew...the freeze wasn't so bad afterall!

The tree in the photo in the prior post (the one covered in all that ice!) actually has some very nice apples on it! The ice seemed to protect the blossoms from the much colder temperatures that followed! Whew!

Looks like the freeze got to the cherries and the early peaches, so opening day will have to wait till August 1! The frost naturally thinned the rest of the peaches and the apples so we are expecting a healthy crop of larger fruit than last year! The fewer the fruit on the tree, the larger the fruit!

We have been busy pruning and preparing our grounds for your visit! The ducks, chickens and goats are all doing well - the chickens are producing lots of eggs just for you! Don't forget to ask for them when you check out!

We are excited to bring back our famous Peach Slushies and welcome back Prairie Fire BBQ who will be here every Saturday and Sunday with their award winning selections featuring my favorite "Axel Grease" sauce!

As a licensed live plant dealer, we have stepped up our custom bench grafting, including heirloom varieties and many popular favorites. We will have many here for you take home and plant on your own property this season. We are also taking orders for Spring 2010. Just send us an email or call with your order and Rick will graft it just for you to pick up and plant next Spring.

Where's Spring?

OK...So, you may be wondering what all this crazy April weather is doing to our trees! We are wondering, too! It is always hard to tell what the full impact of the crazy weather is until a few weeks later. If a tree is in bloom when it freezes, the bloom can die and no fruit will form where that bloom was. If a tree is in bloom but the temperature is below 41 degrees, it is too cold for the bees to come out of their hives to effectively pollinate the blossoms. Some bees will make short trips out of the hive and the wind and other flying insects may pollinate the blossoms but the tree will likely produce less fruit than it is capable of!

So that being said...before the snow and ice from last week, our peaches were in full bloom and we have observed some damage but not complete damage, which is good. Only a few Cherry varieties have bloomed, the majority have not, which is good. Pears have all bloomed, which is not good. As far as the apples go, of the hundreds of apple varieties that we have, only a few types have bloomed (like the one in this photo we took the morning after the storm with the beautiful blooms encrusted in ice), which is good. Now, we have temperatures lingering near freezing which has stalled the development of anything else yet to blossom. We are pleased to say that we are focusing most of our new tree plantings and graftings on late-bloom types...which is good!

A White Winter!

One of the most common questions asked is:

Why are the trunks of the trees painted white?

Yes, it does look pretty cool & they are easier to see at night but there is actually a reason that has to do with the health of our trees.

As many of you know, Kansas weather can be strange - we have snow one day & you can go outside in shorts the next. In the winter, our young trees get “sun scald”. When the sun warms up the south side of a tree in the winter, it can melt the sap inside. This sap then freezes when it gets cold again at night or the next cold day. Just like potholes in the street, this repeated process can crack the trunk of the tree. We paint the tree trunks white so less of the sun’s energy is absorbed by the trunk, reducing the sun scald effect.

Painting the trees is a fun family affair as you can see from the picture of the kids painting peach trees. We put on some old white T-shirts and let the paint fly.

If you’d like to try this yourself we recommend that you use inexpensive “barn paint” & mix it 50-50 with water. This kind of paint can easily be purchased at almost any hardware store or paint retailer. We’ve found that this gets the best results & is easiest to apply. Cheap brushes are a must as the trees coarse texture will damage the bristles. We pick up 2 inch wide brushes for a buck or two.

THANK YOU!

Thank you to everyone who made our first season open to the public a huge success! We love what we do and we love sharing it with you!

Grandma & Great Grandma, Doris Greuel, was here from Macomb, IL, once again! This time, to hang the closed sign on the very last day of our very first season!

If you visited us this season (once, twice, or even more!), we want to hear from you! Tell us your stories of your visit to our ourchard! Share your experiences with us! We may even publish your story on our website! Email us at WagonWheelMail@aol.com.

Check back here often as we will share with you the changes we are making, big & small, and all of the things we will do over the next 8 months to care for the trees that will bring you the fruit you love next season! HAPPY TRAILS!

Prairie Fire BBQ Pulled Pork Premier on Saturday 10/18!

Prairie Fire BBQ will be premiering it's famous PULLED PORK for our season finale party on Saturday, October 18 from 2:00pm-6:00pm! Come for the pork, stay for the pumpkins! To help Prairie Fire BBQ plan it's pork properly, let us know if you are planning on partaking in a pulled pork sandwich by sending an email to WagonWheelMail@aol.com!

A good problem to have!

Some of you may have seen our news story on KCWE! If not, you can check it out online or on the news this weekend! We thought you might be interested in the reason for the story! So here goes...

QUESTION: Why are you picked out so early in the season?
ANSWER: 3 reasons - Demand, Supply, Location!

Demand: We believe the overwhelming demand for pick-your-own produce is being driven by 3 factors:
1 - There is a huge push to buy local. This is exacerbated by the Grocers' Buy Local marketing campaigns. Grocers will buy local produce at a premium. For example, we have opened our property to U-Pick visitors and sell our apples for approximately $1 per pound. However, we could sell that same fruit to a grocer for $2 per pound.
2 - So many people are looking for the experience of picking fresh produce. There is a nostalgic component that accompanies that too. Traditions, old and new, are being relived and created here at Wagon Wheel Orchard.
3 - The Easter Freeze of 2007 makes the first 2 components stand out even more. Since no one could get local produce or continue their family tradition of picking apples in the fall of 2007, everyone wants to do it more than ever in 2008!

Supply: We are a relatively young orchard. Our trees have not yet reached their peak production. We are also different than other orchards. Not all of our fruit matures and is ready for picking at the same time. To make it easy for our guests to know what to pick, we flag those trees that are ready for picking at any given opening! It is our hope that our guests honor our picking guidelines and leave the fruit on the trees that will mature for their visit and others later in the season. Year after year, we will continue to see an increase in the volume of fruit on our trees...Mother Nature cooperating, of course!

Location: We are the only U-Pick orchard in Johnson County to our knowledge. There are others in the region but they are quite a bit of a drive for Johnson Countians! It may seem like we are out in the middle of nowhere but in reality, we are only 15 minutes from Olathe Medical Center, 10 minutes from the I-35 Edgerton or Gardner exits, and 10 minutes from the K-10 Eudora Church Street exit!

The Demand, Supply and Location factors have created excitement at having a new orchard in the area which resulted in us being picked out before the season is over! Though the season isn't quite over...we still have one more day of picking apples and pumpkins on October 18 from 2:00-6:00!

QUESTION: How are you going to prevent being out of fruit this time next season?
ANSWER: We are going to continue to educate our guests about our picking guidelines so they are only picking the highest quality of fruit available at that time. This will allow the fruit that should be picked later in the picking season to mature as it should and to be enjoyed by visitors later in the season! Remember, Here at Wagon Wheel Orchard, the rule is simple! NO FLAG, NO PICK.

Check out this Granny Smith!

Wow! We have seen big apples before...but never THIS BIG! This is a Granny Smith apple off of one of our trees in the front orchard. We were curious as to just how much it weighed...so out came our postal scale! 14.2 ounces! Just 1.8 ounces shy of a whole pound! There is probably an apple on that tree that weighs a pound but we will save it for one of our valued customers to pick!