Frecon Farms Harvest Schedule!
Need to know what we’re pickin and when? Have a look below at our 2011 Harvest Schedule and mark your calendars!
Spring blossom: April
Cherries
sweet, tart*, Rainier: mid June – early July
Apricots: late June – July
Peaches & Nectarines
early yellow klingstone: early July
saturn: late July – early August
yellow & white freestone: late July – Sept.
white & yellow nectarines: late July – Sept
Plums
red & yellow: July – Sept.
Blueberries: July – early Sept.
Red Raspberries*: late August – October
Apples (16 varieties)
sauce & baking*: June – late October
eating*: August – late October
apple cider (fresh weekly): Sept – February
hard cider: late May – November
Pears*: late August – late October
Pumpkins* & Squash: October
*denotes PYO varieties
Cross Country in the Orchard!
Took a beautiful morning cross country ski jaunt around the orchard this morning. Sunshine, snow and rows and rows of apple, peach, cherry, plum, nectarine trees. More photos to come.
The trees are looking good. Can’t wait for the spring blossom!
Applewood & Peachwood Now Available at Frecon Farms
Burns hot, smells great. Perfect for heating your home.
Applewood and Peachwood bins and cords now available at Frecon Farms.
Call today to order yours.
4th Annual PICKFEST!
Free Range, Local, Organic, Homegrown Bluegrass Live in Frecon’s Orchard- Saturday October 9!
The 4th Annual PICKFEST is brought to you by Frecon Farms, Everything Postal & Printing, Prout’s Jollyview Farm, Frecon’s Hard Bean, Bause’s Super Drug Store, Weak Knee Home Brewing Supplies, Heeney & Associates, Maulfair Medical Center and Taylor Backes.
Cherry Pie!
Our sour cherries are in full swing and we took a moment to do some baking over the weekend. Check out a couple shots from Jenny Frecon’s famous Cherry Pie! Recipe coming soon…
SWEET CHERRIES ARE IN!
The first of our summer harvest has arrived at the market, with more coming in each day. Frecon’s fresh picked sweet cherries are plentiful right now and sour cherries will be making their debut this coming weekend!
Lots of fresh produce from local farmers and growers- fresh raspberries from Lancaster, tomatoes and greens from Butter Valley and fresh baked breads and pastries from Collegeville!
Spring 2010 at Frecon Farms- Web Video Series Kick-off!
Check out the first installment of our web video series following the Frecon family through the 2010 growing season! Much more to come, stay tuned for the next release featuring cherries and peach harvest preparation!
An Update From Your Grower: May 14
Winter ended quite abruptly in the orchard this year. Most of February was snow covered in our area, which made it quite difficult to prune the fruit trees. At times we had up to 3 feet of snow on the ground! Therefore pruning was slow and hard, making it tough to get from tree to tree and with the snow cover as insulation, the ground did not freeze very deep. So, when the temperature warmed up suddenly at the end of Feb. and early March. and the snow melted, the sap in the trees started moving, buds on the trees started swelling and all of a sudden we were off and running! Spring came fast and didn’t waste any time- at that point we were 2 weeks to 20 days ahead of where we were in 2009.
As manager I had to move work activities in to high gear. An extra crew was hired to get the remaining trees pruned. All the pruning clippings had to be shredded, fertilizers and other nutrients applied as needed, sprays applied as necessary and ground tilled. Old trees were moved out to get ready for the planting of approximately 400 new fruit trees, as well as 300 new blueberry plants. Mating disruptions for biological control of insects were placed in the trees by hand as part of our integrated pest management program.
The fruit trees bloomed early by about 20 days. This made things very risky and a little stressful, due to the possibility of a freeze so early in the season. But the crop is now set and it appears normal, with heavy fruit set for peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, apples. All fruit is growing rapidly which means that we will harvesting our crops much earlier. Sweet cherries will be ready in early June, and peaches should be ready to pick around the last week of June. Our employees have finished the pruning tasks, and have completed planting most of the new fruit trees and the new blueberry plants are already growing quick. The next big task will be hand thinning the peaches, nectarines and plums to enhance desired fruit size. That’s the short version of Spring at Frecon’s- fresh fruit is right around the corner and we’re working hard to get it to you all asap!
Thanks for reading, I’ll be reporting on the progress of our growing season throughout the year, check back soon!
Your grower,
Henry L. Frecon
Pottstown Mercury + Frecon Farms
Michelle Karas from the Pottstown Mercury stoppped by a couple weeks ago to talk to us about celebrating our 40th year at the retail store. Well, this Saturday she ran a story and it turned out wonderful! A big thank you goes out to Michelle and her staff for stopping by and we look forward to seeing you all again!
Read full “Farm Fresh for Forty Years” story HERE.
Wood Chopping
We split enough wood to heat a house for the next three years yesterday. All said and done, about 5 cords worth in about 7 hours…. with 3 guys. Needless to say, we’re all pretty sore today.
Someone might want to tell Steve that it’s best to use the maul, not the handle!