The History of 2010 Apricots

Yes it really came with a bang and our harvest of the apricots is finished. Withoeks production of apricots is much lower than last season. The contributing factors is because of the frost in August - bloom time.
Some of the lower orchards didn't even reach a tonne per ha. After everything added and done our harvest seems to be down by about 40%.
The dried fruit prices also gone south and so we decided to cut our losses and dry much less. The quality of the fruit which we did dry was much better than previous seasons and it shows in the dried fruit quality. The colour is really good and because of the early finish we could do the right thing and get it of the stellations much quicker which means higher water content in the fruit - thus it would be heavier and fuller. Much more attractive product.

Because of the dry weather our vineyards is very healthy and we sprayed this week which might be our last one. Our young vines need some attention and we plan to get to it in the next week or two.

The peaches we are also selling to the canner because of the world wide overproduction of dried peaches. We are lucky when one of the canners closed their depot in Calitzdorp another opened one. The prices is also lower than last year but atleast we do have a buyer. The peach size is a bit disappointing but could be contributed to micro element shortages. I picked it way to late and are spraying like mad to get it back but I think I might have lost this season fruit. In Calitzdorp we usually don't spray to much of the micro element but with peaches you must actually be very aware of it. The peach is a plant which easily shows such shortages and or toxic highs of micro elements.

Apricots!!

This time of year it usually the only time you might get a traffic jam in Calitzdorp. With all the farmers trying to get the apricots down and to the canners it really is a rush time.
At Withoek we haven't finish yet. There is still block we must pick and the time doesn't seem to be enough. We finished with one canner Langeberg & Ashton last week. Rhodes Fruit Farms still need a small amount of tonnes to finish that contract and then the last is Boland Pulp.
While we are picking the apricots the other things like spray program for the vineyards and training of the younger vines fall behind. Every week I catch myself saying next week. Well next it will be.

First Pickings

Withoek started to pick fruit last week. So far the fresh market prices were good and quality and size of fruit also. Withoek's Super Gold was finished harvest this week and the plums look as if they will also be gone by the end of the week.
I looked today at the Bullida orchards and got a bit of a scare. The fruit size is good but it seems that the fruit is ripening at a alarming rate. So we are going to start picking the Bullida's allready tomorrow. The bullida is the apricot mostly found in the Calitzdorp region and is used for drying and canning. You can also use it for making jam.
The next variety which is also a packing variety will be the Palsteyn. It is a beautiful apricot but unfortunately can only be used for fresh use. It's jam will turn dark soon after making and pitch black after a month. Nothing wrong with the taste though.
The prices of the dried fruit has gone down dramatically. The push in the markets seems to force us the producers into larger fruit.
It looks like we at Withoek will in future have to start spraying to get still larger fruit.
We are hoping also to plant a new type of Plum / Apricot cultivar which is marketed as a fruit for drying. SAD is very excited about this new product. We will plant about a half a hectare to just see how it grows and how the fruit reacts to our enviroment.

Early bird or early worm?

Well the fruit is ripening. I allready had my first plum yesterday -watery but satisfactory. I will probably start to pick apricots and plums beginning next week. Really something to look forward to. My own diet usually changes considerably during harvest season. I do eat a hell of a lot of fruit from the trees and that usually continues from early November to middle of March.

The predictions for the season looks very uncertain. The certainties being a shortage of apricots and the canning guys don't want any apricots and peaches. The prices they are going to pay is very uncertain and the dried fuit company SAD says they will only have a meeting the 30th of November to decide the prices. The problem is I will be finished drying then. How must I buy in fruit if I don't know what I am going to get.

Well the grapes look well and the addition of Iron to the Peach trees really was what they needed if you look at the additional growth. Buys this week training the young vines - bend them while their young sort of approach.

Muscadel and Rain

With the beautiful rains falling the last two weeks in Calitzdorp I start looking for something more sweet and warming to drink. Well Withoek just released a 375ml of Muscadel. Not too strong - alcohol of 15,5%. Very rewarding in the cooler evenings. And with the summer coming along you can certainly have it with ice as a sundowner.

The Muscadel as you will see is called The Kairos Muscadel. This is in recognition of the Kairos Skills programme which was run earlier this year with Withoek. A weekend course in making fortified wines. You will also see the names of the participants of this first project between the Withoek and Kairos. Watch out for our Cape Vintage also to be released early next year. This will also be in the 375ml bottle which makes it a very pratical packaging and an extremely nice present.

The rain measured on the farm was 22mm last night and yesterday together. I am informed that the rain measured above the Calitzdorp Irrigation dam was 25mm. The water is running down strongly and most of the bridges is overflown. So go and have a look, you will find most of us there. It more practical terms it does mean that we will have an irrigation run in November, December and nearly a full one in January. From this you can gather that the drought still has a grip on us. So pray for more rain.

A wonderful thing about rain is the effect on plants and especially people. Isn't everybody more friendly and the Monday less blue. For the plants you will notice more vigorous growth because of the nitrogen which dissolves in the rain water. Makes a fertilizer and irrigation.

Well enjoy the rain and do have a small Muscadel with it.

And it rained...

Funny how quickly the weather changes.  In Afrikaans we have a saying 'so onvoorspelbaar soos die weer'.  Well last week it felt like it.  With the drought making every person stressing,  I usually look at the forecast often.  Like daily two or three different forecast websites.  Not one was predicting much happening except a light fall on Thursday.  It changed very quickly into a warning for heavy falls on Wednesday.  Well they were exaggerating.  They measured 26mm up in the encatchment area and 14mm in town.  Good enough.
A representative of the Calitzdorp Water Board told me we had 1 official full irrigation run left in the dam and then there will still be enough water to keep the town going for 8 months.  That is if the usage stay as the averages were the last few months. 
Well as a farmer on just judging from where the water were last night at the dam it seems we will have definately one extra maybe two irrigation runs.  That will take us up to January.  Not bad.  Then we must just hope for rain in the next two / three months. 
Well if you have a look at the growth of the plants it is just always a surprise how much better rain is in comparison to irrigation.  The orchards and vineyards look so much more in vigorous growth phase after the rain on Thursday.  Even the birds seem to sing a lot more. 
The vineyards will get there third spray as do the peaches.  The apricots because of the time of harvest nearing now I stopped the spray program.  Maybe later just run a fruit fly spray.  The weather which leads to a more humid climate will enhance fungi growth and thus more spraying will be needed. 
For the concerned under you.  Withoek will be audited for SA-Gap (South Africa - Good Agricultural Practice) which is an program to audit the whole approach to agricultural practice.  As the concern for the Climate Change movement take on the consumer their fears and demands must more and more be met by the producers of food.  The SA - Gap is an South African Auditing program which is based on EuroGap.  Why two?  The cost.  EuroGap cost a lot of money.  Also the laws of our country makes that we sometimes can't meet the spesific requirements of the EuroGap. For instance they want us to burn the containers of the different spays.  The SA law forbids us to do it. 
Withoek still have to put a lot of things into plays to meet all the necessary requirements but we are on our way. 
This week we will finish the thinning of the peaches and plums.  After that the Plastic in the newly planted vineyards and after that the suckering or the vineyards follow.  Lots to be done and not much time.  Seems like harvest is coming a long?

The fruit business

With our currency making muscle all over the world makes all the hi-tech stuff prices drop like over ripe apricots and unfortunately the export prices also. A friend of mine who runs a business in office equipment talks of all the specials running. DVD's, printers, laptops / notebooks, scanners, CD players, external harddrives, etc. Unfortunately with the luxury the apricot / peach canning industry prices all are going down. Like a cliff.
Maybe my trees knows what is going on and they just didn't flower and the few that did, didn't do it with passion. A flower here and there. Real sort of lazy stuff. Why? I am not sure. They got a real good punch of fertilizer at the end of last season - not overdoing it - just enough. The peaches which is in total overproduction are carrying fruit as if it is the last season. A lot of thinning is done. Not a great site for a farmer driving past a orchard with most of its fruit on the orchard floor.
The vines never looked better. Good growth with lots of possible bunches. I allready sprayed twice and will have the third spray on next week. Also have to cover the peaches this week. Maybe even start with fruit fly control. I just hope the gardeners in town - if you only have one type of fruit tree - please do fruit fly control. It doesn't cost much but makes a huge difference to the surrounding farmers. They, the fruit flys, will allready be very active and with the amount of small gardens with fruit trees there will allready be a over populated fruit fly colony inside the town.
We still busy planting the last poles and hopefully will be finished by the end of this week.
The green fig season also starts and I will be picking my green figs. It must sort of be big without having a hole in the centre. If you have any, I am interested in buying.
The irrigation is also running smoothly and the orchards and vineyards really looks healthy and strong. Hopefully we do get rain to continue this excellent start to the 2010 season.