We are harvesting our Concord Grapes. It has been our longest Spring, Summer, Fall, season, yet.
We are still without frost. Last night, we walked the gardens. Green Peas, Swiss Chard and Dried Beans were harvested. We came inside and made a nice quiche with the Chard and Prosciutto. Since the crust was prepared, I made a tart cherry pie.
Over the next weeks, we will recap some of our summer highlights. We would like to thank all of our customers who came for fruit during this long, eight month season. The garlic is planted, the trees are fed. Now, we will turn our attention to the Orchard House Building project.
Next year, our new Orchard House will be open for cooking classes and events.
If you are interested in making jelly with Concord Grapes, call us for grapes at 406-871-5499. Thank you for sharing the fruits of our labor with us over this past season of fruit.
The weather is getting warmer and beginning this weekend, we are celebrating our great fall crops. Call us and come down, 406-871-5499. We have the best cooking apple. During the week, I will post some of my favorite apple recipes. We have enjoyed our apples during our last several days. The pears are out of this world this year. The Italian plums are just about ready. Concord grapes are ripening. The beauty of the Orchard is an incredible sight and walking in the trees is very uplifting. We are making baskets of apples and applesauce. Come join us over the weekend or any day next week. Happy fall to all. It is a fine time to think of making great applesauce for the year. We can help you learn if you haven’t made applesauce before.
We have several varieties of great eating apples and our Ruby Mac cannot be beat for cooking. This is the truth.
A special season for our premium apples, plums, pears.
During the first week in August, we have large, beautiful cherries for U Pick. No ladders here, just a nice lawn with many trees. We heard about a place where ladders are needed and the only cherries are at the top of tall trees. This is not the case at our orchard. Dan will help you to enjoy the full environment of the orchard. We have nice red, dark sweet Lapins and Queen Annes or Rainier cherries. There are still some raspberries. Apricots are starting. Apricots are not U pick, but Dan can get them for you.
This exciting cherry was found by one of our pickers. In many years, we have never seen a perfectly halved cherry. Half Lapin and half Rainier. We thought it made for a lovely photo. If you are interested in a visit to our orchard, call 406-871-5499 for an appointment. Daniel will help you.
Cherry from Getmans’ Orchard. 1/2 Lapin and 1/2 Rainier..a treasure find and rare, very rare.
We have had more good, prime, cherries than we expected. We have ridden out several storms that could have caused problems, but did not. Our harvest days have been more than we expected. Tomorrow, we are having our last harvest day and shipping our boxes all over the country. We are using flat rate, medium, U S Mail boxes. They are guaranteed for two day delivery, but the fact is sometimes, it is three days. These cherries will be, “just picked”, and should do well.
If you are in an apartment or in condos, etc., please find your box. There are many times when managers tuck them away and so forth. Work with your post office, sometimes they forget they have them in the building.
When your cherries arrive, rinse them in colanders. Refrigerate and cool for awhile. Good luck.
Our harvest is scheduled! I am making raspberry cakes in the kitchen. We will begin on Friday, July 15, 2016. Everyone is ready and the spare tire for the trailer is new. Dan has oiled up the ties and the bins will be picked up at Glacier Fresh Cherries in the morning. They are the fine people who pack our cherries and send them to market. Our tart cherries are ready, too. This means we now have u pick for raspberries, sweet cherries, tart cherries, and apricots will be ready next week. Wish us well, the hours will be long, but we are ready to work! Thank you!
Harvest Schedule Plans
Plans can change if it rains. As of today, Wednesday, we plan to begin harvest at Daylight on July 15, Friday. We will work Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We will ship boxes on Monday, U S Postal Service. They are guaranteed to arrive Tue, Wed, but some areas: Thursday.
Our Lapins in a glamour pose. I love making their portraits.
Our summer cabin. We live here while we are building our bigger house. All is being tidied for harvest. Foxtail lilies are shining in the evening light.Lillies in the stone garden help scent the air for our Harvest Celebration.
Tart Cherries are ready, too. The best cherry pies are made with the good sourness of tart Cherries. These are Montmorency. We cannot ship, “too, juicy”. We do allow U Pick for tarts. All of our trees are easily accessible.
Our weather has changed and we have had some mild, drizzle rains. Cherries love the cooler weather. They have relaxed and have begun to put on size again. This means, instead of building sugar and preparing for harvest, they have slowed down. We are fine with this and have blow dried the orchard four times with a helicopter. Our best guess, on this day, is July 15 for our upcoming harvest.
To all of you who are waiting for cherries, watch this page. We believe we have close to a week until the cherries have a Brix number that will indicate growth, sweetness, and color. …..We will harvest when they are at their prime.
Now, regarding raspberries:
We are absolutely loaded with wonderful raspberries. We are having u pick people at 4pm each day. If you would like to pick raspberries, please call us at 406-871-5499. We would love to see our raspberries in your refrigerator, too!
Now, we begin our countdown. Cherry Season and Harvest 2016, on Flathead Lake, in Montana.
This is a typical cluster today. We are now passing straw color and into the reds spectrum. Let us know if you want a shipped box, or, ” will call”. These photos are Lapins, our dark, sweet cherry. Queen Annes and Rainier Cherries will be ready earlier. We will have some tarts to share. U Pickers will come after harvest. Call for an appointment any day at 4pm. When the orchard trees begin to cool, it is a good time for picking. Our branches are loaded to the ground . We are excited. Much labor will go into this harvest, but it is something we enjoy. We expect to give many people a great Orchard experience this year ! We will keep you posted as we progress towards our harvest and ship date.
Rabbits began to find our new rock gardens in the vineyard. The bunnies wiped out our fresh, spring radishes. Dan has spent the last week, on his knees, fastening fine grid wire around the bottom of our acres of vineyard. Let’s hope the snowshoe rabbits get our message.
This is the time we weed vigorously. Great fruit trees and vines do not like weed competition. Montana weeds are vigorous and it is a great challenge to keep our orchard beautiful and weed free. After we have done our best, we use an agricultural vinegar to help us. It takes a slow, hand application and patience. We never use Round Up on our acreage.
We are arranging shipping now. Our cherry addicts would not be happy if we didn’t send out our cherries. We ship dark, sweet, prime cherries on our harvest day. Go to our order page if you are interested in cherries. The price has been the same during the past ten years. $35.00 a box. This year, shipping, in the U.S. is $13.50. This should be easy. No complications, just call us or email. We will help you.
Our Cherries are happy this year. They will grow another three weeks for size and sweetness. Our expected harvest is around July 6. We will ship cherries around July 10. Grateful for another beautiful, bountiful harvest.
It has been our longest Spring, Summer, Fall, season, yet.
Our branches are loaded to the ground . We are excited. Much labor will go into this harvest, but it is something we enjoy. We expect to give many people a great Orchard experience this year ! We will keep you posted as we progress towards our harvest and ship date.
We are arranging shipping now. Our cherry addicts would not be happy if we didn’t send out our cherries. We ship dark, sweet, prime cherries on our harvest day. Go to our 
Our Cherries are happy this year. They will grow another three weeks for size and sweetness. Our expected harvest is around July 6. We will ship cherries around July 10. Grateful for another beautiful, bountiful harvest.
