farming

Saturday morning at SAFF

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Catkins on a Virginia pine, Pinus virginiana.
Developing leaves and flowers of a female American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana.
Early fruit on a pawpaw, Asimina triloba.
Eastern poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, found on the Pawlonia stump.
Taken from Orchard hill trail at the bottom of SAFF.
Chris string trimming on the old farm road.
Another pawpaw fruit set down in the old clonal colony.

We got out to the farm this morning to get a few things done and take a walk. The forest is getting fully leafed out and it looks like summertime in Virginia all of the sudden. We were happy to see a few surviving pawpaw fruitlets still there after the wide spread but scattered frost damage in all three pawpaw patches. The persimmon trees are starting to get flower buds. We saw American hog peanut and creeping bush clover growing near our trees and feeding them nitrogen underground. Mountain laurel is budding up in the woods. We saw Aplectrum hyemale, putty root orchid, sending a flower stalk up with a leaf wilting. This flowering and dying back usually occurs in late spring/early summer (May or June here).

Putty root orchid with striped leaf and stalk arising from it.

2 thoughts on “Saturday morning at SAFF”

    1. Do they grow up there in Canada too? We’ve heard to catch a perfectly ripe one is like heaven in a bite. So far, my persimmon tasting experience has not been great. We are going to do grafting of known productive cultivars. They are gorgeous trees. 🙏🏼

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