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Monday 1pm - 6pm Tuesday 1pm - 6pm Friday 9am - 1pm Saturday 9am - 1pm

Flatau Farm

A 3-acre family farm, we bring you the best tasting, tree ripened fruit at local farmers markets.

05/07/2026

We have good news and bad news:
To quote Paul, “We can’t tell people what we don’t know.” As we approach our 26th farmers market season, this is what we DO know...

We do know we have a short crop this year. And we know we can’t predict up front what the whole 2026 season will look like.

The good news is we expect a full crop of Saskatoon berries, table grapes and fall apples as well as some pluots - saved by the smudge pots.

The bad news is we experienced a severe frost on March 31st that killed most all of our nectarines, the majority of our peaches and a good percentage of our cherries.

Our aim is to attend the Richland Farmers Market each Friday. Attendance at Saturday markets - in either Walla Walla or Pasco - will be sporadic and based on fruit availability.

As always during the market season, we will send out our weekly email and post on Instagram and Facebook. We’ll let you know what fruits we’ll be taking to which market and when. So stay tuned.

We hope to see you soon!
Paul and Sue Flatau

05/01/2026

• This time of year it’s always exciting to see the new growth happening all around us. I love to see the “baby grapes” when I walk on our hillside. The Saskatoon Berries along the driveway are also beginning to fill out. It won’t be long before they’re ripe.
• Paul grafted some apple trees recently and he’s been hard at work finishing the new apple trellis. Today he tied a few trees to the wires. Progress!
• It rained nearly .75 inches in 24 hours last week. The day it was going to rain one of our grandkids found a huge toad by a planter. He was so excited because the “frog rain” was coming. Sure enough, we could hear the toads and frogs the evening after that. 🐸

04/16/2026

Paul has been working in the apple trees. He’s finishing pruning and has started to work on the new apple trellis system. He’s been digging holes for the poles while I’ve been hanging the codling moth mating disruption lures in the apples as well as peach twig borer mating disruption lures in the soft fruit. Plus, frost protection continues as needed.

04/03/2026

‘Tis the season for frost control. It got down to 26° Tuesday morning!

03/20/2026

Spring is here! The peaches and nectarines are in full bloom! So thankful Paul was able to get some bee boxes from . 🐝 We took a mini van-cation to Pacific City, OR, picking up rootstock on our way home to replenish our farm nursery. We pulled out over 50 older trees that needed to be replaced. And yes, that’s me (Sue) on the front tractor. We used two tractors chained together. Paul would wrap a chain from his tractor around the tree trunk then we would pull forward in tandem. 😅 I finished pruning the grapes, but the pulling and planting of trees as well as some irrigation snafus have kept Paul from finishing up pruning in the peaches and nectarines. Hopefully soon!

03/02/2026

Apples & Applesauce 🍎 Last spring Paul began implementing his plan to move all the apples into two rows. In April he grafted a number of varieties. It’s surprising how much they have grown in just 10 months! One of the next farm projects is to build a trellis system for the apple trees since Paul wants to move away from a central leader design and adopt a V-trellis configuration. Paul contacted a neighboring farmer about purchasing some of his used trellis supplies. He was able to load up his pickup and trailer with posts, wire, anchors and more. We’ve never used a trellis system before, but now’s the time to do it as this is the critical point for training the limbs. 🍏 Another project has been to use up the apples we still have in our cool shed. They are soft at this point and really only good for sauce. We pulled out the industrial apple slicer for this endeavor. Paul likes his applesauce chunky with the peels. We’ve made several batches in the Instant Pot and filled a number of bags for the freezer to make later, but we still have more apples to go!

02/16/2026

It’s hard to believe that spring is more than a month away! The pluot buds are pushing, so Paul decided he needed to prune them before he finished the other stone fruit.

We’ve gathered the future firewood and raked the brush in the cherry orchard, so Paul could mow. I always love how the alleys look after they’ve been cleaned up and mowed. • He also pulled out the rototiller to dig up a new nursery spot - that’s the green and white contraption hooked to the tractor. • He’s been servicing the man lift as well, trying to fix the choke and throttle. The lift comes in pretty handy, not just for pruning the orchard trees, but also for trimming our larger yard trees. • Other recent orchard tasks have included cutting off the trees that will be pulled out and eventually replaced as well as staking and training young trees. • I’ve also started pruning and tying up the grape vines.

02/03/2026

We have a new market canopy! Our son gifted us a new canopy with our farm logo for our birthdays and Christmas. Paul decided to put it together inside the house. It barely fit in our living/dining area, but it will be perfect for markets.

Paul finished pruning the cherries on January 23rd and has already started on the peaches! Completing the cherries this early is a first. Paul planted our original trees in 1997. When we started this farming journey he decided to plant cherry trees because they were an early summer crop. We took our first cherries to market in 2001. That’s why I designed our logo featuring cherries. Over the years Paul added other crops so we could extend our season into the fall. Although, peaches have become his true passion.

Speaking of peaches, as I was preparing to send out our employee W-2s, I took some time to figure out the number of hours spent thinning our soft fruit - peaches, nectarines and pluots.

Did you know - now that our own children are grown - we hire local teenagers to help us thin our fruit as well as pick our cherries and berries? Often we are their initial employer. We are thankful for their assistance and, in turn, we provide them with job experience.

When discussing the number of thinning hours with Paul, he pointed out some sobering facts. Because Washington state’s minimum wage is now $17.13 an hour - the highest in the nation - we will have to sell $5,000 - $6,000 worth of peaches just to pay our out of pocket labor costs for thinning. As a result, this affects what we must charge our customers in order to stay in business.

01/19/2026

Sunset over the peach and apple orchard last Tuesday. Love the all the sky drama this time of year. • Paul working in the cherry trees. He’s made it to row 7 of 8. Rode the lift last week to do the tops of the KGB trees in row 6, plus he’s been using his new smaller pole chain saw which is helping him make good progress.

01/06/2026

Happy 2026! Paul continues to make progress on pruning the cherry trees. Yes, that’s him IN the tree next to the ladder. We had a great time visiting with family over Christmas. Our son and his dog made the trip from Wyoming. His dog joined Paul in the orchard one afternoon, while our older pets stayed closer to home.🙃 Market season will be here before we know it!

12/23/2025

Paul finished pruning the top two rows of the cherry trees. Just 6 more rows of cherries to go! 😉 Coral Champagne variety pruned KGB style is at the beginning of row 1. • Our hearts go out to all those affected by recent weather conditions. While we’ve had some rain, it’s the wind that has been challenging for us. We were hoping our tarp shed would last a little longer. By December 9th the tarps had ripped, but on the 15th the whole thing collapsed. Paul dismantled the frame and found alternate places to store the larger items like a tractor and motorcycle for now. • Paul also spent time working on our overflow irrigation pond in preparation for ordering a liner. • On Saturday we went to and purchased a living Christmas tree. It was the perfect height! 🎄 Looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior with our family. May you know the joy and peace of the Lord Jesus at Christmas time and always!

Address

Basin City, WA

Opening Hours

Monday	1pm - 6pm
Tuesday	1pm - 6pm
Friday	9am - 1pm
Saturday	9am - 1pm

Telephone

+15099061928

Website

http://www.flataufarm.com/

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