05/09/2026
Some sad news to share and fair warning that this may be a longer post. In late April, after a week that saw us hit the upper 80s for days in a row, we (and our whole region) experienced a freeze event around 24F just as our pawpaws were at peak bloom, the kiwi berries were fully awake, and many of the persimmons were waking up as well.
The result was a near total loss of all pawpaw blooms and first shoots, which on the kiwis and persimmons contain flower buds. We had the odd pawpaw here and there that somehow made it through (see pic), but it was likely 0.1% that survived that kind of cold.
As a result we don't expect any kiwi berries and the persimmons and pawpaws are a big question mark.
The bright side? We do see some limited rebloom on the pawpaws but it's still way too early to know if they'll set fruit and how much. And some of the persimmon varieties, or those on rootstocks that kept them dormant longer are leafing out just fine now, but it's a smaller percentage for sure. We'll take notes and see which varieties recover the best to learn from all of this, but we're sad to see this happen and also think of the folks that enjoy and depend on our fruit.
God has always provided for our farm and we continue to be grateful. Pray for the farmers, especially the orchards, in our region as we're not unique in being hit by this.
