All posts by Kathy Dice

Agroforestry, American Persimmons, Chestnuts, Uncategorized, You-Pick

You-Pick at Red Fern Farm 2023

August 6, 2023 Kathy Dice

Our you-pick is still by reservation only. You can call a day ahead, 319-729-5905, to see if there is an opening or schedule your harvest-day, weeks or even months in advance. We have lots of openings on weekdays, but weekends fill up quickly. Picking hours are 1:00 PM until sunset.

$20 minimum checkout. This $20 covers the time it takes us to show your group around the groves, train you on what and how to harvest and taste samples of fruit and nuts. If you are harvesting something like Aronia or hazels we will take the $20 ahead of time and you get to pick all you want. No weigh out or further transaction needed. If you are getting multiple items we may say $20 covers it all or take the time to weigh you out (if we suspect it would come to more than $20). Each checkout transaction has a $20 minimum.

What to Expect: You can usually drive up and park close to the spot you will be harvesting. We have clean latrines, hand washing stations and picnic tables at the main parking areas. This is a safe area for children, but no dogs or cats are allowed (food security issues).

The grass will be mowed, but not as fine as a lawn. Be sure to wear sturdy shoes, prickly chestnut burs are scattered on the ground. Our orchards are in a rural setting, close to “wild” timber. Bring bug repellent. Your children are welcome to observe and catch the frogs, insects, spiders and snakes they encounter. Please ask your children to be gentle and release all creatures before you leave the groves.

We have maps and directions are available to email or call if you need help finding us. Google Maps knows us as Red Fern Farm, You-Pick. Call 319-729-5905 to make a reservation. We are outside a lot September – October so be ready to leave a message.

Cornelian Cherries: (Almost all gone 9/18/23) Cornelian cherries are usually ready around mid-August and continue to mid-September. Almost all our Cornelian cherry bushes are now grafted and provide large, tasty fruit.

We sell them at $3.00/pound for you-pick. We recommend bringing a gathering cloth to spread under the bushes. The ripe berries are soft and sweet. Under ripe ones are firmer and very tart. They will continue to ripen after picking. We have none available already picked (the family eats them up too fast).

Aronia Berries: Our Aronia bushes continue to be more and more shaded out by the surrounding canopy trees. The Aronia season is usually short and in early September; about in the middle of Hazel season. There is no charge for Aronia berries (see note on $20 checkout minimum above). Call for more information.

Hazels: Hazel season usually goes from early September to late September. Hazels are $2.00/pound for un-husked clusters or $3.00/pound husked nuts for you-pick. Bring bags, buckets or boxes to collect into. It can take 30 minutes for one adult to pick clean one 10 foot tall bush and gather about 1-3 gallons of hazel clusters. One gallon of un-husked nuts (an ice cream bucket full) will yield about one pound of husked nuts. If you are interested in saving hazels for seed nuts, check out our Hazel Seed Nut Planting Instructions sheet.

Pawpaws: Usually the season runs mid-September to the first hard freeze in October. Weather has hurt the 2023 pawpaw crop. We think we will only have 600 pounds instead of 2,000 – 4,000 pounds. Kathy has stopped taking harvest reservations for pawpaw (August 14). There may be fruit available to seed collectors at $10/pound. We may open up the culinary harvest again if our estimate is wrong. We have started a waiting list.

Pawpaws are $3.50/pound when you pick them, $6.00/pound when we pick them. Marked pawpaws (Shensus) are $10.00/pound. Bring buckets, boxes or crates. Ripe pawpaws are very soft and should be stacked only 2 deep or less. Weekends are very popular, so call early to reserve a time slot. Tuesday – Thursday is an excellent time to have the pawpaw patch to yourself. It only takes about 15 minutes to get 5 – 10 pounds of pawpaws. Late afternoon is the best time to pick, but ripe pawpaws will be available all day (after 1:00 pm). Recipes are available. There is no minimum or maximum for the amount of pawpaws you pick. We do ask you only pick what you plan to take home.
We have many grafted trees. If you want to see what grafted variety you like the flavor of best, bring a black sharpie with you. You can write on the outside of the pawpaw what the variety it is. When you eat it later, you can compare it with other varieties.

American Persimmon: Season usually runs mid-September to the end of October. Price is $2.50/pound when you pick them, $3.50/pound when we pick them. The Persimmons are very soft when ripe. They should not be piled deeply in your gathering container. Bring bags, buckets or boxes to collect into.
They can be gathered from the ground or picked from the tree. Orange but slightly under ripe persimmons are very astringent, but will ripen off the tree. We will offer advice on judging ripeness of persimmons.

Asian Pears: Season runs mid-September to late October. The Korean Giants will ripen around October 15. The Asian pear crop looks good this year, but Kathy has stopped taking harvest reservations for Asian pear (September 10). Feel free to taste sample any fallen fruit to find a tree whose flavor you enjoy. Asian pears are available at $3.00/pound when you pick them, $4.00/pound when we pick.

Heartnuts: A late, hard freeze damaged several heartnut trees and killed others. If we had any, these delicious, high-fat nuts would be available at two different rates. If you husk the nut so that you have mostly just the heartnut, they are $5/pound. If you leave the green, moist husk on, they are $3/pound (we know you don’t want to eat the husk).

Chestnut: The season usually runs about mid-September to mid-October, but the trees are in charge and they decide when they will start dropping their nuts. Kathy has stopped taking harvest reservations for chestnuts (September 10). We can put your name on a waiting list of give you the names of other farmers who allow you-pick for chestnuts.

Harvest may continue to late October or the first hard freeze (below 25 degrees) We make the best guesses we can based on weather. Hot, windy days make more chestnuts fall to the ground. Chestnuts start dropping each day around 1:00 pm and hit their peak around 3:00 pm.

Reservations to harvest chestnuts for eating start at 1:00 pm each day. We will set you up in a grove of trees depending on how many pounds of chestnuts you hope to harvest and how many people are in your group. We provide buckets and a tool called a nut wizard. Watch a Nut Wizard in action.

We will be charging $4.25/pound for nuts harvested on Saturdays or Sundays. Chestnuts harvested Monday – Friday only cost $3.75/pound. We have a waiting list of 150 families and groups who can only come on weekends. We have lots of openings for week days.

Chestnut Seed nut harvest starts at dawn each day and goes up to noon. Chestnuts harvested at this time are $10.00/pound and are used to grow more trees. Harvesters of seed nuts can harvest from any area, any grafted or seedling tree. Maps will be provided showing location of named trees.

If you don’t want all the nuts, we will pay you $1.00 for each pound of chestnuts you gather and don’t take home.
Be sure to bring water and snacks. It takes about one hour for one adult to gather 25 pounds of nuts.

Agroforestry, Chestnuts, Pawpaws

Trees for 2023

October 25, 2022 Kathy Dice 4 Comments

We opened our website to tree orders on November 25 (Black Friday). By Saturday one third of all our trees had been reserved. We are now down to only around 150 trees not spoken for. We do have a waiting list started if you really need trees from our farm, but you do have other good choices.

We are in the process of turning over our nursery business to Canopy Farm Management (canopyfm.com/nursery/ ). Canopy has been purchasing our seed nuts and seed from other excellent sources. They are utilizing our good tree growing practices and developing some of their own. As we have reduced our selection, they are expanding. They also offer bare-rooted trees for shipping. Be sure to check them out.

Tom has also started a consultation service to help with your tree planting plans.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when ordering trees from us:

Trees on their way to the state of Louisiana.

We Do Not Ship Trees. You will not be refunded in full if you expect shipping of any trees. All trees ordered will need to be picked from our farm in southeast Iowa by August 31 (June 30 for small potted chestnuts, see below).

We offer limited Quantity Discounts on Chestnuts. We offer quantity discounts when you order the same variety of chestnuts. You cannot combine orders of different varieties to reach a discount price. Example 60 Mossbarger and 60 Qing would cost you the 10 – 99 price for each, not the 100 or more price for each.

We Do NOT refund your deposit after January 15. We require a 25% deposit to reserve your trees. You have two weeks after placing your order to get this deposit to our farm. This deposit is lost if you cancel your order after January 15. We understand stuff happens. If you need to cancel your order after January 15, call or email us and explain. If we can find a new purchaser for your trees, we may only charge a 10% restocking fee. The earlier you cancel or change the order, the easier it is for us to find new customers and the less we will charge you for changing your order.

Chestnut Seedlings. We have seedlings of some of the very best cultivars available. Although “open pollinated”, their most likely pollinizers are other good Chinese cultivars. This greatly increases the likelihood that the seedlings will be as good or even better than their parents. We fully expect that many new, superior cultivars will result form these seedlings.
The varieties we have for sell below have brief descriptions of the parent trees. These seedling trees are for pick up early summer through August 31.

Small and Medium sized pots used to grow chestnut trees at Red Fern Farm.

Chestnut Seedling Pots. We check each tree to make sure we see roots emerging from the bottom of their pot to ensure good root development before we release the tree from our nursery. All are trees are grown in post designed to avoid root spiraling so none of our trees become “root bound”.
Small potted chestnuts – These pots are 9 inches tall for excellent root development, but are only 2 7/8 x 2 7/8 inches square at the top. This allows the roots to fill in the smaller pots sooner and thus the trees will be ready to leave our nursery earlier in the summer. It also means the pots will dry out quicker and the tops can quickly out grow the capacity of the pots. The chestnut trees grown in these smaller pots will need to be picked up from our nursery by June 31.

Medium potted chestnuts – These are our standard size pots. They are 4 x 4 inches square at the top and 9 inches tall. It takes longer for the tree roots to fill these pots. Because of the larger size, these potted trees do not dehydrate as quickly as the smaller pots. Trees grown in these pots do not need to be picked up from our nursery until August 31.

Pawpaw seedlings. We no longer sell grafted or bare-root pawpaws. Because of the life cycle of the pawpaw, you will get more fruit from your pawpaw PATCH by growing superior seedlings and allowing their root sprouts to fruit (see Pawpaw Special Instructions). We offer three sizes of pawpaw that are based on the pot size and thus root development. We also offer two strains of pawpaw. Shensus Pawpaw Seedlings are from a semi-controlled cross of Shenandoah and Susquehanna. Varietal Pawpaw Seedlings are seedlings are open pollinated with grafted varieties such as ‘NC1’, ‘Pennsylvania Golden’, ‘Taytwo’, ‘Prolific’, ‘Shenandoah’, ‘Susquehanna’ and ‘Overlease’ as their mother tree.

Agroforestry, Chestnuts, You-Pick

You-Pick at Red Fern Farm 2022

August 28, 2022 Kathy Dice 4 Comments

You-pick at Red Fern Farm is done for 2022. Below you can see information about our you-pick.

Our you-pick is still by reservation only. This helps to guarantee lots of social distancing while you harvest. You can call a day ahead, 319-729-5905, to see if there is an opening or schedule your harvest-day weeks in advance. We have lots of openings on weekdays, but weekends fill up quickly. Picking hours are 1:00 PM until sunset.

We are continuing the $20 minimum. This $20 covers the time it takes us to show you around the groves, train you on what and how to harvest and taste samples of fruit and nuts. After paying the $20, you don’t have to buy anything at our farm. If you do make a purchase, the first $20 is already paid for. The $20 will cover a car with up to 3 adults or it is $20 minimum at the checkout. Each checkout transaction has a $20 minimum.

We have maps and directions are available to email or call if you need help finding us. Call 319-729-5905 to make a reservation. We are outside a lot September – October so be ready to leave a message.

Ripe Cornelian cherries from a grafted bush.

Cornelian Cherries: (Done for 2022) Cornelian cherries are usually ready around mid-August and continue to mid-September. Our 2022 season finished up September 3 as a record amount was harvested early.

We sell them at $2.00/pound for you-pick. We recommend bringing a gathering cloth to spread under the bushes. The ripe berries are soft and sweet. Under ripe ones are firmer and very tart. They will continue to ripen after picking. We have none available already picked (the family eats them up too fast).

Aronia Berries: (Done for 2022) . Our Aronia bushes continue to be more and more shaded out by the surrounding canopy trees. The Aronia season is usually short and in early September; about in the middle of Hazel season. There is no charge for Aronia berries (see note on $20 visitation minimum above). Call for more information.

Hazels: (Done for 2022) Hazel season usually goes from early September to late September. Hazels are $1.00/pound for un-husked clusters or $2.00/pound husked nuts for you-pick. Bring bags, buckets or boxes to collect into. It can take 30 minutes for one adult to pick clean one 10 foot tall bush and gather about 1-3 gallons of hazel clusters. One gallon of un-husked nuts (an ice cream bucket full) will yield about one pound of husked nuts. If you are interested in saving hazels for seed nuts, check out our Hazel Seed Nut Planting Instructions sheet.

Pawpaws: We thought we would have a huge crop this year. Last year we harvested 2,600 pounds of fruit. We estimated 3,000 – 4,000 this year. Unfortunately it looks like the crop will be 1,300. We have over booked and over sold the pawpaws. We are taking no new appointments for 2022. Usually the season runs mid-September to the first hard freeze in October.

Pawpaws are $3.50/pound when you pick them, $6.00/pound when we pick them. Bring buckets, boxes or crates. Ripe pawpaws are very soft and should be stacked only 2 deep or less. Weekends are very popular, so call early to reserve a time slot. Tuesday – Thursday is an excellent time to have the pawpaw patch to yourself. It only takes about 15 minutes to get 5 – 10 pounds of pawpaws. Late afternoon is the best time to pick, but ripe pawpaws will be available all day (after 1:00 pm). Recipes are available. There is no minimum or maximum for the amount of pawpaws you pick. We do ask you only pick what you plan to take home.
We have many grafted trees. If you want to see what grafted variety you like the flavor of best, bring a black sharpie with you. You can write on the outside of the pawpaw what the variety it is. When you eat it later, you can compare it with other varieties.

Asian Pears: (No more harvest dates for 2022) Season runs mid-September to late October. Right now, October 8, there are no ripe pears. The Korean Giants will ripen around October 15. They are already book for harvest. The Asian pear crop looks good this year. Apprentices from the Savanna Institute helped to thin the fruit on the lower branches so the flavor should be improved this year. Feel free to taste sample any fallen fruit to find a tree whose flavor you enjoy. Wholesome Asian pears are available at $2.50/pound when you pick them, $3.50/pound when we pick.

Heartnuts: (Pretty much finished for 2022) There are some heartnuts available this year. These delicious, high-fat nuts are available at two different rates. If you husk the nut so that you have mostly just the heartnut, they are $5/pound. If you leave the green, moist husk on, they are $3/pound (we know you don’t want to eat the husk).

Evin Tricic’s group of proud chestnut harvesters – early October, 2021.

Chestnut: The season usually runs about mid-September to mid-October, but the trees are in charge and they decide when they will start dropping their nuts. For 2022 the peak drop seems to be the second week of October. Harvest may continue to late October or the first hard freeze (below 25 degrees) We make the best guesses we can based on weather. Hot, windy days make more chestnuts fall to the ground. Chestnuts start dropping each day around 1:00 pm and hit their peak around 3:00 pm.

We will be charging $3.50/pound for nuts harvested on Saturdays or Sundays. Chestnuts harvested Monday – Friday only cost $3.00/pound. We have a waiting list of 150 families and groups who can only come on weekends. We have lots of openings for week days.

Chestnut Seed nut harvest starts at dawn each day and goes up to 1:00 PM. Chestnuts harvested at this time are $10.00/pound and are used to grow more trees. Harvesters of seed nuts can harvest from any area, any grafted or seedling tree. Maps will be provided showing location of named trees.

If you don’t want all the nuts, we will pay you 75¢ for each pound of chestnuts you gather and don’t take home.
Be sure to bring water and snacks. It takes about one half hour for one adult to gather 25 pounds of nuts.

Uncategorized

Scionwood available, 2022

January 12, 2022 Kathy Dice 2 Comments

You can now order scion wood for grafting apples, chestnuts, pawpaw, pears, and more from our website. Check it out at on our scionwood for sale page.

We offer high quality scion wood at $5/linear foot. Quantities of some varieties are limited and may be sold out already. Shipping is $16 to cover handling cost as well as postage. The only exception is heartnut. Some heartnut is so thick we need to use very large shipping boxes. We will alert you if there are extra shipping charges.

The new deadline for ordering this year for apple, plum, Cornelian cherry and pear scionwood is February 28. All other scionwood orders will be due March 31st. Scionwood will be shipped in early March or April depending on what you order. We will ship earlier at your request. We cut the scionwood into 6 inch lengths to facilitate shipping.

We now have videos available to help you with your grafting.

Grafting on Cornelian cherry using the barn door graft.

Tom’s favorite grafting method, Barn Door (Mega-Chip), is highlighted in the paper Barn Door Graft . A more complete write up of grafting techniques is available in the paper Practical Grafting .

Videos: You can watch Tom Wahl gathering scion wood; demonstrating the barn door graft; and caring for grafts in the videos below. The Savanna Institute hosted a one-hour Facebook/Zoom meeting with Tom using these videos. The recording of that presentation with the Q & A is below.

Gathering Scionwood

Barn door graft

Graft care

Facebook presentation

Remember, place your order soon. We stop taking orders February 28 for varieties that leaf out early (Apple, Pear, Cornelian cherry, etc.). We stop taking orders March 31 for all other varieties (we start shipping them at that point). – Kathy

Bundles of collected scion wood — Freshly harvested and labeled persimmon scionwood.

American Persimmons, Chestnuts, Heartnuts, Pawpaws, You-Pick

YOU-PICK AT RED FERN FARM 2021

August 3, 2021 Kathy Dice

Happy pawpaw pickers — Masks are not required in our groves, but your group can do as they please.

As of October 17, 2021, the you-pick at Red Fern Farm is pretty much done for 2021. Below is the original post:

Masks are not needed while harvesting in our sun-sanitized, outdoor groves, but are appreciated during your weigh-out in our Red Shed. Our you-pick is still by reservation only. This helps to guarantee lots of social distancing while you harvest. You can call a day ahead to see if there is an opening or schedule your harvest-day weeks in advance. We have lots of openings on weekdays, but weekends fill up quickly. Picking hours are 1:00 PM until sunset.

Weigh- out or check-out shed at Red Fern Farm.

We are continuing the $15 minimum. This $15 covers the time it takes us to show you around the groves, train you on what and how to harvest and taste samples of fruit and nuts. After paying the $15, you don’t have to buy anything at our farm. If you do make a purchase, the first $15 is already paid for. How cool is that? The $15 is per car load.

You-pick at Red Fern Farm is a fun family outing.

We have maps and directions are available to email or call if you need help finding us. Call 319-729-5905 to make a reservation. We are outside a lot September – October so be ready to leave a message.

Cornelian Cherries: Cornelian cherries are usually ready around mid-August and continue to mid-September. We sell them at $2.00/pound for you-pick. We recommend bringing a gathering cloth to spread under the bushes. The ripe berries are soft and sweet. Under ripe they are firmer and very tart. They will continue to ripen after picking. We have none available already picked (the family eats them up too fast).

Aronia Berries: Our Aronia bushes continue to be more and more shaded out by the surrounding canopy trees. The Aronia season is usually short and in early September; about in he middle of Hazel season. There is no charge for Aronia berries (see note on $15 visitation minimum above). Call for more information.

Handful of hazels, mostly without clusters, collected at Red Fern Farm on August 24, 2019.

Hazels: Hazel season usually goes from early September to late September. It is pretty much over for 2021. Hazels are/were $1.00/pound for un-husked clusters or $2.00/pound husked nuts for you-pick. Bring bags, buckets or boxes to collect into. It can take 30 minutes for one adult to pick clean one 10 foot tall bush and gather about 1-3 gallons of hazel clusters. One gallon of un-husked nuts (an ice cream bucket full) will yield about one pound of husked nuts. If you are interested in saving hazels for seed nuts, check out our Hazel Seed Nut Planting Instructions sheet.

Pawpaw cluster — Cluster of ripening pawpaws.

Pawpaws: We are looking at a huge crop this year and we have more trees bearing fruit. The cooler weather of early August may delay the ripening. Usually the season runs mid-September to the first hard freeze in October.

Brandon Family members enjoying the pawpaw patch fall of 2018.

Pawpaws are $3.00/pound when you pick them, $5.00/pound when we pick them. Bring buckets, boxes or crates. Ripe pawpaws are very soft and should be stacked only 2 deep or less. Weekends are very popular, so call early to reserve a time slot. Tuesday – Thursday is an excellent time to have the pawpaw patch to yourself. It only takes about 15 minutes to get 5 – 10 pounds of pawpaws. Late afternoon is the best time to pick, but ripe pawpaws will be available all day (after 1:00 pm). Recipes are available. There is no minimum or maximum for the amount of pawpaws you pick. We do ask you only pick what you plan to take home.
We have many grafted trees. If you want to see what grafted variety you like the flavor of best, bring a black sharpie with you. You can write on the outside of the pawpaw what the variety it is. When you eat it later, you can compare it with other varieties.

American Persimmon: Season usually runs mid-September to the end of October. The season started late this year due to late flowering. Price is $2.00/pound when you pick them, $3.00/pound when we pick them. The Persimmons are very soft when ripe. They should not be piled deeply in your gathering container. Bring bags, buckets or boxes to collect into.
They can be gathered from the ground or picked from the tree. Orange but slightly under ripe persimmons are very astringent, but will ripen off the tree. We will offer advice on judging ripeness of persimmons.

Heartnuts: Surprise, Surprise. There are some heartnuts available this year. These delicious, high-fat nuts are available at two different rates. If you husk the nut so that you have mostly just the heartnut, they are $4/pound. If you leave the green, moist husk on, they are $2/pound (we know you don’t want to eat the husk).

Asian Pears: Season runs mid-September to late October. The Asian pear crop looks good this year. Apprentices from the Savanna Institute helped to thin the fruit on the lower branches so the flavor should be improved this year. Feel free to taste sample any fallen fruit to find a tree whose flavor you enjoy. Wholesome Asian pears are available at $2.00/pound when you pick them, $3.00/pound when we pick.

Chestnut: The season has been very slow to start. From September 13 to 23 we had 10 to 60 pounds of nuts dropping each day. Suddenly on 9/26/21 we had 270 pounds drop. We feel our chestnut season has finally started in earnest.

Hot, windy days make more chestnuts fall to the ground. Chestnuts start dropping each day around 1:00 pm and hit their peak around 3:00 pm. We take reservations for people to start picking at 1:00 pm. We will set you up in a grove of trees depending on how many pounds of chestnuts you hope to harvest and how many people are in your group. We provide buckets and a neat tool called a nut wizard. Watch a Nut Wizard in action.

For 2021 we will be charging $3.00/pound for nuts harvested on Saturdays or Sundays. Chestnuts harvested Monday – Friday only cost $2.75/pound. We have a waiting list of 150 families and groups who can only come on weekends. We have lots of openings for week days

If you don’t want all the nuts, we will pay you 50¢ for each pound of chestnuts you gather and don’t take home.
Be sure to bring water and snacks. It takes about one hour for one adult to gather 25 pounds of nuts.

Agroforestry, Chestnuts

2021 Newsletter and catalog

January 28, 2021 Kathy Dice

Red Fern Farm 2021 Newsletter/Catalog Download

Our 2021 newsletter/catalog is hitting people’s email boxes today. In the following week, paper copies will be in some folks mailboxes. Tom spent a fair amount of time on an article about how to select a good site for chestnut trees. You can read that article here rather than wait for your digital or paper copy of the newsletter. In the article he mentions the Web Soil Survey and the Woodland Suitability Recommendations (see below).

IowaWoodlandSuitability 2014 Download

In the catalog part you will see what trees we hope to grow for 2021 and listings of scionwood that is available now. The Scion wood will close down for orders in February and March, depending on varieties. We have already taken orders for half of all the chestnut trees we plan to grow in 2021. Please don’t wait too long to place an order for these potted trees. And remember, we don’t ship potted trees. You do have to come to our farm to pick them up.

We do have a few bare-rooted pawpaw and persimmon trees available this spring. Oops. Now all the bare-rooted persimmon trees are gone. But we may have a few more as we cancel orders where we have not received a 25% deposit. Feel free to call or email if you think our website is out of date. (But our website is often more knowledgeable than we are). – Kathy Dice

Uncategorized

Tree Seedlings Available for 2021

December 30, 2020 Kathy Dice 4 Comments

We now have a great line up of trees available to reserve or order.

The May freezes the Spring of 2020 has affected what we have available to grow 2021. We will not be able to offer many of our own selections this year (Red Fern Super, QingSu, Shotgun). For the same reason we will not have heartnuts to sell later this year. We do have seedlings of some of the very best cultivars available. Although “open pollinated”, their most likely pollinizers are other good Chinese cultivars. This greatly increases the likelihood that the seedlings will be as good or even better than their parents. We fully expect that many new, superior cultivars will result form these seedlings.

Chestnut Peach seedlings mid-July, 2019.

We also have pawpaw and persimmon seedlings available to reserve. Availability of each varieties changes through the summer as people place orders and we pot up more or less trees than we predicted. If we are sold out of a variety you want, contact us to be put on a waiting list for that tree. Let us know how we can help you out. – Kathy

American Persimmons, Chestnuts, Pawpaws, You-Pick

You-Pick at Red Fern Farm 2020

September 13, 2020 Kathy Dice 10 Comments

You-pick at Red Fern Farm is open this year and is one of the safest ways to bring fresh, healthy food to your household. All our nuts and fruits are continuously sanitized by sunlight. You will most likely be the only human who touches the produce you take home. Masks are not needed while harvesting in our groves, but are appreciated during your weigh-out in our Red Shed. Our you-pick is still by reservation only. This helps to guarantee lots of social distancing while you harvest. You can call a day ahead to see if there is an opening or schedule your harvest-day weeks in advance. We have lots of openings on weekdays, but weekends fill up quickly. We are also planning on making a video about you-pick at Red Fern Farm.

Red Shed - Customer checkout shed — Our Red Shed – where we weigh out customers’ harvests.

We are continuing the $15 minimum. This $15, usually paid when you first arrive, covers the time it takes us to show you around the groves, train you on what and how to harvest and taste samples of fruit and nuts. After paying the $15, you don’t have to buy anything at our farm. If you do make a purchase, the first $15 is already paid for. How cool is that? The $15 is per group. As an added bonus we will be utilizing our new “Red Shed” to weigh you out at the end of your harvest. No need to drive back to our house for your weigh out.

What to Expect: You can usually drive up and park close to the spot you will be harvesting. We have clean latrines, hand washing stations and picnic tables at each parking area. This is a safe area for children, but no dogs or cats are allowed (food security issues).

Aronia Berries: The Aronia bushes had a light crop this year. There are a few dried berries available free for you-pick (see note on $15 visitation minimum above) but almost all juicy berries are gone. We hit the peak of ripeness during early September. We only have a few bushes still bearing fruit. They are located in the shade of chestnut and heartnut trees. Call for more information.

Handful of hazels collected at Red Fern Farm on August 24, 2019.

Hazels: As of September 20, 2020 the season is over for our hazels. We had a great response and the bushes have been picked clean. They were available at $1.00/pound for un-husked clusters or $2.00/pound husked nuts for you-pick. The season for hazels usually starts in late August and continues to mid-September. Hazels can be picked from the bushes or from the ground underneath. Bring bags, buckets or boxes to collect into. It can take 30 minutes for one adult to pick clean one 10 foot tall bush and gather about 1-3 gallons of hazel clusters. One gallon of un-husked nuts (an ice cream bucket full) will yield about one pound of husked nuts. If you are interested in saving hazels for seed nuts, we have free information available – just ask. Hazels qualify for the pick-all-you-want for the $15 entrance fee mentioned above.

Cornelian Cherries: As of 10/3/20 the Cornelian Cherry season is over. Cornelian Cherries were available at $2.00/pound for you-pick. The season usually runs from August to late September. We recommend bringing a gathering cloth to spread under the bushes. The ripe berries are soft and sweet. Under ripe they are firmer and very tart. They will continue to ripen after picking. We have none available already picked (the family eats them up too fast).

Pawpaws: The pawpaws have been happy this year and there is a bumper crop. The cooler weather of late July and early August did delay the ripening. For 2020, the season started 9/19/20.

Drew Latta shows off a harvested pawpaw. — Drew Latta shows off part of his pawpaw harvest in 2019.

September to late October. Pawpaws are $3.00/pound when you pick them, $5.00/pound when we pick them. Bring buckets, boxes or crates. Ripe pawpaws are very soft and should be stacked no more than 2 deep. Weekends are very popular, so call early to reserve a time slot. Tuesday – Thursday is an excellent time to have the pawpaw patch to yourself. It only takes about 15 minutes to get 5 – 10 pounds of pawpaws. Late afternoon is the best time to pick, but ripe pawpaws will be available all day (after 1:00 pm). Recipes are available. There is no minimum or maximum for the amount of pawpaws you pick. We do ask you only pick what you plan to take home.
We have many grafted trees. If you want to see what grafted variety you like the flavor of best, bring a black sharpie with you. You can write on the outside of the pawpaw what the variety it is. When you eat it later, you can compare it with other varieties.

A member of Emily Slayton’s group harvests some American persimmons.

American Persimmon: Persimmons are available, but took a hit from the late, May frosts. We have a smaller crop, but still plenty for our customers at $2.00/pound when you pick them, $3.00/pound when we pick them. The 2020 season is off to a slow start but should pick up by early October. Persimmons are very soft when ripe. They should not be piled deeply in your gathering container. Bring bags, buckets or boxes to collect into.
They can be gathered from the ground or picked from the tree. Slightly under ripe persimmons are very astringent. Only orange persimmons will continue to ripen off the tree.

Heartnuts: Heartnuts took a hard, hard hit from the late, May frosts. We see no nuts at all on the trees this year.

Asian Pears: The Asian pears have set a plentiful crop of Korean Giants. They did over-produced and many have brown rot. The Korean Giants will ripen in late October. Feel free to taste sample any fallen fruit or fruit damaged by brown rot to find a tree whose flavor you enjoy. They are available at $2.00/pound when you pick them, $3.00/pound when we pick.

Spicebush: Our spicebushes froze to the ground the winter of 2018 – 2019. They are still recovering and have no berries this year.

Chestnut burs high in tree — For the 2020 harvest, burs are developing only 20 feet or higher in the chestnut trees.

Chestnuts: Limited You-Pick in 2020 – What happened? Weather again. We had two late freezes in May. The chestnut trees were putting on fresh leaf growth from the first late freeze when they got hit by a second freeze. Fortunately the freezing temperatures were low to the ground. Any branch above 20 feet was not hurt by the second freeze. We think some burs are developing high in the trees, but we can not see them. (and Kathy can not take photos of the burs). As of August 13, we are not sure what we will have for chestnut harvest.

burs circled in red — The chestnut burs are hard to see as of August 21, 2020.

2020Chestnut You-Pick Prices:
If you manage to find any chestnuts, you pay $3.00/pound for everything you picked up. We discount that price by 25¢ if you come on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. On these days the price is $2.75. If you don’t want all the nuts, we will pay you 50¢ for each pound of chestnuts you gather and don’t take home.

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Red Fern Farm & COVID 19

March 1, 2020 Kathy Dice

Tom Wahl talking about shelters at Red Fern Farm

Here at Red Fern Farm we are taking the need to slow the spread of COVID 19 very seriously. Our entire permanent staff (our family) already work from home (the farm) and we already require people to call ahead to schedule a visit.

We are still open for business and plan to remain so unless required by the government to shut down. We will transact all business outside, in the fresh air and sunshine, keeping a proper 6 feet apart.

Son and father harvest American persimmons — Harvesting persimmons can be family fun time.

We realize guidelines and restrictions will change in the weeks and months to come. If you have ordered trees that will need to be picked up this spring or summer, call or email us to discuss your options or restrictions.

We do plan to offer you-pick again this fall. We see our groves of trees as a valuable resource to people this fall for a way to gather fresh, wholesome food. We will be looking at options to allow people to harvest on shares or to barter for fruit.

Weighing out you-pick harvest fall of 2019. — Customers proudly weigh out their harvest of pawpaws, chestnuts, hazels, heartnuts and Asian pears at Red Fern Farm the fall of 2019.

American Persimmons, Pawpaws

Pawpaw and Persimmon Videos

February 26, 2020 Kathy Dice

The Native Fruit Association (NFA) was formed to promote and share knowledge about native fruits of the Midwest that have commercial possibilities. The group has received grants from Iowa Department of Land Stewardship to create demonstration plots and to create informative videos and a website. Red Fern Farm has been involved with NFA since its beginning.

We are proud to present 6 of the videos.