Orchard home

Today is my first full day as a Kiwi resident, so I took the time to explore my new surroundings. I’m living with another teacher from the school I work at and her boyfriend. The two of them rent a house on tons of orchard lands, so I went out exploring. It’s so beautiful! They grow kiwis, pears and apples. The pears have already been picked and the kiwis will need to be soon as well as the apples. The landlord takes care of all the maintenance, so we just have access to all the fruit but no responsibility! Perfect!

The kiwi orchard was my favorite, only because of the canopy the vines created. I thought it was mysterious and magical in a certain way!

Apparently, the male kiwi plants grow slightly taller so that when it’s time for pollination it’s easier for bees they to then pollinate the females. And also since the females are the only ones that product the fruit, their growing lower helps the pickers, since there’s no point in the males taking up the lower canopy and blocking the pickers from the kiwi fruit.

They also grow pink ladys here which are my favorite apple! $2 lb at the store now for free in my back yard. Tempting enough to eat right off the tree!

But DON’T!

The white marks are from the chemical sprays so they need a good washing first. Still, some how I think I’ll manage.

 

We also found a neighboring corn field where the corn was ready to be harvested. Heidi says that you can tell when they’re ready by when the cornsilk has turned dark. So we did them a favor and picked some corn. I’m going to be an awesome farmer yet!

Check out the many more pics by clicking on the right, and hopefully Flickr and I will have worked out our kinks by then. However, in order to see the pictures in the correct order you will have to go to the “Orchard Home” set.