Tiny's Orchard is located in East Wenatchee, WA close to the Columbia River in Douglas County in a superb microclimate with weather conditions ideal for growing stone fruit (peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries). This particular location has only experienced frost and/or extreme cold conditions or hail or damaging winds only a couple of times since we've been farming this particular block in 1979.
The other orchard location is close to the airport in East Wenatchee and as a contrast in conditions is more ideal for growing apples and pears. Colder nights in the fall help mature and color all apple varieties that have any red color. Temperatures in this orchard generally run 5 to 10 degrees cooler than at the lower river elevation.
FARM TOUR -click here-
Pictures from the orchard in East Wenatchee, WA
 
Jay McPherson at the orchard John & cousin Bronwen at Pike Place Market in Seattle.
 
Spreading sawdust to control weeds Tractor and cherry trailer.
Veggie planting spring 2007.
Extensive training results in the ability to turn an otherwise unproductive dog into a useful farm worker
during the harvest season as well as in the off-season (office work)
and even keeping an eye on the farm to keep the bad guys out.
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Walker balancing a Dapple Dandy pluot.
New Peach/Apricot/Plum hybrid planted at the orchard in spring 2006.
Look what's coming next to Tiny's orchard!
Sometime in the next couple of years you may find a PEACOTUM in your CSA bag (It rhymes with "sea bottom"). With the yellow flesh of a peach, the texture and juiciness of a plum, and the velvety overcoat of an apricot, the peacotum tastes more like fruit punch than any of its parent breeds and is the first three-fruit hybrid headed for the massmarket.
Floyd Zaiger, a Modesto, Calif., inventor and the most prolific fruit breeder in the world, created the peacotum. His family-owned company, Zaiger Farms, has patented more than 200 new varieties of fruit, all through conventional pollination. (Despite the company's name, Zaiger performs no genetic modification; instead he accelerates the natural selection process through hand-pollination.)
Among his achievements, Zaiger, 78, has found a way to reduce the acid level in peaches, give unripe apricots an appealing red blush, and make white peaches—previously a mushy mess—firm enough to be shipped around the world. (Not sold commercially until 15 years ago, white varieties now make up 22% of all peaches in the U.S.; Zaiger created most of those breeds.)
Another of Zaiger's successes is the pluot (Tiny's grows 8 of his varieties), a plum-apricot hybrid that is available in purple, yellow, or green with red polka dots and now constitutes about one-fourth of the plum market.
For his accomplishments in creating new fruit, Zaiger has been recognized around the world. The King of Morocco invited him to recommend selections for planting, and the French government named him Officier in the Order du Merite Agricole (one step up from knight). "He's the father of exotic fruit," says Paul Buxman, a farmer who grows many Zaiger varieties at Sweet Home Ranch, a 55-acre spread in Dinuba, Calif. "He's a biological inventor who treads where most scientists don't think about going. He'll be in the encyclopedia one day."
Zaiger may seem to be following an odd pursuit, but there's big money in new fruit varieties. "On the retail end, everyone is looking for something different," says Eric Christensen, a citrus grower and the owner of Rising C Ranches in Reedley, Calif. While the traditional staples—bananas, apples, grapes, and pears—are still the biggest sellers, fruits that were once unheard-of in the U.S. now bring in $100 million each year, or more. According to the Produce Marketing Association, based in Newark, Del., mangoes sell about $280 million a year, and papayas have grown to a $96 million business and the 70% apricot, 30% plum APRIUM (this one, a Zaiger creation, saw consumer demand jump after Martha Stewart made aprium jam on her TV show).
Yet of all Zaiger's creations—including two others entering commercial testing in 2005: the nectaplum (nectarine and plum) and the white aprium—it's the three-in-one peacotum that stands out as the biggest recent advance in fruit technology. "The peacotum is most unique," says Robert Woolley, owner of the Dave Wilson Nursery, a company that grows and sells Zaiger's creations. |
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FRUIT VARIETIES Harvest Dates
(all crops WSDA & USDA Certified Organic)
June 5 Tasty Rich Aprium
June 8 Brooks Cherry
June 10 Chelan Cherry
June18 Bing Cherry
June 20 Rainier Cherry
June 25 Zee Fire Nectarine
June 28 Summit Cherry
June 30 Sugartime Peach
July 1 Early HIromi Plum
July 2 Flavorosa Pluot
July 3 Rival Apricot (2006)
July 4 Ryland Apricot (2006)
July 5 Spring Snow Peach (whiteflesh)
July 9 Lapins Cherry
July 8 Arctic Star Nectarine (white)
July 15 Flavor Supreme Pluot
July 16 Sweetheart Cherry
July 17 Sweet Scarlet Peach
July 25 Saturn Donut Peach
Aug 1 Shamrock Apples
Aug 5 Jupiter Donut Peach
Aug 7 PeachCot (peach x apricot)
Aug 1 Santa Rosa Plum
Aug 7 Sun Plum
Aug 8 Golden Princess Peach
Aug 8 Blushingstar Peach (whiteflesh)
Aug 15 Flavor Queen Pluot
Aug 16 Flavor Grenade Pluot
Aug 20 Dapple Dandy Pluot
Aug 21 Arctic Queen Nect (white)
Aug 23 Gala Apple
Aug 24 Flavor Heart Pluot
Sept 7 Hiromi Red Plum
Sept 8 Flavor King Pluot
Sept 11 Golden Delicious Apple
Sept 11 Flavorich Pluot
Sept 1 Arctic Blaze Nect (white)
Sept 5 Arctic Snow Nect(white)
Sept 6 Honeycrisp Apple
Sept 7 September Sun Peach
Sept 8 Angeleno Plum
Sept 10 Hiromi Gold Plum
Sept 11 Wildfire Nectarine
Sept 12 Red Flame Grapes
Setp 12 Thompson Seedless Grapes
Sept 13 Indian Blood Peach
Sept 14 Catalina Plum
Oct 13 Sweet September Peach
Oct 15 Braeburn Apple
Oct 17 Fuji Apple
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