From the Fields - Derrick Lum

By Derrick Lum, Solano County tree fruit farmer 

Both olives and persimmons are about a month behind. All the commodities I’ve been seeing in my neck of woods are about three weeks late. It was hard getting the sugar level up. It finally got there, but it was a mild summer with a lot of cool nights, and that plays havoc on the crops.

I just started picking persimmons. The yield looks a lot better than last year. The quality looks good. I was a little worried about the size, with the way the weather was ramping up and the amount of time they had in the growing season. But they sized up well. They’re finally starting to ripen up. They’re ripening a lot faster than normal, so I’m looking to have a speedier harvest to get them off the trees. The persimmons are marketed throughout the Bay Area under my brand Lum Family Farms. They’re going into the wholesale market.

The olive oil season is a good month behind. The olives are just coloring up. The oil content is not there right now. I’m looking to harvest around Thanksgiving. Olives are alternate bearing. This year is an “off” year for me. It’s not a heavy crop. It’s a medium crop, and I won’t be picking all the trees due to the yields. I’ll find out what percentage of oil vs. water I have once I get my olives to the miller. I talked with the olive miller, and he was just getting his mill cleaned out and up to speed. He’s starting his press up now.

With talk about an early winter, once I take the crop off, I hope to prep and prune the olives. It’ll be a light pruning this year because I don’t want to cut a lot of budwood out. The cycle is the same for persimmons. Once the crop is off, you prune the crop for the next year.