COLORADO'S HIDDEN SECRETS: Palisade Orchards

We spent the weekend in Palisade, Colorado enjoying the fruit orchards on Colorado's picturesque Western Slope. The elevation is 4800 feet with close proximity to the Colorado River. The combination of water from the river, high elevation, high altitude sunlight and the cool nights produces lucious fruit that is shipped all over the country.

One of my favorite places is Z's Orchard. They are a family run operation that has been in business for over 40 years. They have dazzling zinnia and sunflower fields which surround their orchard with 17 varieties of peaches. They also have plum, apple, pear, cherry and apricot trees, and a raspberry patch. They have over 7,500 peach trees alone. Z's also makes, homemade preserves and pickles in their commercial kitchen.

Kendra and Ken of the Z's family drive from Palisade to Telluride every Saturday during the summer months to set up a farmers market…about a 2 ½ hour drive. We are so thankful for them as gardening is a chore when you live at our elevation of 8750’. Take a look at Z's website www.zsorchard.com.

I mostly grow my own herbs. I planted two tomato plants in pots this summer, both with a short maturity time. I also planted one jalapeno plant. Early on I had a few red tomatoes and a few peppers that were well on their way to a normal size. Then along came chipmunks and squirrels and they stole all of my tomatoes and peppers. It has taken another 45 days for the tomatoes and peppers to regrow. Now I have the 3 pots clustered together and covered with netting to keep the pests away…..so far so good, but we had our first frost last week on August 28^th! Our growing season was so short this year. We had the last frost June 15^th – that is only a 74 day growing season. With the weather changing, I suspect I will be making something out of green tomatoes.