We finished our apricot harvest this past week. It was the best apricot harvest we’ve ever had thanks to social media sharing and the Good Lord’s grace. We sold every apricot in our orchard, which seemed like a miracle. We thought we were going to lose our Lorna apricot crop due to a blight that made us unable to sell them to our stores this year. There are different kinds of apricots and we have about three varieties in our orchard but our main variety is the Lorna.

To be transparent, I am not a fan of Lornas. They are a large, citrusy apricot that is fabulous for baking pies and making jam, but for just plain old eating, I prefer Blenheims, the classic California apricot. The small old-fashioned tasting one. But our stores want Lornas because they are big and bold and sell well. Yet every year some of our Lornas get this black spot on the bottom of the fruit. It is not harmful to eat. It just isn’t pretty. And every year I cut off the bad part of the fruit and salvage the rest for our family. My jam ladies do the same. Jam ladies are my friends that I give overripe fruit to. It’s a lot of work to salvage the black-spotted Lornas, but come winter, my favorite season to bake pies, I use the frozen Lornas, and the pies taste so good.

This year our Lornas had a large amount of the black spot blight and I knew we would not be able to market them to our stores. On top of this, yet again, the cost of our farming operation has gone up. Gas is over four dollars a gallon now, and we had to get commercial insurance on all our farm vehicles to deliver our fruit to stores. I’ll be honest, it feels like everyone wants a piece of the pie in California without doing the work. You pay a fee for this and a fee for that and who is getting all these fees the farmers pay and why?

The water wars are rising, too. Water is becoming California’s new gold. Scott and I enjoy a little restaurant out in farm country and I love listening to the farmers talk at the bar. We sit at our favorite table near the bar so I can eavesdrop to learn more about California farming. Recently I heard a farmer say, I’m no longer growing my crop. I get more money for my water so I am selling just water right now.

I hope this rings some alarm bells for you. It certainly alarmed me. California is the breadbasket of the world. And yet many of our farmer friends are selling out and moving to other states. Bill Gates and other big corporations are buying up the land and this big money isn’t worried about saving the planet. Even though Gates claims he’s concerned about climate change. Yet his farmland is farmed without care for the environment. I used to be a journalist so I know how to dig up the dirt. I know people need water to live but they also need food.

In the coming years, if things don’t change, I think we will see a lot of our California produce coming in from other countries like Mexico and Central America where spraying is not regulated. This year cherries from somewhere down south, and I mean way south, were for sale on every street corner in our area, which bottomed out the price of our local cherries. The price of our apricots are down too for this very same reason. Apricots trucked into our community from somewhere far away. I don’t mind the competition but my guess is these growers’ labor and production costs are far lower than ours up here in the Sacramento Valley.

All of this was on my mind as I walked through our orchard with a sinking heart, realizing we would not be able to sell our Lornas. We were going to let the Lornas rot because we can’t get an insurance company to insure a U-Pick farm. We have bees, rattlesnakes, sprinklers that may cause someone to stumble, and of course ladders, so we can’t have people just come into our orchard to salvage fruit. Okay, I think I’ve complained enough to paint the big picture for you. In California, it has become so hard for small family farms to survive, let alone thrive.

I was pretty upset about losing our Lorna crop. And farming in general a few weeks ago. And in the midst of being upset, I went into Crosspointe Christian books and gift store in Yuba City to buy some graduation presents. Our son graduated high school, along with a handful of other kids we dearly love. A lady working behind the counter noticed I was upset. I had never met her before but she said, “Can I pray for you? It looks like you need some prayer today.”

So I told her about our farm and our Lornas. I then said, “I would so appreciate your prayers.” I really was ready to give up on farming.

After she prayed, the lady named Lindy said, “I believe this is from God. You need to post on social media that you need help saving your Lornas.” I said okay and left the store. In the car with tears running down my cheeks, I sat there thinking and praying about putting our Lorna problem on Facebook. It’s humbling to ask for help. And on social media everyone sees it. But I posted “please help us save our Lornas” and people drove miles and miles to come get our Lorna apricots at our Friday on the Farm day. The cars just kept on coming, the line stretching as far as we could see down our backcountry road.

One lady drove hours, like all day in the car. As I helped carry her fruit to the car, I said, why did you drive so far? And she said, “I just wanted to help your farm.” It made me burst into tears. Farming has taught me so much. I have learned that people can be so kind. And God sees us. He hears us. He helps us. I’m so thankful for this little miracle happening on our farm. It makes me want to keep farming to feed people for as long as we can. God is good and people still care.

This is my pastor’s wife Tonya. She is such a dear friend. She comes out to the farm on Fridays to help me make fruit bouquets. She also hugs me and prays with me and makes me laugh on Fridays. I usually find myself praying with other people too at the farm stand. Life is hard. If I see someone hurting I ask if I can pray for them. Sometimes if the stand is slow, I invite people with heartache in their eyes to sit down and stay awhile. If the stand is busy, and I can tell they want to stay, I put them to work and then send them home with free fruit.

Our little farm stand has become more than a fruit stand. Last year with the Covid quarantine, our farm stand was an island in the pandemic storm for lonely people. This year it still provides a place for friendships to flourish. My grandparents had a small summer fruit stand in their yard where I worked growing up. Maybe it’s all the feels of that bygone era that gets me. I love our old-fashioned farm stand dirt and all.

I’ve continued to sign and sell books amongst the trees too. Sometimes I set up a little book table beside the fruit. This past week I didn’t put any books out because I was too busy getting our fruit stocked in the stand. We usually pick for several hours before opening our stand and I make fruit bouquets. Like flower bouquets but they taste a lot better. This sweet lady Sally asked if I had any books. “I can run up to the house and grab you one,” I told her. She was so happy to get The Mother Keeper and I was happy to get a sweet hug from her and the encouragement that she’d read all my other books and loved them.

I’m also working on my latest novel early in the morning and at night after dark if I’m not too tired. Praying to have the first draft of River of Mercy wrapped up by the end of August. I hope all of you are savoring your summer. I haven’t lost sight of the fact that Scott’s word for this year was Miracles. Mine was Mercy. We are still experiencing both blessings. And Lacy and Jake are doing well. We are all fervently praying for another baby for them and would love for you to join us in prayer that the Good Lord would grant this request. Thank you so much, dear friends!