This spring was looking to be one of the nicest that I can remember. The temperature has been a near perfect 75F with only puffy clouds in an otherwise blue sky. In fact, it has been so nice that we need to get the irrigation system up and running as soon as possible.

Mother Nature was just playing with us. The temperature went from 87F to below freezing in less than two days… Many of the local tree crops, such as almonds, prunes and cherries were severely damaged. Some farmers will not even be able to harvest their trees this year, since the small and developing fruits froze and are now falling from the trees.

Frozen Olive FlowersWe thought that we escaped any damage, but now we can see that’s just not true. There are tiny, not yet fully formed olive flowers that should be a healthy fluroescent green color. They’re brown and shriveled. It still might not affect the crop more by more than 20%, but it’s not good news. Only time will tell if the damage is significant, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

I hope that you can discern the good flowers and the brown, wilted flowers on this branch…