Thursday, July 30, 2009

First Asian Pears


We now have the first Asian pears of the season at the fruit stand. Hosui and kosui are the first two varieties that are ripe. They are both medium, round types of Asian pear. Throughout the rest of the summer and fall, we'll pick other varieties such as 20th century, shinseiki, shinko, ya li, Olympic and okusankichi. Asian pears range from green to yellow to brown. They are eaten crisp and are lightly sweet and refreshing. We expect to have Bartlett pears for sale soon, but we since we only have a few trees of European pears, their season will be short.

At left are hosui and kosui Asian pears in front of a row of Asian pear trees in the orchard. Kosui is yellow-green, hosui is light brown.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Not So Many Peaches This Year


We are "between varieties" of our yellow peaches right now, so we have a very limited supply at the fruit stand. We hope to have Gene Elbertas and Faye Elbertas by the weekend, but it looks like even these usually plentiful varieties will be in limited supply. Our trees didn't produce as many peaches as usual this year, probably because of the unusual weather when they were setting fruit in the spring. We still have some white peaches for sale from our orchard, but also not as many as usual.

At the fruit stand we do have peaches from our neighbors, the Koyama family. We're thankful that this year they've been able to bring peaches over for us to help sell.

It is probably about the peak of tomato season right now and we definitely have a lot of tomatoes. If you're planning on freezing or canning tomatoes, now is a good time to come get some.

At the fruit stand you'll find:

Fruit:

  • Peaches--a limited supply of yellow freestone varieties, cling, and white varieties (Sugar Lady, Nectar, Babcock)
  • Plums--Friar, Eldorado, Laroda, Kelsey
  • Nectarines--yellow
  • Apples--Gravenstein
  • Melons-new this week
Vegetables:
  • Tomatoes (regular and cherry), Tomatillos
  • Eggplant--thin Japanese and larger types
  • Beans--long beans
  • Cucumber--Japanese
  • Zucchini--green and yellow
  • Peppers--sweet and hot
  • Swiss Chard
  • Herbs--Basil (Genovase and lettuce leaf), Oregano, Rosemary
  • Garlic, Onions
  • Honey-from bees at our orchard
  • organic seedlings from Peas and Harmony.

Above is a photo taken last year around this time of Murphy, our neighbor's dog visiting the fruit stand. She died last August.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Plums, Peaches & Vegetables


If you are looking for white peaches, try and come to the fruit stand within the next 1-2 weeks, because we expect their season to be finished soon.

Here's what we have at the Fruit stand now:

Fruit:

  • Peaches--yellow freestone varieties (Suncrest, Flavorcrest, Gene Elberta, Faye Elberta) and white varieties (Sugar Lady, Nectar, Babcock)
  • Plums--Santa Rosa, Satsuma, Black Amber, Friar, Eldorado, Laroda, Kelsey
  • Apples--Gravenstein
Vegetables:
  • Tomatoes (regular and cherry), Tomatillos
  • Eggplant--thin Japanese and larger types
  • Beans--green string beans, long beans
  • Cucumber--Japanese, Armenian and lemon
  • Zucchini--green and yellow
  • Swiss Chard
  • Herbs--Basil (Genovase and lettuce leaf), Oregano, Rosemary
  • Garlic, Onions
We also have local honey (made by bees at our orchard) and organic seedlings from Peas and Harmony.

Plums & Black Amber Plum Pie

We have many kinds of plums right now, each of them slightly different. We just picked the first green Kelsey. Kelsey is a large, sweet and tart juicy green plum. Later in the season Kelsey's start to turn yellowish and pink inside near the skin, and they lose any tartness.

At the fruit stand we have Black Amber, Friar, Kelsey, Eldorado and Laroda varieties, and still some Santa Rosa and Satsuma plums, too.

Here's a recipe for Black Amber or Friar plum pie
that's delicious and very easy to make. The filling has only four ingredients.

Black Amber or Friar Plum Pie

4 ½ cups Black Amber plums, unpeeled and sliced

1 cup Sugar

¼ cup Tapioca

¼ tsp. Almond Extract

Mix all ingredients and let stand 15 minutes. Pour into pie crust, top with 1 tablespoon diced butter, put on top pie crust, and sprinkle with a bit of sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 400 degrees until bubbly - 45 to 50 minutes.

The photo above shows black amber plums.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Lots of Peaches


We now have lots of peaches at the fruit stand, including a lot of "seconds". Seconds are second quality fruit, with blemishes or other problems, sold at a lower price. Seconds are a good deal if you plan to cut up the fruit anyway, like for baking or making jam. Many varieties of plums are at the fruit stand now, too. This weekend, we picked Gravensteins, the first apples of the year. Gravensteins are an early tart green apple with red streaks.

Here's what we have at the fruit stand now:

Fruit:

  • Peaches--yellow freestone varieties (Red Haven, Regina, Early Suncrest, Flavorcrest) and white varieties (Sugar Lady, Nectar, Koyama's donut peach)
  • Plums--Frontier, Santa Rosa, Satsuma, Black Amber
  • Apples--Gravenstein
Vegetables:
  • Tomatoes (regular and cherry), Tomatillos
  • Eggplant--Japanese and Rosa Bianca
  • Beans--green string beans
  • Cucumber--Japanese, Armenian and lemon
  • Zucchini--Dark Green, Golden, Scallopini, yellow crookneck and yellow straightneck
  • Swiss Chard
  • Herbs--Basil (Genovase and lettuce leaf), Oregano, Rosemary
  • Garlic, Onions
We also have honey (made by bees at our orchard) and organic seedlings from Peas and Harmony.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Bees in the Bee Balm

Here is a short video clip of bee activity in a blooming stand of lavender bee balm in my garden. The bee balm has been really busy with bees and butterflies since it bloomed a week or so ago. Watch closely and you can see big bumblebees and smaller honey bees visiting the blossoms. At the end of the clip you can hear our rooster Ozzie crowing.

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