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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

June in the Garden

During the first few weeks of June we harvested our garlic. This year's crop seems to have grown quite well, despite having planted it later this year, (in the beginning of November). Some of the varieties we grew were Spanish roja, Chinese Hardneck, Music, Chesnok Red, Germidor and Oregon Blue. I cleaned some of the first garlic that was pulled and dried, and some is for sale now in the fruit stand.

Our garlic is grown in wire-lined raised beds in the garden to prevent gophers from getting in. After pulling out the garlic, I planted pumpkins in the beds. The pumpkins should be ready for harvest in September or October, and then the wire-lined beds can be planted again. We also planted winter squash and gourds in the gardens for the Fall.

Some of the tomato plants have gotten as tall as us or taller, so it was time to help support their cages by connecting them together with rope and tying them to T-posts. Only a few tomatoes have gotten ripe so far, but the vines are full of green tomatoes on the edge of turning pink. Since the weather has become hot and the tomatoes are ripening, we have had to hang sheets or agribon on the side of the plants that faces the hot afternoon sun. This helps protect the tomatoes from sun scald. Hopefully during the first week of July we'll have enough ripe tomatoes to begin selling them at the fruit stand. The tomatoes are ready later than usual this year, maybe because of the cool weather and late rain that came in the beginning of the month.

During June the zucchini and summer squash started producing (much more than we needed), and cucumbers have been producing well, too. Yellow string beans are probably going to be finished by the end of the month, but green string beans are just beginning. Right now blooming catnip, bee balm, lemon balm, lavander, borage and buckwheat are attracting many kinds of bees to the gardens. Bees are also visiting squash, tomato and cucumber and other vegetable flowers. Since this spring we've continued to have cotton tail rabbits around the orchard, too. When I walk out to the garden lately, sometimes I see one running out of the garden and into the black berry bushes. A rabbit has tried to make burrows in the cucumbers and squash, but as far as I can tell it hasn't eaten much yet. Maybe it just wants a cool place to be out of the sun.

Above is a photo of a wheelbarrow full of garlic just pulled out from the garden.

Santa Rosa Plums & Peaches

Santa Rosa plums are now ready at the orchard. Santa Rosas are very fragrant, sweet and tart, with yellow flesh and dark red to purple skin. They are an old variety, and a lot of people's favorite. We now also have a good supply of peaches. Earlier we had to limit the number that could be bought, but the limit is off now. If you want apricots, try to get to the fruit stand soon, because we have now picked almost all of them.

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

• Plums--Santa Rosa, Frontier, Black Amber, Satsuma
  
• Peaches--May Crest, June Crest, Bon Jour, Red Haven
  
• Nectarines--Jade white nectarine
  
• Apricots--almost finished
  
• Cherries--Bing
• Grapefruit--white variety
• Vegetables--zucchini (green, yellow, striped cocozelle, crookneck, scallopini), string beans (yellow), cucumbers, eggplant (Japanese), herbs (basil, rosemary, oregano, onions (large red and white), garlic
  
• Honey--bigger sizes now, (from bees living at our orchard)
• Organic vegetable seedlings--from Peas and Harmony

First Peaches, Zucchini & Herbs

The first peaches and vegetables are ready! We now have Spring Crest and May Crest peaches at the fruit stand. The first varieties of peaches are not usually as sweet as the later varieties, and not quite as large. We also have a lot of zucchini growing, both the striped cocozelle and dark green zucchini. Herbs are ready to pick, too. We have basil, rosemary, oregano, and other herbs like lemon balm and cat nip. If you come to the fruit stand, just ask and we can go pick a bunch of herbs from the gardens.

The weather has been unusually cool in the past few weeks for this time of year. We even had rain a few times last week, and a thunder showers. This week so far has been cool and actually foggy in the mornings. It's nice weather to work in, but we're waiting to see how it will affect the fruits and the vegetables.

In the fruit stand now we have:

• Peaches--Spring Crest and May Crest
• Apricots--seconds
• Cherries--Bing, Royal Ann
• Loquat--also called biwa
• Grapefruit--white variety
• Lemons--Eureka
• Vegetables--zucchini (dark green, cocozelle), string beans (green and yellow), herbs (basil, rosemary, oregano)
• Honey--bigger sizes now, (from bees living at our orchard)
• Organic vegetable seedlings--from Peas and Harmony

Loquat & Cherries

The first summer fruits have ripened! Along with the grapefruit and lemons we have had since winter, we now have loquat (or biwa) and cherries. We had a light crop of cherries this year though, so they probably won't last very long.

At the fruit stand we now have:
Cherries--Bing, Royal Ann, Black Tartarian
Loquat--also called biwa, a juicy, sweet yellow-orange fruit (not related to kumquats) that grows in clusters. Inside in the middle are two large brown seeds.
Grapefruit--white variety
Lemons--Eureka
Honey--from bees living at our orchard
Organic vegetable seedlings--from Peas and Harmony

Above is a photo of the biwa tree at the orchard.

How to Make Tomato Cages

At the orchard we have really sturdy and strong tomato cages for our gardens that we make ourselves out of concrete reinforcing wire (or mesh). The cages last for many seasons and are tall enough to support even the bushiest indeterminate tomato plants. Last year Toshio made some new ones and we took photos so we could better share how to make them. Click here to go to a photos and detailed instructions on how to make your own tomato cages from a roll of concrete reinforcing wire.

Above is a photo of one of the gardens this year, showing tomato cages we made.

Persimmon Flowers and the Fruit Stand

Persimmon trees are in bloom, and buzzing with bees. At left is a photo of a bee visiting persimmon flowers.

For sale at the fruit stand now we have grapefruit, lemons, honey from our bees, eggs from our chickens and organic vegetable seedlings from Peas and Harmony. Right now is the time of year we have the least amount of produce in season. By the end of the month we expect to have the first fruits of Spring, such as cherries, apricots, loquat and the first plums.