GAZPACHO

Every summer about this time of the year, my mother would surprise us with a big bowl of her fresh and fragrant gazpacho soup. At the farm we always had a supply of tomato seconds to use in some creative way.  My mother would cut out the bad parts and stew the tomatoes till they were soft and the juice came out.  Then she cooled and strained them and collected the juice.  She used this thin flavorful juice as a base for gazpacho.  At the orchard we now have a good supply of tomatoes, tomato seconds, tender crisp cucumbers, sweet peppers, fresh basil, oregano and heads of garlic.  For my batch of gazpacho I was lucky enough to still have a sweet red onion from Lisa Pilz at Hillcrest Orchard farmer's market stand. I sliced the onion and soaked it in cold water for five minutes to remove the heat.  It added a nice flavor to the mix.  I know there are many recipes for gazpacho but here is ours.

5  med.  tomatoes, peeled,seeded and chopped
3  med. cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped
           (our Asian cucumbers are seedless)
2  sweet peppers seeded and chopped
1/2  cup sliced sweet red onions
1/8   cup minced parsley, or oregano
1/4   cup minced fresh basil
3    cups tomato juice
1/2 cup olive oil
3  Tblsp. red wine vinegar
2   cloves of garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 Tblsp lemon juice
1/2  tsp hot pepper sauce if desired

Prepare tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and onions as directed.  Mash the garlic with salt then stir into vegetables. Add remainder of the ingredients and mix together.  Refrigerate covered at least 2 hours or overnight.

Taste and adjust seasoning.  Serve cold.

What is available in the farm stand:
Tomatoes:  Slicing, Heirloom, salad, Roma, cherry tomatoes and tomato seconds
Cucumbers:  Asian, lemon, Armenian
Other Veggies:  Okra, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, summer squash, zucchini, shallots, garlic, basil. and Rosemary
Peaches:  Yellow, white, and cling
Plums:  Laroda, Eldorado
Pluots:  Dapple Dandy, Flavorking
Apples:  Gala
Honey, Jams and salve
Sunnyslope Farm is bringing us yellow peaches:  Elegant Lady, Suncrest,  and pluots: Candy Stripe

FRESH PRODUCE FOR A HOT SUMMER

         It is the middle of summer.  It has been very hot and some of our produce are getting too much sun.  Many varieties of white and yellow freestone peaches and yellow and red fleshed plums are showing up at the farm stand along with cucumbers and tomatoes.
        The shell of our walk in refrigerator is up and we are using the cool room.  Through all this heat, Tosh continues to make progress on the remodel.  Yeah!  Much to the relief of our produce.


       Here is what is available at the farm stand.
Yellow Peaches:  Suncrest, Gene Elberta, Delight, Frost, and Loring
White Peaches:  Sugar Lady, Babcock, Nectar, and Silver Logan
Plums:   Frontier, Burgundy, Duarte, Laroda, Kelsey, Satsuma, Black Amber,
                and Tulare Prune
Pluots:  Dapple Dandy
Wild Blackberries
Vegetables:  Summer Squash, Tomatoes, Cherry tomatoes, Asian Cucumbers,
               Lemon cucumbers, Armenian cucumbers, Sweet peppers, Shishito
               peppers, Japanese eggplant, okra, long beans, green beans, basil,
               garlic, and shallots 
Also available:  Local honey, jam, salve, and firewood.
From Sunnyslope Farm:  Gene Elberta peaches, and Suncrest peaches

Farm Stand in July 2017

      July at Otow Orchard means peaches, plums,and wild blackberries.  Soon to arrive will be pluots, white peaches, nectarines, tomatoes, and eggplant.
      Due to all the rain this spring during blossom season, the stone fruit crop will be light.  Don't miss out.
       Wild blackberries are already coming into the fruit stand.  They may be seedy but they are full of flavor and juice.  They are usually available only in the month of July.
       Many customers are asking about tomatoes. There are many green tomatoes hanging on the vines.  They are slowly starting to ripen.  I am hoping to have a good supply by mid July.

Thank you for putting up with all the dust, noise and mess during our cool room remodel project.  Thank you for all the encouraging words.  We are not finished but were able to turn on the unit on Sunday.  It was a welcome change in temperature for the harvested fruit.



Currently available in the farm stand:
Peaches: yellow freestone Red Haven, Flavorcrest, Regina
Plums:  Santa Rosa, Satsuma, Frontier, Burgandy
Vegetables:  Summer squash, Asian cucumbers, long beans, peppers
                     Lovejoy Farm: onions, garlic
Sunnyslope Farm :  yellow freestone peaches
Otow Orchard honey
Good Stuff Jams
Eggs from pastured chickens
Calendula salve and lip balm

First Summer Fruits

Loquats on the Tree

The first peaches and plums are now at the fruit stand.  We have juicy red beaut plums and early yellow peaches.  We started picking zucchini and summer squash, too.

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

• Peaches:  Spring Crest, May Crest, Sweet Crest
• Plums:  Red Beaut
• Loquats
• Ume (Japanese plum)
• Lemons:  Eureka
• Oranges:  Valencia
• Mulberries:  Pakistani and Persian
• Honey
• Free-Range Local Eggs
• Jam from The Good Stuff

Tomato Plant Sale & Orchard Update

Chickens in one of the Gardens

In the orchard we have been testing and adjusting irrigation, hand thinning fruit from the peach and Asian pear trees and getting the gardens ready for planting.   Because of all the rain, the orchard is lush and green this year.  All the rain has been good for the trees, but it has meant a lot of mowing and weeding.

We have extra tomato plants that we grew by seed that are not needed in our gardens, so we're putting them for sale at the fruit stand.  The plants are grown in a mix of organic potting soil and our garden soil.  Varieties include Italian Roma, Mortgage Lifter, Pio Goliath, Red Brandywine, Hillbilly, Mandarin Cross, Pruden's Purple, Purple Cherokee, Berkeley Tie Dye, Bing Cherry and Sungold.

At the fruit stand we have:

• Fruit--Lemons, Dried peaches and figs,
• Vegetables--Mustard greens,Swiss chard, Peas
• Fresh Herbs--Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, Mint
• Jam--From Good Stuff Jam,
• Local free range chicken eggs
• Tomato Plants

March and April at the Fruit Stand

During March and April we are shortening the Fruit Stand's Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday hours.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday hours will remain the same.  Mondays we are closed.

March and April Fruit Stand Hours:
Tues., Wed., and Thurs.--11:30 AM-1:30 PM
Fri. and Sat.--10:00 AM-6:00 PM
Sun.--10:00 AM-5:00 PM
Mon.--Closed

If you'd like to stop by the fruit stand at another time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, please call us to arrange this.  We'll be at the orchard doing other orchard tasks and may be able to meet you.  We plan to be occupied planting trees, thinning fruit, fixing irrigation or working in the vegetable gardens during this time of year.

For sale at the fruit stand we now have Okusankichi Asian pears, navel oranges, yellow grapefruit, Eureka lemons, kiwi, hoshigaki strips, shelled walnuts, dehydrated peaches, jam from the Good Stuff and local free range chicken eggs. 

Closing 2016 Hoshigaki Mail Orders

We are now closing hoshigaki mail orders for the 2016 season because our supply of hoshigaki is almost all sold out.  However, if you are able to visit our fruit stand, we still have limited amounts of hoshigaki for sale.

Look for the 2017 order form on our website this coming September. It's always best to get orders in as soon as possible, since the amount we are able to make each year fluctuates.  Making hoshigaki is very weather dependent.  The amount of fruit the trees produce varies as well as the weather conditions that help or hinder the drying process.

For sale now at our fruit stand we have ripe hachiya persimmons, softening maru (chocolate) persimmons, Satusuma mandarins, okusankichi Asian pears, kiwi, pecans, walnuts, The Good Stuff Jam and persimmon cookbooks.  

Hoshigaki Orders Open Again

We are again accepting new orders for hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmons).  If you would like to order hoshigaki through mail order, please send it in to us as soon as possible, since we know we have a very limited supply.

We will fill orders as soon as possible, but mail orders received after December 15th may not arrive in time for Christmas. If you're ordering hoshigaki as a Christmas gift, we recommend notifying the recipient of the order and letting them know that their gift should arrive soon.

Hoshigaki is also still for sale at our fruit stand in limited amounts. If you'd like to pick up more than a few pounds of hoshigaki at our fruit stand, please call us to reserve some.

Hoshigaki Orders and Waiting List

Obaachan Massaging Persimmons

We are sorry to say that we can no longer take any new mail orders for this season's hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmon).  Our supply was smaller this season and we need to be sure we can fill the orders we have already received. The last few years of drought made it difficult for our trees to produce as much fruit as they used to. We hope that this year's rain will improve the health of our trees so they can produce more persimmons next fall.  If you'd like to be on the waiting list to mail order hoshigaki (in the event that we do have any left after filling all our orders), please email us to let us know. 

At our fruit stand, we are still selling limited amounts of grade A hoshigaki.  Grade A is soft hoshigaki, but not quite as soft as the premium grade that we send through mail order.   If you'd like to order more than a few pounds of grade A hoshigaki to pick up at our fruit stand, please call us to reserve some. You can also call and ask to be on the waiting list for picking up premium grade hoshigaki at the fruit stand (if we do have a supply left after filling orders). 

Mandarins and Hoshigaki Orders

We now have Satsuma mandarins for sale at our fruit stand.  Satsuma Mandarins are sweet, juicy, easy to peel and usually seedless.  Last week we stopped peeling persimmons for drying to make hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmon).  We picked all of the hachiyas suitable for peeling, so what we have in the drying process now will constitute the rest of this year's supply.

If you'd like to order hoshigaki, please order as soon as you can because it looks like this year the supply will be limited.  You can order hoshigaki either through our mail order form or by calling to reserve hoshigaki to pick up at the fruit stand.

Here's what's at the Fruit Stand now:

• Persimmons--Fuyu, Hachiya (soft), Maru (chocolate), Vodka-treated Hyakume, Hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmons)
• Mandarins--Owari Satsuma variety
• Asian pears--Okusankichi
• Apples--Fuji, Granny Smith
• Pomegranate-- White variety with sweet pink arils
• Walnuts and Pecans
• Winter squash--Butternut
• Herbs--Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, Lemon Balm
• Bee products from bees at our orchard--raw honey, 100% beeswax candles
• Jam--The Good Stuff jams made with fruit from our orchard
• Eggs--Free-range local chicken eggs
• Placer County Master Gardeners Calendars 
• Perfectly Persimmon Cookbook by Jean Brine

Rainy Weather

The recent rains are good for the orchard, but difficult for drying hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmons).  We've still been trying to dry as many persimmons as possible lately though, despite the rainy weather. The dampness has slowed the drying process and all the inside rooms are full of racks of peeled persimmons.  We hope to get more of the hoshigaki out in the sun during this week. 

We're still peeling persimmons to start new hoshigaki because the persimmons are still hard enough to peel.  Sometime in the next few weeks  we'll need to stop peeling because the persimmons will either be mostly too ripe to dry well or the weather will be too cool or damp for them to dry well. Right now we're still taking orders for pick up at the fruit stand or mail order. 

Some of the first of this season's hoshigaki has finished so we have limited quantities for sale at our fruit stand. If you'd like to pick up more than a pound of hoshigaki at our fruit stand (when we have more available) it's a good idea to call ahead.  If you live within driving distance picking up an order at the fruit stand may be worthwhile economically.

There are lots of crisp fuyu persimmons at the fruit stand still.  We have fuyus for sale by the pound or by the bag.  Fuyus are sweet and ready to eat when they're hard.  We also have hachiya and gyombo persimmons,  which must be very soft to be sweet.  Other persimmons we have are maru (or chocolate persimmon) and hyakume (or cinnamon persimmon).  Maru and hyakume are pollination variant type persimmons, which means they're sweet and ready to eat hard if they're pollinated.  We also have vodka-treated hyakume, which is always sweet and ready to eat when hard, because of the vodka treatment.

Also at the fruit stand we have Granny Smith, Fuji, Reinette Simerenko and Pippen apples, white and red varieties of pomegranate, Shinko and Olympic Asian pears, walnuts, eggs, Good Stuff Jam, and two different persimmon cookbooks for sale. 

More Fuyu

Fuyu Persimmons

We harvested a lot more fuyu persimmons from the orchard this week.  Now we have bags of fuyus available at the fruit stand.  Fuyu are the variety of persimmons that are sweet when hard like an apple, you don't need to wait for them to become soft to eat them.

The fruit stand also has hachiya persimmons that are soft and ripe.  Hachiyas are a variety  of persimmon that must be the texture of jello to eat fresh, then they are one of the sweetest varieties.  A hard, unripe hachiya has tannic acid will dry out your mouth. You can also still make orders to pick up hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmons) at our fruit stand, or order hoshigaki through mail order.

Recently, the website Cropmobster (Sacramento County Region) posted a resource alert about our orchard.  This website works as an online community exchange platform and social alert service for broadcasting food and agricultural needs and offers.  Cropmobster also posted an alert about reducing persimmon waste called, "Honor the Persimmon!  Let's Save & Share Them This Season".  There are useful resources about persimmons at the end of the post, too.