Local Meat, Eggs & Honey

"Blue", the Blue Orpington rooster.

The next delivery date for the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club is Friday, March  25th from 3:30-5:00.  Through the Meat Buyers Club you can order locally raised, hormone-free meat, eggs and honey online, then pick it up your order at the orchard.  There are other delivery sites in Placer County, too, if the orchard isn't convenient.  To order for the March 25th delivery,  your order must be sent in before 5:00 PM on Monday, March 21st.

New Trees & the Meat Buyers Club

In the photo above you can see young trees heeled into the soil that are waiting to be planted in the orchard.  We have about 70 fruit trees of various kinds to plant, so we've been looking for spots for them and digging holes for them in the orchard.  Our orchard is very mixed, with different types and varieties of fruit trees all interplanted.  It's this way because over the years we've been replacing individual dying trees rather than pulling out large blocks of trees and starting with new ones of all the same type and size.

Out in the orchard right now, the pluot and apricot trees are in bloom and most of the peach and plum trees are full of blossoms about to pop.  This week we're supposed to wind and rainy weather, so after that orchard should be mostly in bloom and beautiful to visit. 
 
The next delivery date for the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club is Friday, Feb. 25th from 3:30-5:00.  Through the Meat Buyers Club you can order locally raised, hormone-free meat and eggs online, then pick it up your order at the orchard.  There are other delivery sites in Placer County, too, if the orchard isn't convenient.  To order for the Feb. 25th delivery,  your order must be sent in before 5:00 PM on Monday, February 21st.

Hoshigaki & other fruit at Fruit Stand

This past weekend, Chris took down the very last two pair of hoshigaki that were drying and got them ready to pack.  We've been dealing with the process of drying persimmons since we started peeling the first ones for hoshigaki at the beginning of October, and only now just finished with the last few.  We still have hoshigaki available to order through mail order, and for sale at the fruit stand. 

The newest fruits in season and for sale at the fruit stand are blood oranges and grapefruit.  Other fruits we have are navel oranges, Eureka and Meyer Lemons, Satsuma mandarins and kiwi.  We expect that we'll be out of honey until at least April.  April is  the earliest time honey may be able to be harvested from the bees again, since they're not producing any extra right now in the cold weather.  The chickens have been laying eggs though, so we have eggs at the fruit stand.

Winter is Part of the Cycle

We've had a lot of fog and drizzle lately at the orchard, as you can see in the photo at the left. The birds have eaten the last persimmons left on the trees and the ume plum blossoms are just about to pop open.

At the fruit stand we have lots of juicy mandarins and now navel oranges, too.  The soft persimmons are still in supply, as well as kiwi and Meyer lemon.  Hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmon) is still for sale at the fruit stand and through mail order.  The very last hoshigaki we started are almost finished drying. 

The next delivery date for the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club is this coming Friday, Feb. 4th from 3:30-5:00.  Through the Meat Buyers Club you can order locally raised, hormone-free meat and eggs online, then pick it up at the orchard.  There are other delivery sites in Placer County, too, if the orchard isn't convenient.  The last day to order for the Feb. 4th delivery is Monday, Jan. 31st by 5:00.

In the orchard we've been pruning the trees, digging out dying trees, and getting spots ready to plant new trees.  All the tomato plants have finally been pulled out in the gardens, just as we're getting ready to start new ones by seed.  The mobile chicken dome is now in the area of the garden where the future tomato seedlings should go in April.

Mandarins at the Fruit Stand

We now have Owari Satsuma mandarins for sale at the fruit stand. They're sweet, juicy, usually seedless and easy to peel. Mandarins were very late maturing this year and because of so much rain it's been hard to find a time when they're dry enough to pick.  We still have lots of persimmons too, including Hachiya, vodka-treated Hyakume and Fuyu.  The Fuyu persimmons are not crisp and hard anymore though, because it's so late in the season for them.  Although mail orders for hoshigaki are now being added to a waiting list, we still have small amounts of hoshigaki for sale at the fruit stand.


This week's Sacramento News and Review newspaper has an aricle called "Saveurs of the (almost) Lost Ark" about hoshigaki (dried persimmons) and the Slow Food Ark of Taste.  It features Otow Orchard and Penryn Orchard Specialties and talks about how farmers in our area have been trying to preserve the art of making hoshigaki.  Hoshigaki is part of the Slow Food Ark of Taste because it's considered a valuable and unique food in danger of not being produced anymore because of modern market pressures. 

On Saturday, Dec. 25th, the fruit stand will be closed for Christmas Day.

Hoshigaki Waiting List

Obaachan massaging with Mizuki, Frisbee and Mocha.

We're sorry to say that any new mail orders for hoshigaki (dried persimmons) for this season will have to be placed on a wait list.  We need to fill the orders we've already received and then check if we have any supply left over.

If you'd like to be placed on the hoshigaki wait list, please mail in the order form so we can get your information.  We'll then notify you when we know if we can fill your order.  We have almost 400 lbs. of hoshigaki orders to fill already, so it may take a while to get to the list if it's possible.

If you are able to come to the orchard, you can still buy small amounts of hoshigaki at the fruit stand.  At the fruit stand we have grades A and B, but not premium hoshigaki for sale.  Premium has the softest texture and is the grade that gets sold in mail orders. 

This year's hoshigaki season had a bit of a late start, and an early finish because of periods of rain and cold.  The freezing temperatures around Thanksgiving time and then the rain made us have to end peeling any more persimmons, so what's drying now is all we'll have for this year's supply.

Taking Care of the Kaki

A bucket of some of the last kaki peelings this season.

At the end of last week we finished peeling persimmons (kaki) to hang and dry for hoshigaki.  All the hachiya and gyombo persimmons we use for drying are now too soft to peel, and the weather is too damp and cold for beginning more to dry well.  The last kaki that got peeled may take twice as long to dry as those that began in the warmer weather.  Now we have to concentrate on taking care of the kaki left drying until they're finished.

We are selling small amounts of hoshigaki at the fruit stand, but if you'd like to pick up larger amounts (more than a few pounds), please call us ahead of time so we can reserve it for you (916-791-1656). At this time, we're still accepting mail orders also.  When we determine that we've received hoshigaki orders equivalent to our estimate of what's drying, we'll announce here that we've stopped taking mail orders for the season.  To order hoshigaki by mail, print out the order form from the Hoshigaki/Persimmons section of the website, and mail it in with a check. 

Colder weather makes the fuyu persimmons start to get soft too, so if you like harder fuyus try to come get them soon.  Our mandarins are not quite ready yet, they're ripening late this year.  We hope they'll be ready to pick and have at the fruit stand in a week or so.  

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

• Persimmons--Fuyu, Maru, Hachiya, vodka-treated Hyakume, and limited amounts of hoshigaki (dried persimmon)
  
• Apples--Granny Smith
• Asian Pear--Okusankichi (extra large juicy brown variety)
  
• Quince
• Walnuts--in the shell
• Pecans--in the shell
  
• Winter Squash--Butternut
• Pumpkins & Gourds--for decoration or eating
  
• Eggs--from chickens at our orchard
• Honey--from bees at our orchard

Local Meat, Eggs & Christmas Trees

Chickens out in the orchard under a fuyu tree.

Through the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club you can order local grass-fed lamb and beef, pastured poultry and organic eggs online, then pick up your order at our orchard or at one of the other locations in Placer County.  New this month are stewing hens and honey from Oregon House Farms.  The new order form for December is now online.  Pick up time at the orchard is Friday, Dec. 17th, from 3:30-5:00.  Orders need to be received by the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club by Monday, Dec. 13th at 5:00 PM.

The Koyama Tree Farm next door to the orchard is selling Christmas trees this coming weekend, Sat. Dec. 11th, and Sun. Dec. 12th.  Hours are from 9-4.  This is the second and last weekend they'll be open for the season.  You can choose and cut your own tree.  Info about their farm and other Christmas tree farms is at the PlacerGrown website.

How to Eat a Persimmon

Maru persimmons left in the tree, probably not yet eaten by birds because they're un-pollinated.

To eat a persimmon, you have to know what type you have and when you should eat it.  

Here are the three types of persimmons:

1.  Always sweet when firm--
This includes varieties of fuyu persimmons.  People usually eat fuyu type persimmons when they're firm, but you can eat this type of persimmon when it's soft, too if you like it that way.  Fuyu are sometimes called "apple persimmon" in stores because you can eat them firm like an apple. 

2.  Always astringent (puckery) when firm, only sweet when very soft--
This includes hachiya and gyombo varieties.  This type is always eaten when it's extremely soft.  It needs to be as soft as jello and with translucent skin before its astringency is gone and changed to sweetness.  If you eat this type of persimmon when it's not as soft as it should be, it gives your mouth a puckery feeling,  sometimes to the point that your mouth feels dried out with a lingering numbness like after having novocain.  If you've ever done this, you probably remember.  The astringency comes from tannic acid in the unripe persimmon, the same type of acid in green bananas and raw acorns.

3.  Pollination dependent (sweet when hard if pollinated, but if not pollinated are sweet only when very soft)--
This type includes maru (chocolate) and hyakume (cinnamon) varieties. If this type of persimmon has been pollinated, it is brown inside and the brown parts are sweet when the persimmon is firm.  If it wasn't pollinated, the persimmon will be yellow or orange inside and astringent until it's very soft.

How do you know when you can eat a pollination-dependent type of persimmon?  One option is to just wait until it's soft, so you know you can eat it whether or not it was pollinated.  Another option is to take a risk and cut one open when it's hard to check if it's been pollinated and is edible then.  You might find that it's brown inside and therefore sweet and delicious, or that it has no brown parts and now you've wasted the persimmon.  

If you know what to look for, you can see clues from this type of persimmon's shape and color that tell you if it's likely to be pollinated.  These clues are more visible on some varieties than others.  At the orchard we sell maru persimmons when they're firm because the clues to pollination are easier for some of us to tell, but we always explain to the customers that you never truly know how the persimmon is inside until you cut it open.    

Helen, who is over 90 years old and has dealt with persimmons all her life, is great at spotting pollinated marus, but she says that hyakume is more difficult to tell.  We treat hyakume persimmons with a little bit of vodka to change any astringency they might have to sweetness.  After being treated with vodka, the hyakume is always sweet and edible when it's firm.  For more detail about this, see the post "Hyakume & Maru Persimmons".

To make hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmon), we use the second type of persimmon, the type you eat fresh only when soft.  We peel hachiya or gyombo when the persimmon is hard and unripe, but with full color.  By the end of the drying process, all the astringency has changed to sweetness and some of its fructose has come to the surface as a powdery natural sugar.  Theoretically, you could peel and dry any of the three types of persimmons, but we only use this type.  Probably this is because the fuyu type is easy to eat fresh, and because pollination-dependent types of persimmons are more fibery and less sweet when dried.  Hachiyas and gyombos are larger, stay more orange and turn out to to be the sweetest and softest type to use to make hoshigaki.

Orchard News--Twin Peaks & Huell Howser

On Sunday, Nov. 14th, we will do a hoshigaki demonstration at Twin Peaks Orchard in Newcastle, as part of their Fall Harvest Open House event taking place there.  We'll bring drying persimmons in various stages to demonstrate and talk about the drying process.  Twin Peaks orchard is a nearby orchard that is also multi-generational and family-owned.  Twin Peaks started almost 100 years ago, around the same time as Otow Orchard, and our families have known each other since then.  Some of Twin Peaks' specialties are amagaki persimmons and peaches.

In other news, Huell Howser's California Gold will be showing its "Persimmons" episode again where Huell Howser visits Otow Orchard.  He talked to Helen, Chris and Tosh and filmed the orchard and learned about how we dry persimmons for hoshigaki.  The show will air on KVIE, our local PBS station on Nov. 18th at 9 PM, Nov. 20th at 5 AM and 4 PM and on Nov. 23rd at 7 PM.

Fruit at the Fruit Stand

The photo at the left is an Asian Pear gallette that Chris made using a recipe from Joanne Neft and Laura Kenny's Placer County Real Food cook book.  This is a seasonal cookbook that's very useful for finding ways to use local, seasonal produce.  Next to the gallette is an okusankichi Asian pear from the orchard.

It looks like most of the vegetables are finished for the season, since the colder nights lately have been freezing the plants in the gardens.   We still have lots of fruit though, with all the varieties of persimmons now ready.  We're starting to get a lot of softer hachiya persimmons, and we have vodka-treated hyakume, and a lot of fuyu of various sizes. Fuyu persimmons are for sale by the pound, box or 20 lb. bag.

Limited amounts of hoshigaki (dried persimmons) are now available for sale at the fruit stand, too.  If you'd like to buy a larger amount of hoshigaki, it's best to call us and order ahead to arrange for a pick up time.  Our phone number is 916-791-1656.  If you want to order hoshigaki to be sent to you by mail, you can print out the order form on our website and mail it in to us.

Here's what's for sale at the fruit stand now:

• Persimmons--Fuyu, Maru, Hachiya, vodka-treated Hyakume, and limited amounts of hoshigaki (dried persimmon)
  
• Apples--Fuji, Granny Smith
• Asian Pear--Okusankichi (extra large juicy brown variety)
  
• Pomegranate--red and white varieties
• Quince
• Walnuts--in the shell
  
• Winter Squash--Butternut, Acorn, Kabocha, Red Kuri, Spaghetti
• Gourds & Pumpkins--for fall decoration or eating
  
• Eggs--from chickens at our orchard
• Honey--from bees at our orchard

Hoshigaki & the Weather

Sticks of just-peeled kaki under the gyombo tree.

We have been peeling persimmons for hoshigaki (dried persimmons) for the past few weeks.   Each morning when we expect good weather, we take the freshly peeled sticks of hanging persimmons out of the buildings to dry in the sun.  When the persimmons are at the right texture, we massage them for the first time and then the sticks of persimmons usually stay in the buildings as they dry further.   

During the past three weeks we've had about a week of rainy days, so some of the persimmons have been inside the buildings for a longer time than usual.  Because of this some of the hoshigaki will take a bit longer than it sometimes does at the beginning of the season.  If the weather is very warm and dry in the early fall, the persimmons can take as little as 4 weeks to dry, but the average time is about 6 weeks. 

Since making hoshigaki is so weather dependent, we can only make a certain amount each year.  As the temperatures get colder, the persimmons eventually become too soft to peel.  Right now we're trying to peel as much as possible before this happens. After the persimmons get too soft, we'll have to take care of what's already been peeled and that's all the hoshigaki there will be for that season.  In the past few years we have sold out and had to stop taking orders sometime in December.  We're not sure when we'll have to stop peeling and taking orders this year yet, we just have to wait and see what happens with the weather. 

If you'd like to order hoshigaki to be sent by mail, click above on the "Hoshigaki/Persimmons" tab, or click here to go to directly to the order form.  We don't accept credit cards, so the order form has to be printed out and mailed in with a check.  If you'd like to pick up hoshigaki at the fruit stand in person, please call us to make an order.  Our phone number is (916) 791-7165.

If you come to the orchard you can see the hoshigaki drying process and take a walk in the orchard.  You can see trees with ripening persimmons and Asian pears, vegetable gardens, compost piles, chickens and a horse.  We're open Tuesday through Saturday from  9-6 and on Sunday from 10-5.  On Mondays the orchard is closed.