Giant Tomato

We still have tomatoes growing, but none as big as the one in the picture to the left. This was one of the biggest of this year, and it weighed quite a bit over a pound. Right now we have a lot of eggplant and bitter melon coming in, too.


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

• Plums--Cassleman, Late Duarte
  
• Asian pear--2oth Century, New Century, Hosui, Shinko
• Apples--Red Delicious
  
• Bartlett pears
• Melons--Ambosia
  
• Figs--white and black
  
• Tomatoes (regular and cherry), tomatillos, eggplant, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, summer squash, bitter melon, peppers (sweet and hot), basil (Genovase and lettuce leaf), garlic, onions
• Honey-from bees at our orchard
• Organically grown seedlings from Peas and Harmony

At the Fruit Stand

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

• Peaches--Faye Elberta, Rio Oso Gem, O'Henry
  
• Plums--Elephant Heart, , Laroda, Eldorado, Kelsey, Cassleman, Late Duarte
  
• Asian pear--2oth Century, New Century, Hosui
• Bartlett pears
• Melons--Ogen, Ambosia, Break Fast
  
• Figs--white and black
  
• Tomatoes (regular and cherry), tomatillos, eggplant, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, summer squash, bitter melon, peppers (sweet and hot), Swiss chard, basil (Genovase and lettuce leaf), garlic, onions
• Honey-from bees at our orchard
• Organically grown seedlings from Peas and Harmony

In the photo above is a dragon fly that landed on the top of a tomato cage in my garden. For a few weeks this summer there were a lot of this type of golden spotted dragon fly around the orchard. They seem to like to land on the tomato cages and on tall stakes in the gardens.

Elephant Heart Plums & the Ark of Taste

In the box above are elephant heart plums. They're large, heart-shaped, sweet-sour and juicy with mottled red and green skin and pink to dark red flesh. Elephant heart is an heirloom variety of plum that is part of Slow Food's USA's "Ark of Taste". Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste "aims to rediscover and catalogue forgotten flavors by documenting excellent food products that are in danger of disappearing".

Our orchard happens to grow quite a few fruits and vegetables that are included in the Ark of Taste. Besides elephant heart plums, we currently have Laroda plums, Rio Oso Gem peaches, and Faye Elberta peaches. To see all of what we grow from the Ark of Taste, click here to go to our Local Harvest listing, and scroll down to the Ark of Taste list at the bottom of the page.

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