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.

Fuyu

Right now the orchard is full of trees with fuyu persimmons turning from light to darker orange.  Fuyu persimmons are a type of persimmon that can be eaten when they're firm.  You don't have to wait for them to get soft to eat them (like the Hachiya variety), they're sweet and non-astringent when they're hard.

At the orchard we have a four different varieties of fuyu persimmons.  We have  Jiro, Izu, Giant fuyu, and an older original round fuyu.  In general, the fuyu varieties taste similar but have slightly different shapes and sizes.  Jiro, Izu and Giant Fuyu are squarish with four separate sections.  The older original round fuyu is rounded with a sharp tip at the end.   In the photo above you can see the round type of fuyu at the very left, next to one of the square types.  At the right is a Hachiya persimmon.


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

• Persimmons--Lots of Fuyu and Maru and limited quantities of Hachiya and vodka-treated Hyakume
• Apples--Golden Delicious, Fuji, Mutsu, Granny Smith, Pippen
• Asian Pear--Olympic and Okusankichi
• Pomegranate--white variety
• Quince
• Jujube
• Vegetables--tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, zucchini,  tomatillos
• Winter Squash--Red Kuri, Butternut, Delicata, Acorn, Kabocha, Spaghetti
• Pumpkins and Gourds--at the fruit stand or pick your own in the pumpkin patch
• Eggs--from chickens at our orchard
• Honey--from bees at our orchard

Jujube, Gourds & the Fruit Stand

This year seemed to be a good year for Jujube.  Although we have only a few jujube trees, each has a big crop of fruit, so we have lots of jujube at the fruit stand.  The photo at the left shows ripe jujube.  You can eat jujube when they're light brown and crunchy, or when they get darker reddish brown and drier and their flavor is more concentrated.  We've also been picking olives over the past few weeks and have most of them curing now. We now have Quince and white pomegranate at the fruit stand, too.

Last week the first Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers club delivery happened at the orchard.  Through the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club you can order local meat, poultry and eggs online, then pick up your order at our orchard or at one of the other locations in Placer County.  The new order form for October is now online.  The delivery date for the orchard is Friday, Oct. 22nd.  Orders need to be received by the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club by Monday, Oct. 18th at 5:00 PM.

This coming Sunday, Oct. 10th is Placer Farm and Barn Tour.  Placer Farm and Barn tour is a tour of nine working family farms and vineyards in placer county with demonstrations, art, music and activities at the various sites.  Otow Orchard isn't a featured site this year, but a few of us are going to help at Pine Valley Ranch in Auburn.   To buy tickets for the Placer Farm and Barn Tour, click here.  We'll have the fruit stand at the orchard open from 10-5 as usual that day.   


At the left is a photo of a volunteer gourd plant that grew up the side of the tomato cages in my garden.  This one plant produced over 30 gourds, (more than any plant that I actually planted by seed myself).  We have gourds and pumpkins for sale at the fruit stand now.  We have a pumpkin patch to pick your own pumpkins in again this year, too. 

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

• Apples--Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Mutsu
• Asian Pear--Shinseiki, New Century  (yellow varieties) and Shinko, Yoi, Olympic (brown varieties),
• European Pear--D'Anjou
• Plums--Casselman
• Figs--Black Mission, brown variety
• Pomegranate--white variety
• Quince
• Jujube
• Grapes--Thompson seedless, Kyoho
• Vegetables--tomatoes, eggplant, sweet peppers, hot peppers, zucchini, summer squash, tomatillos, red torpedo onions, herbs
• Winter Squash--Red Kuri, Butternut, Delicata, Acorn, Kabocha, Spaghetti
• Pumpkins and Gourds--at the fruit stand or pick your own in the pumpkin patch
• Eggs--from chickens at our orchard
• Honey--from bees at our orchard

2010 Hoshigaki Orders

We have the new 2010 order form for hoshigaki (dried persimmons) up on this web site now.  If you'd like to order hoshigaki to be sent to you by mail, please order as soon as you can, because we fill your order according to when it was placed.  You can find the order form under the "Hoshigaki/Persimmons" tab at the top of the page. To make an order by mail, print out the order form and mail it to us with a check.  Sorry, we don't take credit cards. 

If you'd like to pick up an order of hoshigaki at the fruit stand, you don't have to fill out the online order form.  To arrange to pick up an order at the fruit stand, please email us and tell us what amount you'd like.  We'll either write to you or call you back and tell you when we expect it would be ready.  If you're able to come out to the orchard yourself to pick up an order, you don't have to pay for shipping, and you can also buy smaller amounts than a pound. 

It's important to keep in mind that the process of making hoshigaki is weather dependant.  Since we don't know how much sun and heat we get, we don't know ahead of time how much hoshigaki  we'll be able to produce.  The fruit may ripen more or less quickly and we never know when it will get too soft to peel.  In the past few years we've had to stop taking new orders sometime in December.  We'll post here on the web site when we can no longer take orders this year.

In the orchard, the persimmons on the trees are starting to have blushes of orange.   When they have color, but are still hard, we can start peeling them for making hoshigaki (dried persimmons).  It seems like it will be a few more weeks before we will be ready to start peeling the first persimmons, but we'll have to wait and see what the weather brings.  After we begin,  it will take around 6 weeks for the peeled persimmons to dry and become hoshigaki. 

In the photo above you can see fresh, unpeeled hachiya persimmons next to hoshigaki in its finished state.  The skin has been peeled, but nothing has been added.  The white powder on the outside is natural sugar from inside the fruit that forms on the surface towards the end of the drying process.   

Between Peaches and Persimmons

Right now we are between peach and persimmon seasons, which are the two busiest times of the year.  There have been a few weeks of relative quietness at the orchard, giving us time to catch up on some projects.  Tosh has spent time lately re-modeling a part of the fruit stand building to make more more room for drying persimmons inside and to have an improved public restroom.   He also dug out a spot at the edge of my garden with the back hoe for a new garlic bed.

To make a new garlic bed, I had to make a liner with aviary wire, then fill it back in with layers of compost and soil.  We plant the garlic only in the beds lined with wire this way, because otherwise gophers get in and eat most of the garlic.  Ideally, garlic shouldn't be planted in the same place for three years, so each year we should be making wire-lined beds for it to be rotated into until we have enough space.  We hadn't had time to make new beds for the garlic to be rotated into for a few years though, and it seemed like this year's garlic didn't grow as well.  Hopefully this year will be better.

In the photo below you can see the wire liner in the ground, just as it was beginning to be filled in.  If you look closely, at the edge of the bed you can see a big difference between the dusty decomposed granite soil that was dug out and the dark fluffy compost.  The soil and compost is all filled in now, so this coming weekend we can plant the garlic.