Otow Orchard on California Country

We will be featured on an episode of "California Country" that's showing this week on ABC television stations throughout California. The episode features some of the different types of persimmons we grow, the orchard and our family. It will be shown locally on KXTV channel 10 Sacramento on Friday, Jan. 22 at 11:30 AM.  The episode is also about celery, brussel sprouts and winter gardens.  Click here for a link to the website.  California Country magazine also did a very good article about hoshigaki (dried persimmons) at our orchard a few years ago.  Click here for the link to the article.

At the fruit stand we now have small amounts of hoshigaki for sale.  We finished sending out mail orders, called people on the waiting lists and found that we actually have a little bit of hoshigaki left.  Mandarins are gone, but we now have clementines, navel oranges, grapefruit, lemons, apples, kiwi and soft persimmons. 

Winter Transition Time

Last week we picked the first grapefruit and naval oranges.  These are the last two fruits of the winter that we'll be picking. As these last citrus fruits are ripening at the orchard, the blossoms on the ume trees are about to pop.  Ume is a small, sour Japanese plum, and one of the first spring fruits.   We expect the late spring/early summer fruits such as ume, loquat, cherries, and apricots in May. 

The last few sticks of hoshigaki are drying on the racks and we are trying to get the last orders packed and sent out.  Most of the persimmons are soft now, so the week and the next will probably be the last few weeks we'll have any available.  

Here's what you'll find at the fruit stand:

• Mandarins--owari satsuma
• Oranges--navel
• Grapefruit--white variety
• Lemons--Meyer, Eureka 
• Persimmons--hachiya (soft), fuyu (softening)
• Asian Pear--okusankichi
• Kiwi
  
• Apples--fuji, pippin
• Eggs
• Honey--raw, untreated honey from bees at our orchard
  
• Firewood--seasoned firewood (peach, plum, pear, persimmon)