Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Happy New Year

An old metal tag left in a persimmon tree.
The fruit stand will be closed for New Year's on January 1st and 2nd.   We'll open again on Tuesday, January 3rd, with regular hours.  We remain open through out the winter and spring, from 9-6 Tuesday through Saturday, and 10-5 on Sunday.  Mondays we are closed.

We're still have hoshigaki for sale at the fruit stand, as well as through mail order.  When we stop taking orders we'll post it here on the website.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Mandarins & Persimmons

Chris and her son Toshio check which persimmons
are ready for massaging.
We have owari satsuma mandarins now at the Fruit stand. Owari satsuma mandarins are sweet, juicy and usually seedless with a thin, easy to peel skin. The crop was ready later than usual, like most of the other types of fruit have been this year. 

We're still taking orders for hoshigaki through mail order and for pick up at the fruit standIf you'd like to pick up more than a pound of hoshigaki at the fruit stand, please call us ahead of time.  

We stopped peeling new persimmons late last week because most of the hachiya had gotten too soft to peel.  Since we're not able to peel and start any new persimmons for the hoshigaki drying process, the persimmons left drying now make up the end of this year's hoshigaki supply.  In the colder weather, the persimmons take longer to dry, so we expect to be drying these last persimmons at least into the middle of January.  Next year sometime in October we'll begin the process again. 

Around the fruit stand we've been very busy taking care of numerous customers and massaging and packaging hoshigaki.  Out in the orchard most of the fruit besides the citrus has been picked and winter pruning and irrigation repair work has started.  If you come and take a walk through the  orchard you'll see flocks of geese and other birds visiting the trees trying to find un-picked persimmons.  Wind and cold weather has made most of the leaves drop, so you can see through the bare trees down to the strawberry field. 

Here's what's at the fruit stand now:
  • Mandarins--owari satsuma
  • Persimmons--Fuyu, Maru & Nagamaru (chocolate), Vodka-treated Hyakume, Hachiya, Gyombo, Hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmon)
  • Apples--Pippen, Granny Smith
  • Pomegranate--white variety
  • Winter Squash--butternut, kabocha, red kuri, buttercup, spaghetti squash, pie pumpkin 
  • Local Honey--from bees at our orchard & star thistle honey from Lincoln
  • Perfectly Persimmon Cookbook--1004 persimmon recipes by Jean Brine
  • Placer County Real Food Cookbook--by Joanne Neft and Laura Kenny
  • 2012 Master Gardeners Calender
  • Eggs

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Christmas Hoshigaki, Local Trees & Meat


We can't guarantee Christmas delivery on any hoshigaki mail orders postmarked after December 1st.  We're still taking mail orders but we can't promise that we'll be able to ship out any new orders and have them arrive at the customer or gift recipient address by Dec. 25th.   If you want to give hoshigaki as a Christmas gift, an option would be to let the person know the order is in and request on the mail order form that we mail the order to the gift recipient directly.  We'll do everything  we can to get your order out as soon as possible.

Hoshigaki is still for sale at our fruit stand.  Please call ahead if you'd like to pick up more than a pound at one time so we can set it aside for you.  

The next delivery from the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club at our orchard will be Friday, Dec.  16th from 4:00-5:00. Orders must be sent in by 5:00 PM Friday, Dec. 9th.  Through the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club you can order local grass-fed, hormone free beef, lamb, pork and chicken, as well as eggs, honey, kiwi, mandarin products, and the Placer County Real Food Cookbook.  Orders are made online and then you choose one of four locations to pick up your order.  Locations are Otow Orchard (in Granite Bay), Sinclair Family Farm (in Penryn), Confluence Kitchen (in Auburn) and Community Ink (in Truckee).

The Koyama Tree Farm next door to the orchard is selling Christmas trees this coming weekend and the next only.  The dates are Dec. 3rd and 4th, and Dec. 10th and 11th.  Hours are from 9-4.  These are the only days they'll be open for the season.  You can choose and cut your own tree.  Info about their farm and other local Christmas tree farms is at the PlacerGrown website.

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