Busy with Hoshigaki

This past week the hoshigaki drying process slowed a bit because of a few days of rain and a string of foggy mornings.  As a result, the persimmons have filled up the drying rooms and we even ran out of sticks to hang the freshly peeled ones on.  Tosh has been making new drying racks and sticks to try to accomodate all the kaki. We converted the cool room that we use when it's  warmer for refrigeration into a drying room, so now we have all the possible inside rooms being used for drying.

The freshly peeled persimmons are first hung on sticks on the outside racks until they're  dry enough to massage.  Then the sticks are usually moved into the hot house, which is a small building used like a green house where we can open the doors and windows and and adjust the temperature and air circulation.  As the sticks of hoshigaki get dryer they're moved through two other drying rooms, then to the final drying and packing room.  In each room the hoshigaki are  massaged to help them dry evenly and remain soft. In the photo at the left you can see freshly peeled persimmons hung on sticks on the outside racks, the hot house is on the right.

Tosh making a new rack

We're still peeling persimmons to start new hoshigaki because the persimmons are still hard enough to peel.  Soon we'll need to stop peeling because the persimmons will either be mostly too ripe to dry well or the weather will be too cool or damp for them to dry well.  Right now we're still taking orders for pick up at the fruit stand or mail order. If you'd like to pick up more than a pound of hoshigaki at out fruit stand, it's a good idea to call ahead. 

When we need to stop taking orders we'll post it here on our web site. 

Fuyus & Hoshigaki

We've been very busy with persimmons lately.  We have boxes and boxes of fuyus and hachiyas that we have to find space for, and now the outside rack and inside drying rooms are filled with sticks of hoshigaki in various stages.  We're still peeling new hachiya and gyombo persimmons to dry, since there are some still hard enough to peel and the weather is still holding up for drying.   The trees are colorful with red, orange and yellow leaves, and it's a good time to visit and take a walk if you can.  It's probably the peak of fuyu persimmon season right now.  We have firm fuyus for sale by the bag at the fruit stand.  We're still taking mail orders for hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmon) and accepting orders by phone for pick up at the fruit stand.  If you'd like to buy more than a pound of hoshigaki it's a good idea to call ahead. 
 
Here's what's at the fruit stand now:

• Persimmons--Fuyu, Maru, vodka-treated Hyakume, Hachiya, Hoshigaki
• Apples--Fuji, Pippen, Golden Delicious
• Asian Pear--Okusankichi
• Pomegranate--white and red varieties
• Winter Squash--buttercup, kabocha, red kuri, spaghetti squash, pie pumpkin
• Pumpkins & Gourds  
• Vegetables--green tomatoes, herbs
• Local Honey--from bees at our orchard & star thistle honey from Lincoln
• Eggs
• Perfectly Persimmon Cookbook--1004 persimmon recipes by Jean Brine
• Placer County Real Food Cookbook--by Joanne Neft and Laura Kenny
• 2012 Master Gardeners Calender

Vodka Persimmons

We now have finished hyakume vodka-treated persimmons at the fruit stand.  These persimmons are large, yellow-orange and sweet with a mango-like texture.  Each hyakume persimmon has been treated with a few drops of vodka to cause a chemical reaction in the persimmon that changes the astringency (tannic acid) to sweetness (fructose).  Hyakume persimmons are a "pollination-variant non-astringent" type of persimmon that are naturally sweet when pollinated, though not all of the fruits get pollinated.  For more details on this, see the post "How to Eat a Persimmon".

If you'd like to order hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmon), it's important to get your order in as soon as possible.  It looks like this year's supply will be smaller than last year's,  so at some point we'll have to stop taking new orders.  If you want to order hoshigaki through mail order, please mail in the order form soon.  If you'd like to order hoshigaki to pick up at the fruit stand, please call us as soon as you can.  

The Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers club will make a delivery at our orchard on Friday, Nov. 18th.  Through the Meat Buyers club you can order local and naturally produced beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs and honey online, then pick up your order at our orchard, at Community Ink in Truckee, or at Confluence Kitchen in Auburn.  Orders need to be received by Friday, Nov. 11th at 5:00 PM. 

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

• Persimmons--Fuyu, Maru, Hyakume, Hachiya
• Apples--Fuji, Mutsu, Golden Delicious
• Asian Pear--Okusankichi
• Pomegranate--white variety
• Winter Squash--butternut, kabocha (various types), red kuri, buttercup, spaghetti squash, pie pumpkin
• Pumpkins & Gourds (at the fruit stand and at the pumpkin patch)  
• Vegetables--tomatoes, peppers, oregano, mint
• Local Honey--from bees at our orchard & star thistle honey from Lincoln
• Eggs
• Placer County Real Food Cookbook--by Joanne Neft and Laura Kenny
• 2012 Master Gardeners Calender

Community Events

This Sunday, Oct. 23rd, there's a  Farm-to-Table Dinner at the local Lone Buffalo Vineyards featuring local seasonal foods, including produce from our orchard.  There will be vineyard tours, and a six course dinner put on by Source Global Tapas restaurant.  Click here for more information and to register.

The weekend of Nov. 11th and 12th will be busy for us, because we'll be demonstrating hoshigaki (Japanese traditional hand-dried persimmon) at two different locations.  On Saturday, Nov. 11th from 10-2 we'll be talking about persimmons and how to make hoshigaki at Bushnell Garden supply in Granite Bay. This is a drop-in event with no need to register ahead.

On Sunday, Nov. 12th from 10-3 we'll be at Twin Peaks Orchard in New Castle for their Fall Harvest Open House.  Twin Peaks is an orchard that started about the same time as ours in 1911 and our families have known each other since then.  Twin Peaks grows grows a lot of the same fruits we do, including persimmons.  Their specialty is amagaki persimmons, which are hyakume persimmon treated so that they're sweet when still firm.  We'll be there to demonstrate hoshigaki.  For more information, see the Twin Peaks website.

Pumpkins & Persimmons

Topped hachiyas waiting to get peeled.

We have lots of pumpkins and gourds for decorating and carving outside the fruit stand.  You can go out to the pumpkin patch and pick your own pumpkin, too.

Peeling persimmons for hoshigaki (hand-dried persimmons) began this week.   Picking is still slow though, with having to go through a lot of trees to find enough hachiyas ripe enough for peeling to fill a few boxes.   We only have limited amounts of hoshigaki to sell at the fruit stand right now because we just started this year's season.  After peeling, each persimmon takes around six weeks to dry and become hoshigaki. If you want to order hoshigaki by mail order, check the Oct. 3rd post for more information.  To eat a fresh hachiya persimmon, it has to look like a water balloon and be the texture of jello.   There are a few hard hachiyas for sale in the fruit stand now, but not yet a very big supply.

We picked the first fuyu persimmons this week.  The first ones picked are yellow-orange and crisp, not dark orange and juicy like they will be a few weeks later.  Fuyu persimmon is also called "apple persimmon" because it's sweet to eat when firm like an apple.  We're continuing to pick maru persimmon, too.  Maru is the earliest type of persimmon we have.  Maru is also called "chocolate" persimmon because if it was pollinated the fruit will be brown inside and sweet to eat when firm.  As the weather gets colder, all of the persimmons should ripen more quickly.

People are welcome to visit the orchard and see the persimmons drying.  We're open Tues. through Sat.,  9-6 and Sun. from 10-5.  We're closed only on Mondays. If you want to visit the orchard for an organized group tour, please call ahead to schedule a time.  Other groups have already arranged times to come, and we want to be able to give everyone good attention.  Because we're a small farm with only a few workers, we need to know ahead of time to have enough staff available to help out.

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

• Pumpkins (at the fruit stand and at the pumpkin patch)
• Persimmons--Maru, Fuyu, Hachiya
• Apples--Fuji, Mutsu, Golden Delicious
• Asian Pear--Shinko, Olympic
• Pomegranate--white variety
• Jujube
• Vegetables--tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash,eggplant, peppers, basil, oregano, mint
• Winter Squash--butternut, kabocha (various types), red kuri, buttercup, spaghetti squash, pie pumpkins
  
• Organic Winter Vegetable Seedlings
• Local Honey--star thistle honey from Lincoln
• Eggs

Persimmon Show on CA Gold Oct. 13th

Helen and her grandson, Toshio at the start of hoshigaki season in a previous year.   Helen is peeling and Toshio is stringing the fruits so they can hang on a stick to dry.

The show Huell Howser did about persimmons and making hoshigaki at Otow orchard for the PBS TV show California Gold will air this Thursday, Oct. 13th on PBS stations around California.  A few years ago, he and the show's crew came and spent part of a day interviewing and filming Helen, Chris and Tosh about drying persimmons.  Since then the show has aired a few times a year. Here are the stations and times:

• KVIE/ Sacramento, Thurs., 10/13 @8:30 PM
• KCET/ Los Angeles, Thurs., 10/13 @ 7:30 PM
• KVPT / Fresno, Thurs., 10/13 @ 8:30 PM
• KVCR / San Bernadino, Thurs., 10/13 @ 8:30 PM, Sun., 10/16 @ 8:30 PM

We have maru, the earliest variety of persimmon, picked and at the fruit stand now.   Maru is a pollination-variant type of persimmon that is sweet when firm if it's pollinated, but puckery if it's un-pollinated.  It's also called chocolate persimmon, because the pollinated fruits are brown inside.

We haven't yet started peeling the first hachiya persimmons for drying, because they're still a bit too green on the trees.  The outside and inside drying racks have been put up, kaki sticks and fans are cleaned and ready to be used, and we're waiting for the fruit to become orange enough to peel.  Once a persimmon is peeled, it takes around six weeks to finish drying and become hoshigaki.  We sell hoshigaki (dried persimmon) by mail order, or if you're in the area you can stop by the fruit stand and pick up an order.  To order to pick up at the fruit stand, please call or email us.  

2011 Mail Order Form

The new 2011 Hoshigaki Mail Order Form is now posted here on the website, under the "Hoshigaki/Persimmons" tab.  If you'd like to mail order hoshigaki (Japanese hand-dried persimmon) this year, please print out the order form and mail it back to us.

Out in the orchard the hachiya persimmons are still slightly green, so we haven't started peeling any yet for hoshigaki.  The hachiyas need to be fully orange, but still hard to be able to peel in order to start the drying process.  After peeling, each fruit takes around six weeks to dry, depending on the weather.  The peeled fruits are hung by their stems in pairs and massaged every few days to help them to dry evenly.  By the end of the drying process, each persimmon has developed a dusting of natural powdered sugar on its surface, and is soft and sweet.

Please keep in mind that because of these natural processes and weather variables, orders may take 8 to 10 weeks to ship.  It's important to get your order in as soon as possible, because supplies are limited to what we can produce while the weather permits.

Apples & Pumpkins

We have lots of varieties of apples right now, including Fuji, Crispin, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and Northern Spy.  We also picked lots of winter squash and pumpkins. There are some pumpkins already picked and at the fruit stand and a pumpkin patch where people can go out to and pick their own pumpkin. Peas and Harmony has some organic winter vegetable seedlings for sale at the orchard, too.  There are broccoli, beets, Swiss chard, lettuce, mizuna, mustard, onions, thyme and other seedlings ready to be planted now into winter gardens. 

Persimmons are not quite ready yet, only a few maru have been picked so far. People say that cold weather ripens persimmons, so maybe this week's cooler temperatures will speed up the ripening.  We're expecting the first rain since June during the week this week, too.  It's a bit early for rain but the weather's been unusual this year. 


The next delivery from the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club will be at our orchard from 3:30- 5:00 on Friday, Oct. 21st.  Orders need to be received online by Friday, Oct. 14th at 5:00.  Through the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club you can order local naturally grown pork and lamb, grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, eggs and honey.  The Placer County Real Food Cookbook can be ordered and delivered through the Meat Buyers Club, too.  Monthly deliveries are at our orchard in Granite Bay, at Community Ink in Truckee and at Confluence Kitchen in Auburn.

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

• Pumpkins (at the fruit stand and at the pumpkin patch)
• Apples--Fuji, Crispin (Mutsu), Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Northern Spy
• Asian Pear--Shinko, New Century, 20th Century, Olympic
• Plums--Angelina
• European Pear--Comice
• Figs--Black Mission
  
• Quince
• Jujube
• Vegetables--tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash,eggplant, long beans, peppers, basil, oregano, mint
• Winter Squash--butternut, kabocha (various types), red kuri, buttercup, spaghetti squash, pie pumpkins
  
• Organic Winter Vegetable Seedlings
• Local Honey--from bees at our orchard, star thistle honey from Lincoln
• Eggs

Beginning of Fall

Green hachiya persimmons

In the orchard some of the first persimmons are starting to develop an orange blush and begin to ripen.  The pomegranates are coloring up, too.  We started picking the winter squash in the gardens and although some of the pumpkins and gourds look ready to cut, the weather seems too hot still to try to harvest and store very many of them.

At the end of this month we'll post the 2011 hoshigaki (Japanese hand dried persimmon) mail order form so that we can begin taking orders for hoshigaki.  We'll post here on the blog when the official order form is finished and available on our website. 

New things we have at the fruit stand are jujube, quince, and olympic Asian pears.  We have limited quantities of jujube and quince though, since we only have a few of these trees and picking just started.

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

• Asian Pear--Yoi, Shinko, New Century, 20th Century, Olympic
  
•  Plums--Casselman, Angelina
  
• European Pear--Comice, D'anjou
• Apples--Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Northern Spy, Fuji
  
• Figs--Black Mission, Brown Turkey
• Quince
• Jujube
  
• Vegetables--tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant, long beans, peppers, zucchini, summer squash,  basil, oregano, mint
• Honey--from bees at our orchard, star thistle honey from Lincoln
• Eggs

This summer, Girl Scouts from the local Granite Bay troop volunteered to  paint the fence around the horse pasture as part of a local sustainability project they were working on.  Earlier in the year they had visited the orchard for a tour and to talk with Tosh about local agriculture.  They were very enthusiastic and hard-working, and we're thankful that they could help us out.

Orchard News & Meat Buyers Club

After picking tomatoes.

We have a nice crop of black mission and kadota figs right now.  We go check the fig trees each day for ripe figs and try to find ways to keep the birds away.  This year some it seems that some of the birds have figured out how to get under the nets we put over the trees, so we're going to try adding hanging CD's and see if it deters some of them.  The CD's glint in the sun and maybe frighten away birds.

The nearly 100 degree temperatures this week have helped ripen tomatoes out in the gardens, so we have a lot to pick still.  Usually by this time of year the tomato harvest is winding down.  We've been spending  nights and days off canning and freezing extra tomatoes. Chris has been sun-drying tomatoes and figs on trays lately, too, since the weather has been warm.

Heirloom tomatoes--persimmon, Berti, manyel, Andrew Reinhart's Gold, Giant Belgium, Dagma's perfection and black prince (clockwise from upper right).  Figs are sun-drying in the background.

The next delivery date from the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club will be at our orchard on Friday, Sept. 23rd from 3:30-5:00. Orders must be sent in by 5:00 PM Friday, Sept. 16th.  Through the Sierra Foothills Meat Buyers Club you can order local grass-fed, hormone free beef, lamb, and chicken, as well as eggs, honey and the Placer County Real Food Cookbook.  Orders are made online and then you choose one of three locations to pick up your order.  Locations are Otow Orchard (in Granite Bay), Confluence Kitchen (in Auburn) and Community Ink (in Truckee).

Nashi

We have many varieties of Asian pears (or nashi) ripe at the orchard now.  Asian pear varieties we have are hosui, (an early, juicy brown variety), yoi and shinko which are light brown, sweet, crisp and juicy.  We also have New Century and 20th Century Asian pears.  Both are larger round yellow varieties, with 20th Century being more green-yellow when ripe and very crisp.  Asian pears are supposed to be eaten when they're crisp like an apple, rather than soft like European pears.  They're very refreshing and juicy, especially if you eat them from the refrigerator on a hot day.  They can also be used fresh in salads or cooked like European pears and apples in pies and other desserts.

We still have lots of tomatoes coming in from the gardens, too.  This year heirloom tomatoes grew well in the unusual weather, so we have a lot more than usual.  If you need tomatoes for canning or freezing we still have a good supply.

Along with honey from bees at our orchard, we now have star thistle honey from Lincoln at the fruit stand, too.  

At the fruit stand we have:

• Asian Pear--Hosui, Kosui, Yoi, Shinko, New Century, 20th Century
  
• Plums--Casselman, Kelsey, Friar, Laroda
  
• European Pear--Bartlett 
• Apples--Red Delicious, Golden Delicious
  
• Figs--Kadota, Black Mission
• Grapes--Thompson
• Vegetables--tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant, long beans, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, basil, oregano, mint
• Honey--from bees at our orchard, starthistle honey from Lincoln
• Eggs

Faye Elberta Peaches, Casselman Plums

New fruits at the orchard are Asian Pears, Faye Alberta peaches, Casselman plums, and fresh figs.   Casselman plums are purple-red on the outside and yellow-orange, juicy and tangy sweet on the inside.  They're the last major type of plum we pick at the orchard.  We're  getting towards the end of peach season with Faye Elbertas and moving on to more fall fruits with the first varieties of Asian pears (Hosui and Kikusui).  Bartlett pears have been picked, too.  We harvested a small supply of white Kadota figs and expect Black Mission figs a little later on.

In the gardens the tomatoes seem to be at their peak.  The tomatoes that hung hung green on the vines so long this summer are now ripening quickly.  The Fruit Stand is full of all types and sizes of tomatoes, including cherry, paste and heirloom varieties. 

Now is a good time to put in orders for tomatoes and peaches for canning or freezing.  We also have "seconds", which are damaged fruit and  tomatoes that sell for less, but don't look as nice and have spots that you may have to cut out.

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

• Peaches--Faye Elberta, Alamar
• Plums--Casselman, Kelsey, Friar, Laroda, Eldorado
  
• Asian Pear--Hosui, Kikusui
• European Pear--Bartlett 
• Figs--Kadota
• Vegetables--tomatoes, eggplant, green beans, long beans, sweet peppers, zucchini, summer squash,  tomatillos, Swiss chard, basil, oregano, mint
• Eggs--from chickens at our orchard
• Honey--from bees at our orchard