stone fruit

Farmer of the Month: Amber Balakian of Balakian Farms

By Lex Flamm on

In some ways, a family farm is just an extra-large kitchen garden. It’s an extension of the home and the people that live there—at least, that’s how fourth-generation farmer Amber Balakian feels about …

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Farmer of the Month: Abby Schilling of Mick Klüg Farms

By Lex Flamm on

“So, a social worker, a farmer, an engineer, and a salesman walk into a bar…” That sounds like the beginning of a cheesy joke, but if you swap the word “farm” in for “bar,” it’s pretty close to the …

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Cling Peaches vs. Freestone Peaches: What’s the Difference?

By Lex Flamm on

A few weeks ago, my husband cut open one of the season’s very first peaches. It caved slightly to the touch and released a fragrant, floral mist when the knife bit into it. The scent alone made our …

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Summer Fruit Guide 2024

By The FruitGuys on

Have you ever eaten so many blackberries that they stained your fingers red, or bitten into a nectarine so ripe that its sticky juice dripped down your chin? Sweet fresh fruit is truly the taste of …

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Rainier Cherries: The Cherry Jubilee Is Here!

By Erin Mittelstaedt on

In my early twenties, I started a love affair with cherries. I was doing a six-week language program through my college in Tours, France, and my host family lived on a quiet street just uphill from …

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Upgrade Your Fruit Mix to Get the Widest Variety of Summer Fruit

By The FruitGuys on

Summer is the perfect time to upgrade your fruit mix! With the right mix, your team will get to taste all of the fantastic peaches, nectarines, plums, berries, grapes, and other fruits in season …

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Summer Fruits You Should Taste

By Erin Mittelstaedt on

Did you know that American farmers grow more than 100 different varieties of peaches? Most of us think of peaches as either white or yellow (same with nectarines) but there are at least 1,000 kinds of …

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Farmer of the Month: John Warmerdam of New Excelsior Farming

By Lex Flamm on

When John Warmerdam was a kid, his school bus didn’t drop him off at home—or even at the corner near his house. Instead, it took him to his family’s fruit packing shed.  “That’s where my …

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2024 Spring Fruit Guide

By The FruitGuys on

The spring equinox is behind us, which means we’ve officially entered “transition season.” In the fruit business, that’s what we call the period when warm rain drizzles down and spring flowers start …

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Apricot: Taste, Nutrition, and Benefits Explained

By The FruitGuys on

Apricots are a sweet treat related to other fruit  favorites like plums and peaches. Let’s dive into how these juicy wonders can brighten up your kitchen and your day. The Journey of …

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What a Plum-mer!

By Chris Mittelstaedt on

Summer is flying by faster than a fish on a unicycle and that can only mean one thing: PLUMS. Plums are now joining the parade of stone fruit that began back in June with cherries and apricots, and …

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FruitGuy Noir in The Stone Fruit Spinning Wheel

By Chris Mittelstaedt on

My catfish Bicycle was 20 minutes into their workout on our new aqua treadmill when their hydrophone rang. “Blub, blub,” they mouthed in my direction, quickly transferring the call and motioning …

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Happy Summer & Welcome Peaches

By Chris Mittelstaedt on

At this time of year, varieties of peaches begin to come in and out of harvest almost weekly, evolving from June tartness to the cinnamony-sweet notes of late August. As I track the progression of …

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Clinging to Fruit 101

By Chris Mittelstaedt on

If Cling and Freestone sounds like a 1970s folk group gone electric, you’re not quite wrong. Stone fruit season has begun and it makes me want to do a head-banging pan flute solo. It’s never too late …

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The Gamble of Early Summer Fruit

By Chris Mittelstaedt on

Long ago I wondered why slot machines used cherries as the winning images for hitting the jackpot. It didn’t make sense to me. Maybe a dollar sign, or a star, but cherries?  It seemed odd.   Yet a …

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Pliny The Elder’s Last Podcast

By Chris Mittelstaedt on

Scene: Pliny the Elder’s open atrium podcast studio in Misenum, Bay of Naples, August 24th, 79 CE Pliny E:  Welcome listeners & toga wearers. This is again, Gaius Plinius Secundus coming to you …

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Summer Whites: Peaches and Nectarines

By Heidi Lewis on

A fashion edict of the 20th century was “only wear white between Easter and Labor Day.” Wearing white flapper dresses, knickerbockers, and shoes in summer has its practical purposes, and eating white …

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Fruitful Visits

By Shannan Slevin on

Frecon Farms, in southeastern Pennsylvania, is as rich in history and community as it is in apples and stone fruits. Founded in 1944 by Richard S. Frecon and his wife, Martha, the orchard started as …

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Vanilla-Roasted Stone Fruit

By Miriam Wolf on

In June, we must eat stone fruit. Stone fruits are those fruits that consist of flesh surrounding a single hard pit. They include peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, cherries, and even mangoes. …

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Ode to the Apricot

By Chris Mittelstaedt on

I have been given a copy of Robert Palter’s The Duchess of Malfi’s Apricots, and Other Literary Fruits. It’s a great reference book if you like those moments of clarity when writers unravel the human …

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