The Fruit Report

Harvest Flyer Crates

I know we’ve found a great piece of fruit when, during the taste testing, my mouth starts acting involuntarily, and I can’t stop eating fruit until there is nothing but pit left behind. It’s the fruit world’s version of tapping a toe to music when you can’t stop. That’s what happened when Dan brought in the Raspberry Jewel Pluot for us to try. This is a sweet piece of fruit that has a wonderful taste of honey-plum and raspberry. Unfortunately, it does not appear in boxes nationwide. The fruit has what is called a “bloom” on it which is a naturally occurring dust-looking blush that occurs on plums as a way for the fruit to protect itself in the growing process (you may also see this on some grapes).

Organic Crates

A rose may be a rose by any other name, but you can sure tell a lot about people by the names they choose for things. Take the “Yellow Transparent Apple” for example. This apple is an old variety brought from Russia into the United States in the 1870s. Its color is like that of a Golden Delicious, but it is tarter and firmer. More than a hundred years ago farmers looked at this apple and said: “Kinda looks yellow. Kinda looks transparent.” It was a pretty straight forward naming process. One hundred years later this Yellow Transparent is now renamed the Pristineâ„¢. It’s still yellow, and it’s still transparent looking, but now it tastes pristine. Thank goodness because I couldn’t taste how pristine this was until it had the name.

East Coast

My sister Erin (Erin M not to be confused with Erin G our marketing superstar) traveled to Boyertown, Pennsylvania to Beekman Orchards for peaches picked fresh from the tree this week. Beekman is a family farm that the current owners bought in 1928. Calvin, whose grandfather purchased the farm, said that the original owner sold the farm to his grand-dad because it took too long for the mules to carry the harvest to the cold storage facility in a neighboring town. Today Beekman has 480 acres where they harvest peaches, nectarines and various varieties of apples and pears. Erin stood in the backyard of the farmhouse and had a meditative moment while looking up at the fruit trees extending up over the rolling hills in rows. She says that these peaches, which are excellent and sweet, are probably a little fuzzier then we have seen of late. (Some peaches are de-fuzzed during the packing process). These are conventionally grown and delicious.

FYI: The mix of fruits between the east and west coast will be different as we continue to find local produce on both coasts. Take a look at our website to see what is in your box.

Enjoy and be fruitful! – Chris Mittelstaedt chiefbanana@fruitguys.com