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 …
stone fruit
Vanilla-Roasted Stone Fruit
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. …
Ode to the Apricot
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 …
How can I tell when my stone fruit is ripe?
Q: How can I tell when my stone fruit is ripe (or ready to eat)? A: To protect stone fruit during delivery, such as peaches, plums, nectarines, and apricots, we send it to you on the slightly …
Ten Tasty Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About the Peach
Peaches have been on my mind lately. They are my favorite fruit, and they grow bountifully and beautifully in the Capay Valley. Many of our farms here cultivate more than one variety, and I feel …
Profile: Olson Family Farms
Olson Family Farms in California’s Central Valley is truly a family affair. Five generations have lived on the farmstead and worked the land since John and Anna Olson emigrated from Sweden in 1888. …
Poached Vanilla Peaches
Recipe by Rebecca Dienner for The FruitGuys INGREDIENTS 2 peaches, ripe (fragrant) but not too soft 2 cups sweet white or dessert wine 1/4 cup maple syrup, agave, or sugar (see Cook’s …
Dapple Dandy Pluot
The Dapple Dandy Pluot is a sweet plum-apricot flavored pluot with beautifully dappled skin. These pluots contain fiber and complex sugars for sustained energy, and the taste is fantastic. …
A Little Apricot History
from Good Humus Produce, courtesy of Capay Valley Farm Shop A combination of Royal and Blenheim Apricots From the Luxemburg Gardens in Paris to England’s Blenheim Palace to the imperiled orchards …
Lots of Heat Means Good Eats
By Seth Wright, courtesy of Capay Valley Farm Shop This 2013 has been an unusually hot and dry spring here in the Capay Valley. The rain, which usually occurs from January until the end March, …
Brooks Cherries
In the American cherry world everything comes after the Bing. And the wingman to the Bing is the Brooks - a headliner in its own right, a sweet early cherry. …
Black Plum
Black and Blue. There's a battle in the fruit department; the fruits are fighting over who has more antioxidant carotenoids. But it is the USDA that says Black Plums are exceptionally high in an assay …
Bing Cherries
Yeah! Cherries! A fruit so packed with taste and lore, in poems, paintings, and punk rock songs- how we worship this fine little fruit. For many the first cherries are a sign of spring and renewal, …
Fire Sweet Yellow Nectarine
The Fire Sweet Yellow Nectarine is a sub-acid (low tartness) honey-flavored clingstone, with an almost all red skin color. It comes from Summer Fire and August Red stock. …
Angelcot
What do you get when you cross a cherubic Hummel figurine and an apricot? An Angelcot. Developed by Ross Sanborn, this unique short season apricot is notable for its very pale yellow—almost white …
CandyCot
Described as “knock-your-socks-off-good!” by FruitGuys buyer Misi Katoa, CandyCots are a uniquely sweet group of apricot varieties grown exclusively by a family-owned, fourth-generation farming …
Plum Crazy for Plums!
By Gretchen Bay It’s officially summer. And summer means (among other delicious things)—plums! Unlike their stone-fruit cousins' peaches and nectarines (which come with a white or yellow flesh and …
Bada Bing, Bada Boom
By Heidi Lewis You know what sweet summer cherries like? They like winter. That’s when they catch up on a little shut-eye and wake up refreshed. Many stone fruits and pomes need the chill hours to …
Spring Swooning for Summer Fruit
By Heidi Lewis Here they come, rolling into town— They get the hungriest looks from, everyone around— [drum fill”¦] Hey, hey, they’re the summer fruits! And they’re super duper cute! It may not …
Guide to Stone Fruit
Everything you always wanted to know about stone fruit (but were afraid to ask) Here's a primer on some of our favorite stone fruit, from peaches to nectarines to apricots, and plums, from peach-like …
Red Beaut Plum
Beauty, but friends call it "Beaut" for short, is an early smooth red plum with yellow flesh. Good plum to know on a first-name basis. …
Plumcot
Plumcot is a hybrid of a plum and apricot invented by Luther Burbank. It is similar to pluot, except that the Plumcot is a half and half combination. …
Flavorella Plumcot
Plumcot is a hybrid of a plum and apricot invented by Luther Burbank. Flavorella is golden with a slight blush. …
Arctic Mist White Nectarine
Rainier White, White Caps, Dove, Linen, Bone, Blanco, Acoustic White, Eggshell, Sierra, Frost, Mist. It's no longer simple to pick up a bucket of white paint. Arctic Mist nectarines are white fleshed …
Talking About The Weather
There’s a fast-paced, smart device game called “Fingerzilla” that lets you rain Godzilla-like destruction down upon virtual cityscapes and towns using only your finger. While being at the helm of such …
O’Modern O’Henry!
By Chris Mittelstaedt When O’Henry peaches start to appear, I think of O. Henry—the turn-of-the-century American short story writer who wrote The Gift of the Magi, a story about a young married man …
Plu…ots
Maybe you think I write too much about my kids. I kind of agree, but man, do they give me good material. Last week, for example, when I told them we would be getting pluots for this week’s cases, they …
Ripe On Time
We’re so organized it’s almost bewildering. All week long, we’ve been going down the checklist helping the kids get ready for camp. “Sleeping bags?” “Got it, Dad!” “Flashlight?” “Daaadd! I’ve got …
Balance the Beat
My daughters are in a rock band. One plays bass and the other drums. My 10-year old drummer has a problem with The Go-Go’s song “We Got The Beat.” “I keep losing my beat,” she says. “Have you looked …
Fruit & Veggie Magic
Fruito the Ripenificent was a world famous fruit magician. For years he had competed for top billing against Vern the Vegetastic until Vern suffered a fatal injury while trying to extricate himself …
Riding the Peach Train
In the pantheon of great lyrical misunderstandings, I remember this: summer sunlight circa the mid-1970s and me dancing around our living room while singing at the top of my lungs to the “The Age of …
Of Rabbit Holes & Writing Desks
Nessie, the six-month-old chocolate lab, tears through the house wanting nothing more than to lick the cat until it becomes her friend. A puffed up and spitting blur of fur trailed by a bottle brush …
The Spring Transition
In the fruit world, spring is the hardest time of year. Summer brings its abundance of stone fruits, Fall its apples, pears, persimmons, and pomegranates, and Winter all varieties of citrus that grow …
Laroda Plum
"Low ri-der, drives a little slower." [Queue horn section]. The Laroda plum was developed in Winters, CA in the 1950s, and is cherished for its rich wine taste and beautiful color. It has been …
Apricot
The apricot is a species of the genus Prunus, along with its stone fruit sisters, plum, peach, and cherry, and its cousin almond. Apricots found their way through history and geography, emigrating …
Sweet as Nectar
We once spent a day driving through the Brentwood agriculture corridor hunting of the perfect nectarine. Brentwood is only a 90 minutes drive from San Francisco and is an ideal oasis near the …
Ataulfo Mango
Shaped like a golden bean, these sweet yellow mangos are sometimes also referred to as Champagne or Manilla mangos. This special-season mango evokes a tropical celebration that will send your taste …
