Nevada grown fruit? Wouldn't that be great!

I love fruit, which is why I spend a big portion of our food budget at the farmers markets this time of year. Each year I fill our pantry and freezer with fruits grown for taste and harvested when they're ripe.  Ahh...if only some of them were grown in Nevada.  Yep, Nevada grown fruit is scarce but here's an opportunity to help fix that.  Learn more about growing fruit on a farm or in your yard.  From my mailbox to you...

 WNC Specialty Crop Institute Small Farm Orchard & Berry Production Workshop


A harvest-time workshop on orchard and berry production could bear fruit for those interested in becoming commercial small farmers, or improving their current farming processes.

Western Nevada College Specialty Crop Institute announces an orchard and berry production workshop on Friday, Sept. 10, 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., at WNC Carson City campus, 2201 West College Parkway. Cost is $35 if registered by Monday, Aug. 31, or $45 after August 31. Lunch is included in registration; seating is limited.

Participants will learn about orchard and berry production for the small farm including best varieties to grow in northern Nevada's climate and soils; site selection and planting, fertilization, pruning, pest management, and more. The workshop is intended for experienced and new farmers interested in small-scale commercial production and sales. It includes classroom training and an on-farm tour of Agape Organics, a certified organic apple orchard in Washoe Valley.

Featured speaker is local expert Michael Janik, who has grown and experimented with orchard fruits and berries for more than a decade. He's grown more than 100 apple varieties, as well as currants, grapes, berries and more. Janik is a certified arborist and is accomplished at grafting.

Grow For Me personal farmer program - an expanded CSA

General local food knowledge says that if everyone purchased as little as 10% of their food from local farmers communities could nurture and maintain small farms in their region and farmers could stay on the farm rather than work two or three jobs. It takes remarkably little effort to eat 10% in Nevada during “the season”, especially if the family diet is vegetarian. Each year it gets easier as more new or established farmers offer CSAs. For those looking to get even more variety in their CSA, here’s a great new program.

Introducing the Grow For Me Personal Farmer program. This is a one-stop-shop (mostly), sustainable, chemical-free CSA that will include veggies, fruit, eggs, meat (beef, chicken, lamb, and pork), and milk! For a few hundred bucks a month, depending on the payment plan a family chooses, it is possible to eat way more than 10%. Bonus, going “grocery shopping” could be a visit to the farm where kids (or you!) can see where food really comes from and only 20 miles or so from Reno and Sparks. Gotta love that!

There are other benefits as well, too numerous to go into here so check out the Grow For Me website.

Rise & Shine Farms CSA 2009

From my in box to you:

"Around The Farm

Winter may not be over but it is time to begin thinking about all the good stuff we are planning to grow this season and our new layers should be hatching next week. Leeks and garlic already popping up in the onion beds, peas and cool season vegetables like broccoli and cabbage will be planted in late February and early March.

Still a lot of work to be done in preparation for the coming months, fences and buildings to be repaired or built, equipment replaced and or repaired, fields to be dug for the veggies and new pasture planted, water lines run in and new fields cleared, seeds and plants to be ordered and when all is done there will be more to do next week.

It’s CSA Time Again
We have added some new programs to the CSA menu this year and have extended the season by two weeksInterested in joining the CSA this year , call us or send an e mail we’ll be happy to send you our brochure or better yet visit our web site and take a look around just follow the links.

Order and pay for both seasons by March 1, 2009 and receive a 10% discount web site prices reflect discount until March 1, 2009. Eggs are offered with your subscription this year, no having to buy separate subscriptions. Join Now and save $$$.

New Member Sign Up Page
Use the member sign up for all your subscriptions , CSA, Eggs, or Poultry, this saves you and us time in processing your order. You can pay online or have us invoice you , quick and simple.
Have a safe and enjoyable week.

Mike, Terri and KassieRise and Shine Farms
From Our Family Farm To Your Family Table"

You-pick apple post correction

Oops! The Apple Basket you-pick start date is September 20th, not the 21st.

Nevada you-pick apples 2008

Organic Nevada-grown apples are ready to pick!

A couple of days ago we visited The Apple Basket at Agape Organics in Washoe Valley where Delane showed us around the orchard. For four years she and her husband have been caring for the 190 dwarf apple trees on their property, and this year the harvest is good.


Delane and Al use organic practices to grow and maintain their apple trees; we learned a little about what that looks like in an orchard and some of the tools they use. My favorite of their organic “tools” is the flock of chickens; 6-8 of them following everyone around doing that really soothing clucking thing, eating bugs, laying down really great fertilizer, and then scratching it into the soil. From each tree hangs a coddling moth trap filled with home brewed bug juice. Delane generously shared the recipe so I’ll be making some to counter moth infestation on my neighbor’s tree next year. Toads hide during the day, patrolling and eating bugs at night. Daily maintenance consists of picking up windfalls to ward off coddling moths and other orchard issues. No conventional chemical pesticides or fertilizers are used!

Apple Basket is a you-pick operation. So, starting September 20th, each Saturday from 8-5 anyone can visit the orchard, pick and pay for apples in the really cute gift shop, and have a bring-your-own snack at the newly installed picnic table.

And bonus, this year my husband and I will be canning Nevada applesauce!

Northern Nevada apples in 2008

Apples grown in Northern Nevada are in our future! Delane Pennington of Agape Organics-The Apple Basket report that their apple tree blossoms survived the very erratic 2008 spring weather and they’ll have apples and pumpkins for us this year.

They grow Golden Delicious, Cameo, Gala, and Braeburn apples in a you-pick orchard located in Washoe Valley. When it is time to harvest they send out postcards to let their customers know the orchard is open for business. If you and your family and friends want to experience Northern Nevada apples email Agape Organics at delane@agapeorganics.com or call Delane at 775-885-1988 to get on the mailing list.

Life is good!

Great Basin Basket CSA apples

If your family participated in the Great Basin Basket CSA program this year you received some uncommon apples in your basket. Our Nevada farmers work with local California farmers to bring us the fruit they do not grow but is still grown regionally. The farmers talk a little bit about these varieties in the farm notes but I thought I'd pass on a little bit more about origin and use for those of you who are food freaks, like me.

Mutsu apples, also know as Crispin, came in our summer basket. Mutsu has a fine granular texture with a subtle anise aroma, and mildly astringent semi-tart flavor. Mustu was developed in 1948 at Aomori Experiment Station in Japan. It is an excellent eating apple, and is good for pies, and sweet or hard cider. Keep it in storage for up to five months.

Arkansas Black apples came in our fall basket. More popular today as an antique apple, it was more common in the early 1900s because it is harvested late, keeps well, and is hard, making it good for shipping. The skin is a really dark red that does make you think "black". The flesh is yellow to cream colored, and very firm. The flavor is mild and balanced, more sweet than acidic. Arkansas Black can be eaten fresh but is probably better cooked. When over-ripe they will become mealy and developed a greasy surface. Stored in an ice-house they'll keep until late winter. Those of us without an icehouse can expect a shorter storage period.

Applesauce, plan B

I continue to be amazed by how much I don't know about food. This time it is apples and pears.

Life's hectic right now and I've been wondering how I'd find the time to get to Apple Hill anytime in the next six weeks but managed to clear yesterday, so I took the beautiful drive to the California apple region via Highway 80 to Auburn, and 49 through Placerville. I'd never been before and was by myself (Mark had an activity planned with his Little) so I visited the first orchards I could easily get to that had a wide selection, High Hill Ranch and Boa Vista.

I took along my copy of Chez Panisse Fruit because I don't really know which apples are better for sauce, pies, or out of hand and needed something to reference. This worked out all right but a better resource is The Best Apples to Buy and Grow, fragrant, with unpolished skin and leaves mixed in with the fruit. Picked up two big boxes of apples for the astonishingly low price of $20.

The first box is filled with Gravensteins which will be transformed into applesauce sometime this week; during the drive home my car was filled their intoxicating fragrance. The second box is a mix of varieties I'm familiar with like Rome Beauty, Jonathan, and McIntosh, and others I'd not seen before like Mutsu, two varieties of Winesap, Red Gold, and Empire. I also bought two Red Delicious apples just because I wanted to know if they tasted any better than the ever-present globes you see in the supermarket. I ate one on the way home but it wasn't very tasty so I'll store the other one for a while to see if the flavor improves. Apparently some apples need some time in storage to give the flavor time to develop, and some very tasty varieties are practically inedible without it. These varieties do not meet the "money first, taste last" criteria of industrial shippers so you probably won't ever see them in supermarkets. These are the ones I want!

We'll be making a second trip in a few weeks to pick up the late harvest varieties, Arkansas Black and Pink Lady among others. Boa Orchards had some Bartlett pears but they were ready to eat. I needed slightly under ripe so we'll try for other varieties and different orchards on the next trip.

I always try to buy from Nevada growers first and Agape Organics was my first choice for apples but 2007 frost and fire forced me go with plan B. For my family's needs I define local as anything produced with 150 miles, so Apple Hill is still local because it is 144.24 from my door to the apple tree-filled parking lot, the produce is grown in a sustainable way, and the money I pay goes directly to the people who do the actual work and raise their families in their communities. Do you know that growers receive only about 6-11 cents of every dollar spent on their product when it is purchased in some far-off supermarket? The remainder goes to middlemen and corporations. Doesn't seem right.

Apple Hill is a great family day trip. I've always lived in the desert so a drive that includes trees is endlessly fascinating. It'll be fun to see how the landscape changes as fall takes over the next few weeks. Could there be a trip in your future?

Northern Nevada apples - nature happens

Like I said in the previous post apple season starts about now. Apples are delicious in many ways but I especially love them cooked...pies, tarts, and applesauce. Until last year I ate grocery store applesauce but then I discovered homemade applesauce. I naturally shared this food wonder with all my friends. To my surprise even their kids loved this slightly spicy applesauce.

Imagine my delight to learn that Al and Delane Pennington, of Agape Organics - The Apple Basket, grow organic apples in Washoe Valley. Nevada apples...cool! The orchard has been open to the public for about the last four years. Those lucky few who are in the know visit the orchard, pick their fill, pay by the pound, and go home with a treasure--truly fresh, pesticide free apples. Al and Delane grow Golden Delicious, Gala (introduced to the U.S. in the 1980s; good for cooking and exceptional applesauce), Braeburn (introduced in the 1950s; good for cooking and stores well) , and Cameo (introduced in 1987; good storage apple).

Imagine my disappointment to learn that Agape Organics apples will not be available this year because "nature happens". Two natural occurrences conspired to decimate the 2007 apple crop ...frost and fire. Early this year, just as the apple blossoms emerged it snowed, killing off the blossoms that become the fruit. Then we had fire, which drove bears out of the mountains to look for food. Some lucky bears found the orchard; the remaining apple crop was probably a savior for these bears but has resulted in fewer apples for us. If we're going to have homemade applesauce this year we'll have to go to plan B...Apple Hill.

Fire and its devastating effects on homes and businesses have been getting a lot of press lately, but the natural consequences to wildlife and those who live close to it is often less newsworthy. This season demonstrates the fine line our community growers tread; one day of abnormal weather and a harvest is lost. Community and governmental support and understanding is most critical at times like these.

Delane told me an interesting story that really brings home how closely we are connected to nature, even if we don't acknowledge it. Earlier in the season a man who is both fireman and beekeeper contacted the Penningtons about putting his bees to work in their orchard. Before they could make that happen fire struck and he was called to duty. While he fought fires his bees did what bees do...made honey. Lots of it. Bears fleeing the fire found his overflowing beehives and took them apart looking for food, while he fought the fires that displaced them.

Peaches and Arugula!

As usual, I went to the Saturday farmers' market to pick up a couple of things. Specifically, any tasty fruit to make a crostata for a friend's baby shower, and anything else that looked good. As it turned out blueberries were available and luscious...so blueberry crostata was on the menu. I conducted my usual produce inventory then stopped by the Home Grown Nevada stall to say good morning to Tina and Ann. Tina's garden has taken off and the stall was full of Nevada grown beef, vegetables, and melons. And she had arugula....I love arugula! This made me remember a recipe I'd seen in the Aug 07 Bon Appetit--Peach and Arugula Salad with Creamy Chive Dressing. I didn't remember all the other ingredients that were necessary to make this dish but figured if I had the best parts, how bad could it be? So I picked up some of Tina's arugula and wandered across the pathway to K & J Orchards to take a look at peaches. They had a small yellow cling-free variety, firm but wonderfully fragrant and, I later discovered, bursting with peach flavor. Nummy! As it turned out the recipe required only a few more ingredients: I had most of them at home and improvised with the others. It was stupendous! Easy and impressive if you're having company. Easy and decadent if it's just you, a loved one, and dinner on the patio in your pajamas.