In Season

Most Washington orchards have rebounded from a poor 2007 growing year and the state’s apple crop is predicted to increase by 4 percent over 2007, but down 3 percent from 2006. Harvest is eight to 10 days behind normal.

Bartlett pear production for Washington, California and Oregon is expected to be about 408,000 tons, 7 percent higher than the USDA’s June forecast, but 4 percent lower than last year’s harvest.

Washington’s peach crop is expected to be 17,000 tons, compared with 18,500 tons last year - about an 8 percent drop.

Washington’s prune and plum harvest is expected to be about 4,800 tons, up 14 percent from 2007, but 11 percent below 2006. Increased yields are due to trees recovering from the poor 2007 growing season.

Washington’s wine grape production is forecast to be 6 percent higher this year, reaching a record high of 135,000 tons. The increase is mostly due to more acreage coming into production, he said.

Source: The Wenatchee World

Peaches are in season and it is picking time in Grafton, Illinois, where the the second annual Pere Marquette Peach Festival will be held this weekend.

According to The Telegraph, peache varieties supplied for the festival will be “Red Haven, White Lady and Glo-Haven peaches from Ringhausen Orchards. Joe Ringhausen will bring at least 20 bushels of peaches, which should be enough, with a bushel being 48 pounds.”

The event will be held at Pere Marquette Lodge at Pere Marquette State Park

Peaches harvest is also in full gear in southeast Tennessee, with excellent yields and quality reported.

Reuters reports that some Indiana farmers are still seeding soybeans in recently harvested winter wheat fields, even though double-crop soybeans are usually planted no later than early July. High prices on soybeans ($15 per bushel) makes it worth gambling against the chance of low yields.

• Market Watch

The California USDA/NASS field office has made the following forecasts for the 2008 crop.

California Apricots: 87,000 tons, up 7 percent from the 2007 crop. Bearing acreage is estimated at 13,400 acres, resulting in a yield of 6.5 tons per acre.

California Sweet Cherries: 86,000 tons, up 1 percent from the 2007 crop. Bearing acreage is estimated at 30,000 acres, resulting in a yield of 2.87 tons per acre.

California Peaches: 430,000 tons, unchanged from the May forecast and the 2007 crop. Bearing acreage is estimated at 36,000, resulting in a yield of 11.9 tons per acre.

California Clingstone Peaches: 380,000 tons, down 5 percent from the May forecast and 24 percent below the 2007 crop. Bearing acreage is estimated at 25.3 thousand acres, resulting in a yield of 15.0 tons per acre.

Record low temperatures, heavy rain, and little sunshine have Northwest berry growers singing the blues. The region’s berry crop is weeks late and most u-pick and market farms have little to offer until it arrives.

“We’re sort of crossing our fingers for some real sunshine soon,” Janet Stocker of Snohomish-based Stocker Farms told the Seattle Weekly. Her strawberries are still green and in danger of rotting on the vine.

Seattle farmers markets have seen many berry farmers cancel at the last minute. Disappointed shoppers are not finding what they are accustomed to this time of year.

• Berries Direct from the Grower
• Washington Farmers Markets Directory

With sunny weather in South Carolina last week, farmers were harvesting oats. The oat harvest there is 21 percent ahead of the five-year average.

Winter wheat acres are also being harvested, with exceptional yields. The current forecast is for a state record of 54 bushels per acre.

• Nuts and Grains

Fresh peaches are reported coming into season in Texas. Watch out for fruit that is less than fully ripe, as these peaches will be hard and tart. The ripest and sweetest may be found at a local farmers market.

The freestone harvest seaon in Texas usually begins in early July. These peaches have flesh that can be separated from the pits easily. For an early summer treat, try some Fresh Peach Sorbet.

• Texas Farmers Market Directory
• Buy Direct Directory

The emergence of rhubarb in the garden and the dark red stalks in the market are an edible harbinger of spring. Depending on location, rhubarb should be available in many markets from April through July.

A favorite for preserves and sauces, the tart flavor of rhubarb is superb in pies and tarts.

Select rhubarb stalks that are straight, crisp, and well-colored. Look for unblemished leaves. (Do not eat the leaves. They contain oxalic acid and can be toxic.

Rhubarb pairs well with other fruits and berries like apples, strawberries and blackberries. Use it to make a sweet and sour chutney to serve alongside chicken or pork; or stew it with a little sugar and fresh ginger and serve over ice cream.

As the somnolence of winter recedes, the reawakening of spring brings forth one of nature’s most fascinating phenomenon - the sugar maple tree’s flowing sweet sap. This is the season of the “maple moon” or “sugar moon,” according to eastern tribes of Native Americans who hacked sugar maple trees with tomahawks and collected the sugar water that emerged in wooden troughs. They condensed the sap by dropping heated stones in the troughs.

Today, maple syrup production is a major industry with pipelines, power tools, reverse osmosis machines and vacuum pumps, but the timing of the maple moon is much the same. Although some maple producers begin boiling sap in February, March is still the prime month for maple production.

Maple sap flows best on warm days after below-freezing nights. Balmy weather slows it down. Sap flow can continue for several weeks, or it can end abruptly with an extended warm spell. As the maple’s leaves begin to unfold, its sap takes on a bad taste.

Not only does sugaring help us remember that spring is coming, it also gives us a reason for desiring that it not progress any faster. Once we have awakened to it, we long to dwell in this protracted in-between. This time for standing in the warm, sticky sugarhouse, witnessing the alchemy of air and water into gold.

John Elder
The Frog Run
Words and Wildness in the Vermont Woods

• Syrup
• Tapping at Kripplebush