Fruit Season Chart

Farm Fresh Produce Qualities, Flavors and Uses

Blueberries

  • Duke:  Light blue, very firm, mild flavor, great fresh and frozen, keeps well, flavor sweetens with refrigeration
  • Toro: Large, firm berry with mild flavor, grows in large clusters, medium blue, great fresh and frozen
  • Draper: Large, firm, light blue berry with a crisp, sweet flavor, excellent shelf life

Cherries

  • Bing: Dark sweet cherry, firm, great for eating and freezing
  • Van: Dark mahogany cherry, super sweet, great for eating, canning, freezing
  • Rainier: Huge premium cherry, yellow with red blush, light sweet flavor, fresh eating & canning
  • Montmorency:  Bright red, very tart, juicy, best for pie and cooking

Apples

  • Lodi: Very tart, dry apple, superb for pie making, must keep refrigerated
  • Golden Delicious: Sweet, excellent apple for saucing, juicing and baking, very good fresh
  • Old Standard Red Delicious: Favorite old sweet, juicy taste from years gone by, best fresh      
  • Granny Smith: Very hard, crisp apple with a tart flavor, very good for baking or eating
  • Braeburn: Crisp, sweet-tart apple, great dessert quality fresh or baked, good keeper
  • Cameo: Old fashioned sweet-tart flavor, large, crisp, juicy, very popular fresh, excellent for cooking

Pumpkins

  • Carving: This popular orange pumpkin ranges in size from 10-25 pounds, with large cavities and both round and tall shapes.

  • Cinderella: 10-15 pound bright reddish pumpkin with a flattened shape and deep ribs, great for decorating and pies, sweet orange flesh.

  • Jarrahdale: Slate-grey, heavily ribbed 6-10 pound pumpkin excellent for decorating and cooking, sweet, smooth, orange flesh.

  • New Moon: Uniform bright white pumpkin with smooth skin, white flesh, and a strong handle, a good  decorative pumpkin, can reach 45 pounds in size.

  • Fairytale: French heirloom variety, with bronze skin, heavily scalloped and flattened shape,  15 pound pumpkin is a lovely decoration, also has delicious flesh for baking.

  • Pie: 3-4 pound pumpkin has smooth flesh great for baking and is the perfect size for pies.

  • Miniatures: Includes Jack-be-little, Baby-Boo, and Tiger Stripe varieties, as well as small 5-8” traditionally shaped pumpkins and other novelty varieties.

Squash

  • Buttercup: A winter squash, known for high quality, dry flesh, a flattish top and a dark green color.

  • Acorn: Three varieties of acorn squash with excellent eating quality: Carnival is uniquely flecked, stores well for months. Confetti is 1-2 pounds with less stringy, drier flesh, striped skin. Sweet Dumpling is small 4-5”, ideal for single servings, stores 3-4 months.

  • Butterfly: A smaller 3.5 pound butternut, fine grained orange flesh, good uniform traditional butternut shape.

  • Blue Magic: Small hybrid Blue Hubbard, weighs 4-6 pounds, the same coloring and great eating qualities as a normal size Hubbard, with a fine-grained, tasty flesh.

  • Sunshine: Sweet, nutty tasting, smooth and stringless flesh, 3-4 pound flattened round fruit, stores well, has a bright red-orange rind.

Gourds

  • Big Apple: 6-8” across with a unique apple shape and a mottled green color these gourds are great for fall crafting projects.

  • Mixed: An exciting mix of star shaped, winged and warted gourds, that are attractive and interesting for fall decoration. Many solid colors as well as striped and spotted variations are found among the mix, as well as a great size range.

 

Recipes, Canning, and Freezing

Many people have asked us about recipes and/or how we recommend canning, storing or freezing their fresh picked produce. Because this is such an extensive subject we highly recommend you pay a visit to PickYourOwn.org. Their web site has easy to follow instructions for basic canning, freezing, and preserving and also hosts an extensive recipe list that includes Jams, Jellies, Sauces, Ice Cream, Gelato, Salsa, Syrups, Juices and more. Choose the method that works for you, and enjoy the produce you picked yourself all year long!