Harvest Wizard
A practical guide to food in the garden and market
- Last build:
- Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:00:00 -0500
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- Nectarine Varieties
Nectarines come to harvest in spring and continue through summer. If you get to know your nectarines and choose from early, midseason, and late harvest varieties, you can have fresh, local nectarines at your table for nearly half the year.
The best way to select nectarines is to smell them and gently squeeze them. A nectarine ready for eating out of hand will be fragrant and not too hard. A ripe nectarine will give to gentle pressure at its seam.
Stay away from greenish colored nectarines or those that are too hard, cracked, bruised, or have blemishes.
There are hundreds of varieties of nectarines. Here are descriptions of several nectarines you might want to try and a note on when they come to harvest:
Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Nectarines
Botanically speaking the nectarine is a variety of peach. But eaten out of hand or served at the table, the nectarine is both more and less than the peach.
Less: the nectarine is smaller than the peach; it is about the size of a plump plum.
More: the skin of the nectarine is fuzzless which makes it more toothsome than the peach. At the same time, the nectarine’s firm flesh—though succulent—holds together better than a peach when bitten into or sliced. (The term peach and nectarine lovers use for a fruit that disintegrates at your lips is “melting.” The peach is more melting than the nectarine.)
Yes, these are slight differences.
The truth is that the nectarine and peach are interchangeable when it comes to recipes and cookery. Personal taste has a lot to do with which one you favor.
Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Apricot Varieties
The best place to start with apricots is sampling them fresh out of hand. Select apricots that are golden orange and plump, not too soft and not too hard. Apricots that are soft and ripe will have the best flavor. Give them the taste test immediately.
Fresh apricots come to market from mid-spring to mid-summer, May through July and even later in the Northern Hemisphere. The apricot harvest can be divided into early, mid-season and late. That means you can enjoy some or all of these over the course of the apricot harvest.
Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Apricots
There are two apricots you must simply eat out of hand: ‘Blenheim’ is a medium to large, sweet and aromatic, and very juicy apricot with a classic apricot flavor; ‘Moorpark’ is a large, sweet, aromatic, and juicy apricot with a rich plum-like taste.
You will find dozens of varieties of just picked apricots to choose from at your farm market in late spring and on into summer, but ‘Blenheim’ and ‘Moorpark’ deserve your attention.
Once you have enjoyed these two universally acclaimed apricots eaten out of hand, you can then take apricots to the next level: they are delicious in hot and cold desserts, cakes, pastries, fruit salads, ices, preserves, jams, and conserves.
Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Rosemary
Viewed from a distance while in bloom, it’s easy to understand how the herb rosemary got its name. The Latin name for rosemary is ros marinus which means “sea dew” or “sea spray.
Rosemary in bloom is covered with small clusters of shimmering blossoms of both light and deep blue. This tough but marvelously fragrant plant had its origins on the seaside cliffs of the Mediterranean and has been adopted in cookery far beyond its origin.
The leaves, sprigs, stems, and flowers can all be used as a seasoning in soups, salads, vegetables, meats, fish, egg dishes, stuffings, and dressings.
Rosemary has both a sweet and bitter pungency. You may detect hints of lemon and pine in freshly crushed rosemary as well as hints of nutmeg and camphor in its aftertaste.
Rosemary is most tender in early spring. In late summer, you will find it more resinous and potent.
Wed, 30 May 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Sweet Cherry Varieties
Sweet cherries are great for eating out of hand and using in fruits salads, compotes, custards, sorbets, ice cream, and yogurt.
Fresh sweet cherries come to market from mid-spring to mid-summer, May through mid-July in the Northern Hemisphere. The sweet cherry harvest can be divided into early, mid-season and late. That means you can enjoy some or all of these over the course of the cherry harvest.
Tue, 29 May 2007 12:00:05 -0500 - Sour Cherry Varieties
Sour cherries are great for cooking. They are richly flavored and firm of flesh so that they don’t go mushy during cooking. Use sour cherries for pies, cobblers, clafoutis, dessert sauces, preserves, and jams.
There are of two types of sour cherries: amarelle-type cherries are yellow fleshed with clear juice; morello-type cherries are red fleshed with red juice.
Fresh sour cherries—there are more than 300 varieties--come to market from mid-June through mid-August.
Tue, 29 May 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Cherries
Cherry season is short and sweet.
Well, sweet cherry season is short and sweet, and sour cherry season is short and tart.
Put the two seasons together and you can enjoy about four months of fresh cherries each year: sweet cherries for eating out of hand and using in fruits salads, compotes, custards, sorbets, ice cream, and yogurt; sour cherries for pies, cobblers, clafoutis, dessert sauces, preserves, and jams.
Fresh sweet cherries are at your farm market from May through early July and fresh sour cherries from mid-June through mid-August. The peak season for cherries in the Southern Hemisphere is during December.
Mon, 28 May 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Cucumbers
Start slicing the cucumbers!
The first local cucumbers of the season just appeared at our farm market this week, and the weather is cooperating—the temperatures in the Sonoma Valley bounced into the mid-80s almost every afternoon.
Sliced cucumbers, watercress, and thinly sliced green onions are the ingredients of a tasty warm-weather sandwich.
Or you can add minced cucumbers and dill to plain yogurt to make a cooling warm weather soup or snack.
Why do cucumbers and warm weather mix so well? Cucumbers are more than 90 percent water. There crunchy texture, sweet grassy fragrance, and cool, mild flavor are perfect matches for late spring and summer sandwiches and salads.
You can also steam and sauté cucumbers and enjoy them as a vegetable side dish.
The peak season for fresh-from-the-garden cucumbers is late spring through summer, May to August in the Northern Hemisphere.
Fri, 25 May 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Late May Fresh at the Farm Market
Here is a list of the crops that you will find at the farm markets in Sonoma and San Francisco and many other farm markets around the country this week:
First of season: Apricots, cherimoyas, cherries, cilantro, cucumbers, fava beans, garlic chives, green garlic, goat cheese, herb and vegetable starts, nectarines, green onions, marjoram, new potatoes, parsley, radishes, raspberries, peaches, snow peas, olives, strawberries, string beans, and summer squash.
Peak of season: Artichokes, asparagus, avocadoes, beets, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, chard, dates, dried fruit, eggs, green garlic, honey, hydroponic tomatoes, leaf lettuce, leeks, local fresh and smoked seafood, mushrooms, spring onions, raisins, spring salad mix, spinach, strawberries, wine and apple cider vinegars, and fresh herbs including chives, dill, garlic chives, oregano, parsley, rosemary, Russian tarragon, and culinary bay leaves.
End of season: Blood oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, kale, navel oranges, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.
Thu, 24 May 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Tender Summer Squash
This sauté of fresh zucchini and herbs is a great way to kick off the summer zucchini and tender squash season:
Heat a few dabs of butter in a large skillet, add finely chopped yellow onion and brown lightly over high heat. Mix your choice of chopped fresh marjoram, snipped fresh dill, or cumin seed with unpeeled thin sliced zucchini and stir-fry with the onions for 1 minute. Cover and reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add a touch of salt just before serving.
Summer or tender squash can be sautéed, steamed, boiled, baked, puréed, or eaten raw.
The tender summer squashes—zucchini, Costata Romanesca, round and globe, scallop or pattypan, yellow crookneck and yellow straightneck, and Zephyr—mature during the summer and can be claimed as baby or mini-squashes in late spring.
Wed, 23 May 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - May Harvest in the Southern Hemisphere
The seasons are changing and winter is around the corner in the Southern Hemisphere.
The warm-season harvest is complete and now is the time to look ahead to the cool-season crops and fruits that will be ready soon.
If you still have beans, cauliflower, broccoli, and corn coming in from the garden, consider freezing some of these crops for winter use. Tomato puree and pasta sauces should be jarred up now and ready for those winter suppers that need a taste of summer.
The citrus harvest is on in the Southern Hemisphere. Kumquats, limes, early mandarins, late Valencia oranges, early navel oranges, and tangelos should be ready for picking now.
Other fruits ready for harvest this month include late apples, avocadoes, bananas, guavas, feijoas, early kiwifruit, olives, late passionfruit, pomegranates, late raspberries, and tamarilloes.
At the farm markets in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile this month you will find the following fresh and locally harvested cool-weather vegetables: beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrot, celeriac, chilies, Chinese cabbage, corn, kale, lettuce, parsnip, peas, purslane, and spinach.
Tue, 22 May 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - May Planting In The Southern Hemisphere
Winter crops should be planted out during May in the cool, temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere—Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile.
You can still plant broad beans through the fall, but now is the time to concentrate on planting your winter crops: hearting varieties of lettuce, carrots, spinach, radishes, and peas.
Tue, 22 May 2007 11:59:00 -0500 - Sweet Peppers
There’s a lot to be said for sweet peppers.
You can eat them raw in salads, or you can eat them roasted or barbecued or fried or stir-fried or stuffed with fish or meat mixes. You can use them in casseroles or rice dishes.
Try this: sauté sweet pepper strips in olive oil with onions and garlic, sprinkle with vinegar, and chill. There you have a tasty weekend salad. But wait! You can use this same mix to top hot Italian sausages.
Yummy!
Sweet peppers are in season from late spring through late summer, May through August in the Northern Hemisphere.
Mon, 21 May 2007 12:00:00 -0500 - Parsley
Parsley has a clean, fresh, peppery flavor that makes it a good match for all savory dishes.
Add chopped parsley to sliced tomatoes and toss with a vinaigrette. Add chopped parsley to scrambled eggs or an omelet.
Add chopped parsley with butter or olive oil to make a sauce for boiled new potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables.
Add chopped parsley to soups, stews, roasts, fish, poultry, stuffings, butters, and vinegars.
Parsley is an aromatic herb whose leaves and stems are edible. Parsley can usually be found year-round but is youngest and most tender in spring.
Fri, 18 May 2007 12:00:00 -0500
