What tastes amazing from your orchard this year? I’ve had a couple knock-your-socks off great fruits so I thought I would kick off a thread on it. Here we go…
Weeping Santa Rosa plum - even though it has been raining a lot around ripening the fruits have been very rich, quenching, and sweet. They need to be almost black in color before they are the most flavorful. They have that unique Santa Rosa flavor, magnified a lot more!
Arctic Glo nectarine - WoW! This has to be about as good a peach/nect I ever remember eating. They have some of the cranberry flavor of the red-fleshed peaches, but a lot sweeter and a bit richer. This is the first year I have gotten a decent crop on them. The weather has been rainy but they are still amazing. Thanks @Drew51 for getting me interested in this guy. My Gold Dust peaches are ripening at the same time and all the rain has ruined them, they are garbage. I’m not even picking them any more. @Olpea I recall you mentioning Gold Dust was not good for you at some point, they have not been super consistent for me but never as bad as they are this year. The tree is getting old and I don’t think I will replace it.
I have a bunch more new-to-me plums coming, hopefully a few other amazing ones. I am getting my first good crop on AU Producer and it’s perfectly fine.
The apricots are long gone but the Florilege was the one jaw-dropper this year, if they got fully tree-ripened they were really rich and sweet. The Ilona were also very good, but more watery.
I had a productive cherry crop this year, with a great set and little bird damage. The Black Tartatian were amazing, small and soft but with great flavor. But the real surprise was the Regina. I finally got to let them hang til they were almost black as the birds were not going after them (usually I have to pick early or they will be all gone). They are a top-quality Bing-type cherry when picked fully ripe, super rich sweet and crunchy. Think about the best store cherry you ever remember eating. I put up many strands of long scare tape before any cherries were red, and that gave me really good control on bird damage. The White Gold overset a bit and they were still very good but not great.
I’m glad to hear you mention that Scott. I always felt like I may have removed my trial Gold Dust out a bit too early to fully test it. I’m reassured from your trial that it wasn’t a good peach for me.
We’ve had very dry weather here (like a significant drought in my area) up until yesterday when we got over 2" of rain in an hour, so we’ve had some really great peaches. The only thing we’ve sold so far are tart cherries, some beginning blackberries (which don’t taste that great in a drought) some beginning tomatoes, and some peaches.
The peaches are all very good in terms of flavor. The best peach this year is what I call Spring Snow. It’s a white peach which may or may not actually be Spring Snow. @alan , @mamuang have trialed a Spring Snow and it has not performed well in terms of flavor for them. @SpokanePeach has reported his Spring Snow is a very high quality white peach for him.
This year there were very few Spring Snow peaches on the 4 trees I have left of the variety. I didn’t even sort them out when I sold them. I just sold them with the yellow peaches we were picking those days (normally I would sort them out and sell them as white peaches separately). There were so few this year, I just sold them together with yellow peaches.
This is what a customer texted me about 2 weeks ago. He’s been a long time repeat customer. When he refers to the “white one”, that’s Spring Snow. This is the text word for word, except I withheld his name at the end:
“Mark, too often some of us who are privileged to know you and benefit from your hard work forget to tell you how we appreciate you and the fruits (pun intended) of your labor. Among the 15# of peaches I picked up was one beautiful white one with a dark rose & white flesh that was the best of a life time! OMG. Incredible. Thanks for being you and keeping your farmers soul…”
I think that’s a pretty good testimony for that peach
Mark,
I can’t really blame Spring Snow. I blame Mother Nature. It often rains when Spring Snow is ripening. That’s the problem. Although I have not taste well-ripened Spring Snow, I also like its unripe fruit, (a week or two before ripened) because it is sweet and crunchy. I like crunchy texture of many fruit. Spring Snow is a keeper.
Unfortunately, some how this year, my Spring Snow which flowered quite a bit, did not set fruit but one. It could be brown rot blossom blight. It is a potted tree so I did not spray it.
Summer rain here has ruined early ripening stone fruit for me. That included Gold Dust. I had Gold Dust ripened during frequent rain. Just like Scott said, I could not eat it, too bloated and too bland. Last year, I removed the tree that had Gold Dust grafted on it. I tried to grafted it again this year but none took.
This year, I have not tasted any amazing fruit from my trees. I have high hope for Euro pears, though.
It would be nice to know what Scott is growing as a replacement in Gold Dust’s window. For me it is still the most highly flavored peach I grow in its season. For those with room, it may not matter if it is a shy bearer- that can even be an advantage. I prefer the GD fruit to Glenglo, the best other peach in its window that I grow.
The same goes for Flavor May, which always is at least good when other peaches like Desiree and Harrow Diamond that ripen a bit later have usually been bland lately. At my site, Flavor May is pretty shy but at more favorable ones it tends to bear full crops dependably based on maybe 4 years of evaluation. The Desiree peaches are big and beautiful, but to anyone used to good peaches they are barely edible. Such has been the case for something like 4 straight seasons.
My tree probably has five more years in it so it’s not going away soon. That said I’d rather just have more Arctic Glo in that period, it’s sooo good. I’m also generally getting less and less interested in peaches, my nectarines are so much better. Maybe it would be nice to have an earlier yellow nectarine. My earliest is Summer Beaut which has not ripened yet.
Have you tried Snow Queen Nect? It’s a reliable producer here in Chicagoland. It ripens end of this month. It’s skin is a bit thicker comparatively. But it is sweet and juicy. I grafted a Arctic Glo onto the tree this year. Hopefully, they cover my early season peach/ nect demand.
I lost Arctic Glo three years ago when my backyard flooded. But my new Arctic Glo has fruit this year. I replaced it right away. It should be ready soon.
I picked yesterday an early plum called Early Golden and it is early! I’m two to three weeks behind Scott. Arctic Glo will be ripe in 2-3 weeks. Anyway I liked Early Golden and happy I grafted into my orchard. It had some tartness unlike most yellows. Vermont will not fruit for me and Flavor Queen only produces one or two fruits each year. In contrast early golden 3rd year graft had to be thinned. A few more ripened today.
Currants this year are very sweet. I can even eat the reds fresh without much wincing. I like making syrup and flavoring my water with it.
Hey Scott! Yes garlic was ready very early well a week or two. When my soft neck starts falling over I harvest. Crop was very average about 20 huge bulbs about 50 medium bulbs and about 10 small bulbs. I need to pick my seed out then I can give it away.
My honey berry crop was huge this year too.
Here Silver Gem ripens before Artic Glo and has so far been a better nectarine for me, but this year will be an interesting test. My AG has good size and is loaded- SG has been more reliable, but this year there are an awful lot of badly split pits. I haven’t assessed AG on this matter yet. I like SG’s flavor better so far- it’s more aromatic, I think. But I get back to you on that.
My Jade is loaded with much bigger nectarines than either of those two, but they are mostly cracked from all the rain we’ve been getting. I’m surprised that Gem and Glo are holding up so well on that issue.
I only have Avalon on nursery trees- the grafts I put on my orchard tree was a mistake somehow. One of them has fruit that is a long ways from even having color and I’ve been picking the very firs Avalons for about a day- from nursery trees. I may just leave one of the nursery trees where it is and call it an orchard tree- they are very good.
Wow, everybody is coming around to the same conclusion. My peaches have been gone for about 15 years. They can’t compare to nectarines. Redhaven, Winblo, Golddust, all white peaches, gone, gone, gone. I do have one left, Valley Sweet. It tastes like the Honey series of nectarines.
Arctic Glo was too acidic here for me. I think my system increases both brix and acid. But maybe it’s just me. I do like the Arctic series nectarines. But the Honey series develops better flavor at least in my conditions.
I don’t know why nectarines are so much better than peaches. It’s supposed to be a one gene difference.
My Japanese plums were also gone 15 years ago in favor of pluots. Zaiger and the like are onto something.
Drew, you are having nice garlic harvest. I still have some garlic that you sent me years ago(thanks!). I also added more store bought hardneck later. My garlics are planned around the peach tree so they don’t have big bulbs.but the scape are nice,one of my favorite veggies.
We ( me, squirrels, pussoms, racoons…) have been harvesting J plum for a week now. The name tag is lost but I glad the branch still very productive.
It is very reliable, bear fruits every year. It is red meat, sweet and fragrant, skin is a little tart. The most important is that it is early ripen. It ripens early than Shiro. In between the Spring Satin and Shiro. My grafted Spring Satin were harvested by squirrels. They were high up that I can’t reach easily. 4 legs certainly have some advantages.
It is good to hear that the Early Golden is great. I grafted one on my Santa Rosa tree since the Santa Rosa doesn’t fruit much. I am looking forward to taste one or two next year.
