Mail order fruit

This site has many good threads on nurseries and other places to get trees and scion but I can’t find any about fruit itself. Obviously the ethos of this community is ‘grow your own’, but it might be useful to have a resource. Useful to order a few fruit to taste different cultivars before committing to a tree, try something exotic that cant grow in your climate, or just get a case of fruit that is at its peak flavor.

I found one that specializes in citrus, but haven’t used it yet, will try it in the winter. Anybody know anywhere good?

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Along the same lines,I was thinking about members sending fruit to each other.
In particular,after hearing so many people liking Korean Giant Pear and never seeing,even names,when they are available in the grocery stores,so,unsure of what variety they are selling.
There is the legality,possibly,of a person mailing something perishable.

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(EDIT to save some time looks like the frozen grapes are not listed on that site at this time I will call, and ask.)
I have Few , but for now I ordered grapes of Muscadine scuppernong (white muscadine) from here .

Take Note shipping was expensive, see only takes Check over the mail.
a 30 lbs box with grapes ships for $87.53

Note long story short this will help me adjust wine with frozen grapes
When muscadines come into season I will have had some experience with the grapes .

It taste good so far (I didn’t add any water (ameliorate ) or sugar except sugar to scuppernong ))
I couldn’t adjust I had a flight ,
and barley got on local train to Chicago to get on flight

I am glad it tastes good as it is
(although I came back and made various ADJUSTMENTS to a separate red batch,.)

I would love to see a fruit for sale idea. I was impatient and went out and bought every variety I could just so I could taste them. I might be pulling out 40 blackberries and several muscadines next year after tasting.

I would love to see some varieties of fresh avocado fruit for sale.

Believe it or not here in Florida I was only able to find a handful of fuyu persimmon last year and they weren’t in good quality.

Here in Florida there’s a couple websites that grow different types of fruit and they send out baskets on what’s in season there’s a lot of local farmers who probably could do the same thing, heck I’m even thinking about it in a couple years, fruit of the month club. I thought about finding other local growers to combine forces but, I’m a dreamer, I would probably just sell on eBay or Etsy or trade other members for different fruit.

I planted 55 blackberries but I have 11 different varieties so they all fruit at different times which is hard for me to sell since I might only have five plants ripening at once I guess if I had more it would be a good idea or I need to go to 55 of the same blackberry so I have more quantity to sell.

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I’m interested in buying mail order fruit, to try, from members if that becomes an option.

persimmons, stone fruit, pawpaws, loquat, feijoa, and particular varieties of a number of things that can be grown in zone 8.

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I planted 4 pawpaw trees, 3 persimmons, 2 loquats & 2 kumquats and I never tasted any. I hope I like them.

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I had my eye out for Indio Mandarinquat fruit last winter, but nothing for online retail came up.

I bought some Mandarinquat last year off line and I was not a big fan, but I planted a dozen of the seed anyway. Half of then were a little green and really tart, they tasted good once they get a little squishy. They had a lot of seeds as well but someone told me kumquats have more seeds if they are young trees?

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I suppose the challenge is the fruit growers like us would buy is expensive. When I say expensive it cost me the amount of 1 fruit tree before to buy 1 batch of Warren Pear or 1 batch of Comice. Of course fruit has to be in season too. Pears are often not in stock until mid fall when they would be ripened for example. Frog Hollow farms has a lot of good fruit varieties to try but they cost 30 dollars or 40 dollars after shipping. If you are interested in specific stuff like the Comice pear I believe it is Harley and David who is known for their fruit baskets of Comice pears.

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You will.

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I’m interested in trying fruit I’m growing but haven’t fruited yet, or that I may like to grow. Things that aren’t available at all from local retail, or not available at good quality.

I wouldn’t be comparing it to the cost of grocery store fruit.

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Like I said there are sources and I named a few. I did that with a lot of my pears I grow. I was just pointing out because the fruit is going to be more uncommon I would expect to pay a higher price point. That being said buying fruit before growing the fruit has saved me time and money in the long run. I was thinking of growing a sapodilla because I heard it was sweet and easy to grow. Ordered it on Etsy and we decided there were better things to grow.

We have ordered from both Friends Ranches in Ojai and Frog hollow farm in Sonoma. Frog hollow was a disaster, they didn’t even send the right fruit. Friends ranches was very good in 2021, it was okay in 2022. I think the pandemic hit them hard. the fruit was not as good, staffing I think. The trees were okay. We like Mandarins from Ojai, Dancy and others. Hot during the day, for sugar, cool at night for acid. Overall I would recommend Friends Ranches. If you like sugar and acid for citrus. I have not tried anybody else.

If you’re looking to try out stone fruits, Andy Mariani of Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill, CA ships his. He’s the head of the Santa Clara Rare Fruits association. He only grows what tastes good and he picks it when it’s ripe, meaning his labor costs are high because he goes through the trees more often than commercial growers.

And he does ship overnight. But it is expensive. On the other hand, knowing what you like when you’re going to plant it and have to live with it a long time is worth a lot.

That said, as a frequent local customer, the Baby Crawford and Kit Donnell are the best tasting peaches there are, the one being a variety he rescued that UC Davis was going to toss because the fruit was too small. But the flavor! The Kit Donnell, I believe Andy himself developed that one. I wait all year for those two types to come on and planted a Baby Crawford myself even though I really didn’t have room for another tree. They’re that good.

His Green Gauge plums, of which he grows several subtypes, are cherry sized and have intense flavor.

Hoping this helps.

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https://www.queenerfarm.com/appleclub
They han an apple club where they will send you apples every other week. I haven’t tried it, but I thought it sounded pretty neat.

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This is exactly what I was looking for… Thanks! I’ll call to inquire about Baby Crawfords tomorrow!

@masterp0606 - what an awesome club, but its only Oregon pickup, no shipping :frowning:

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The Kit Donnell peaches at Andy’s are huge! And exquisitely flavored, too.

Is this site any good
products
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PC problems sorry
https://blogs.cornell.edu/treefruit/production/beach-plum/more-resources/

I’ve just look at Andy’s farm, they don’t have Green gage. I used to have a green gage in the Bay Area, they were so sweet. I’m trying to grow them down here but so far I get nothing.