Stan’s harvest diary 2021

Mira and F06 (Anya seedlings), sweeter than candy:

Moorpark, exquisite flavor:

Blenheim, affected by pit burn from the heat, the inside is cooked, the outside is still underripe:

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Unfortunate about the pit burn.

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Tart Cherry: Earlier in the season we had some Carmine Jewel, Juliet, and Balaton. This is most of the Lutowka harvest, picked today (June 23):

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The apricot season is winding down, tomorrow I will likely pick the last few fruits still on the trees. Some notes on late season varieties.

Moorpark harvest was great this year. Here’s a photo from a few days ago, I picked as many for several days in a row, and overall the harvest lasted for about 15 days.

Mira’s harvest ended about a week ago, these apricots are as sweet as one can ever get. We had enough to vacuum pack and freeze some:

Hoyt Montrose, looks nice but the flavor has been meh for the first two years it fruited. Maybe next year it will taste better.


Tilton, just before I turned them into jam:

Tardif de Bordaneil, a few fruits from a couple of last year’s grafts. A nice flavor.

Also, I had one and only fruit from a last year’s Germab-5 graft. Ate it too fast to make a photo. :slight_smile: A truly outstanding flavor! I hope to have many more of these in the years to come.

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Have been eating Bavay plums since yesterday. I can’t believe they ripened this early! Just in time at the end of the apricot season. It will be a good harvest of gage plums this year.

Also, Gravenstein apples are staring to come in, which is about a normal timing for them in my area.

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Reine des Mirabelles:


Oullins Gage:


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How does Reine de Mirabelle compare to your other gages?

It has a bit more acidity than most other gages, which is surprising since mirabelles are pure sugar and no acid.

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I understand that early/late springs and such can cause fruits to ripen earlier or later than they should, but is it possible wonky weather can cause specific varieties to not ripen in the order they normally should? Like some of my other plums are ripening before my earliest varieties, etc.

There is a typical order of ripening but variations and exceptions always happen. I notice that some varieties or some trees always ripen on approximately the same day every year while others are strongly affected by events of that particular season and their ripening days vary widely. This creates changes in the general order.

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Thank you Stan for the fantastic pictures and descriptions!

I love this thread because it shows me what I have to look forward to as the fruit season progresses. I can’t wait to see what plums ripen next!

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Comparing Bavay (on the left in all photos) and Old Green Gage (the classic Reine Claude, on the right in all photos). Differences in color are very subtle and vary with lighting and the degree of ripeness (one of the two Bavays is a bit more ripe than the other). Brix values vary from about 25 to about 30, depending on how ripe a particular specimen is, but on average Old Green Gage has a bit more of both sweetness and acidity.



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Bavay is a Reine Claude

This morning’s harvest: a few Emeraude nectarines and a variety of plums:

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Beautiful !

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Howard Miracle season has started. One of the best Asian plums if not the best.

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Harvest of Gage (Reine Claude) plums is peaking up. I have been harvesting about a gallon every morning for the last few days. Mostly Bavay, Golden Transparent Gage, and Purple Gage, with a little bit from Old Green Gage, Gras Romanesc, and Reine des Mirabelles.

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Jefferson plum. I really like this one, need a bigger graft (the graft I have now is very low on a Bavay tree and does not grow much).


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Stan,
I have a graft labeled Jefferson. The fruit are medium size. Will you be able to show me more pics of them, please, esp. in natural light?

Here also some photos from two years ago: Stan's harvest diary 2019 - #50 by Stan

I also have one fruit still on the tree, will take a photo of it tomorrow morning.

Jefferson’s skin color is almost identical to that of Coe’s Golden Drop. Jefferson is a bit smaller in size and has an oval shape, while CGD has a narrower neck which makes it look like a drop. But generally they look very similar.

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