Category: Fruit
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The Peculiar Pawpaw
As summer begins to wind down, a local native fruit is only just beginning to show signs of ripening. You may not have ever heard of our somewhat obscure resident fruit tree, Asimina Triloba. It’s a fruit that goes by many names: Banango, Asimoya, Indian Banana, Poor Man’s Banana, Prairie Banana, Hoosier Banana, Hillbilly Mango, Quaker…
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How to Pick a Peach
“How to pick a peach” depends upon who’s picking it: the commercial farmer, the grocery store shopper, the local small farmer, and the farmers’ market shopper. Let’s take a look at all of them! The Commercial Farmer: By this, I mean the big mega orchard grower (growing hundreds or even thousands of acres of peach trees!),…
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What’s with all that wasted fruit? A story of sustainability
Thinning fruit was a difficult process for me to get behind. For some reason, we have to cut fruit off of our trees? It seems like a waste, if you ask me. We only have so many, so shouldn’t we be trying to milk them for all they’ve got? Had we just left them alone, every peach…
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Apple Geek vs. Apple Snob
Apple geek or apple snob? Which one are you? Let’s back up a bit, shall we….What exactly IS an apple geek? To be clear…I am talking about an “apple geek” not an “Apple geek” (which, capitalized, would of course refer to those who are aficionados of Apple computer/phone products…sometimes also referred to as “Apple fanboys”,…
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Your Pollination Primer (just in time for spring blossom season!)
As farmers and consumers, why do we need to worry about pollination at all? Easy answer: because one third of the crops we eat rely on it! Any fruiting bodies that we eat, with a few exceptions, rely on pollination and proper fertilization to be recognized as edible. Apples, peaches, plums, zucchini, walnuts, melons, tomatoes,…
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Yes, We Have No Bananas!
The moral of the story: Don’t believe everything you read on the internet! Last year’s blog post on this date (April 1st, folks) was a complete farce. It was the ONLY time I’ve ever tried an April Fool’s prank, and gosh..but I nailed it! Did you get taken in? Don’t worry – many people did. Including, believe…
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Fly Around the Farm!
By request of many, we’ve now a virtual tour, of sorts, of the farm! In 90 seconds, get a feel for what NSO looks like both from a bird’s eye view and closeup as various harvest activities take place in late summer and fall. Thanks to Chris Ruch for the excellent video.
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Pick of the Week: Winecrisp!
Winecrisp is a complex, crunchy, sweet, and very hard apple with a fruity sweet flavor (with hints of berry!) and a beautiful dusky red skin. When we planted this new variety, it was simply known as Co-op 31 (the poor nameless thing). We only planted one tree, just to try it out. There’s nothing too…
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Increase Your Apple IQ!
With more than 300 apple varieties to choose from, it’s pretty clear that NSO is passionate about all things APPLE! Applesauce, apple butter, apple cider, and apple information. We know how to grow them, how to pick them, how to store them, and how to get them to you. Now we have a few more…
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“Florina Flo” Comic Strip??
Shall we take a journey down memory lane to our childhood today? Back in the day, when we all chewed gum, Bazooka was quite a thing. Pink, perfumy, rock-hard at first (usually), we dug in anyway and then attempted to blow bubbles with it. At least for this chewer, bubble-blowing seemed rather tricky with Bazooka. But then Bubble…
