Hellgate CSA

I'm one of those weird people who don't much like raw stone fruit. Why did I get a fruit share? Strawberries and apples. But the middle of the season is a tedium of peaches, nectarines, and plums. What to do? Add lots of sugar and cook, naturally!

American fruit desserts include compotes (fruit simmered with sugar), crisps (fruit covered with a butter/sugar/flour/oat crumb topping and baked), cobblers (fruit covered with a buttermilk pastry dough and baked), and of course pies and their relatives, tarts and galettes.

I'm embarrassingly inept with pastry dough, so I've been making stone fruit crisps with great results. Below is a recipe for what I made yesterday, with half a fruit share, based on a Deborah Madison recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

What do you do with all this fruit?

Are you deterred from baking with fresh cherries because it's such a pain to pit them?  Here's an elegant solution to the problem: use a pastry/icing tip!

Just an FYI to those with fruit shares - THERE IS NO FRUIT THIS WEEK, JULY 8.

Apparently, the farm ran out of fruit!  This is the first time it's ever happened.  Gerry, one of our farmers, blames it on mother nature - strawberries, cherries, and apples are all gone, and the upcoming fruit isn't quite ripe.   Sounds like this season has been a bit out of the ordinary.  They will make it up to us next week with extra fruit.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Well, not so much a tale, but an announcement about fruit today.  Because of some occurring problems, we are distributing fruit today by the piece and not by the pound (pieces not pounds) so please do not weigh fruit. We want to make sure everyone gets a complete fruit share.

Also, please note that the watermelons are part of the vegetable share, not the fruit share.

Thank you!

Seckels are believed by many to be the only truly American variety of pear in commercial production. Unlike other varieties developed in the U.S. from a cross or bud sport of other European cultivars, Seckels are thought to have originated as a wild seedling near Philadelphia. They were discovered in the early 1800's. This may or may not be true, however. It is possible that German imigrants travelling westward through the area dropped fruit or left seeds behind.

[source: USA Pears]

What a treat to have donut peaches in the fruit share today.  Here's a bit of info on donut peaches, via hormel.com (of all places!)

Donut Peach

A variety of white Peach that originated in Asia. The name was derived from the appearance, which looks like a cake donut.

A number of people have come forward asking whether the fruit from Hepworth Farms, source of our fruit share, is organic. I understand this concern, as pesticide and spray residue are a worry to a lot of us.

It is or was common for a crowd of extras in acting to shout the word "rhubarb" repeatedly and out of step with each other, to cause the effect of general hubbub. As a result, the word "rhubarb" sometimes is used to mean "length of superfluous text in speaking or writing", or a general term to refer to irrelevant chatter by chorus or extra actors.

Possibly from this usage, possibly from a variant on "rube", or perhaps some of both, the word also denotes a loud argument.

Don't know what to do with rhubarb? Here's some helpful info to get you started:

Rhubarb Background

Rhubarb is a vegetable with a unique taste that makes it a favorite in many pies and desserts. It originated in Northern Asia over 2,000 years ago. It was initially cultivated for its medicinal qualities, it was not until the 18th century that rhubarb was grown for culinary purposes in Britain and America.