Apples

We grow a wide variety of apples from late summer through the end of October. We’re sure you’ll find your favorite, whether sweet or tart.

Interested in a larger quantity for sauce or storage? We sell apples by the half bushel at a discounted rate. Call us up or shoot us an email, and we’ll have them ready for you to pick up at the next market!

Available at Markets: mid-August thru November

The varieties below are listed in approximate order of ripening.

Apple Variety	Description and Recommended Uses
Yellow Transparent	Early yellow antique variety first grown in Russia. Tart flesh. Excellent for sauce!
Lodi	Early season green apple. Tender, acid and juicy. Excellent for applesauce.
Dandee Red	Early season Mac variety. Solid red skin over creamy white, tart flesh.
Pristine	Early yellow apple developed at Purdue University Sweetest apple in the early season.
Sansa	Sweet early apple with bright red stripes over yellow skin. Best for fresh snacking.
Summer Rambo	First grown in 16th century France. Green skin with red stripes, crisp, mild tartness.
Golden Russet	Antique American cultivar which is excellent for eating, cooking & cider. Dense, sharp flavor with unique russeted skin.
Blondee	Early sweet-tart yellow apple with clear smooth skin discovered in Ohio in 1998.
Honeycrisp	Crisp, juicy, sweet flavor. Developed by U. of Minnesota. Consistently rated #1 in taste tests.
Jonathan	Moderately tart red apple. Delicious for snacking, salads and cooking and fried apples!
Daybreak Fuji	An early sport of Fuji discovered on our neighbor’s farm. Sweet and juicy.
Crimson Crisp	Bright red skin over yellow flesh. Very, very crisp with a rich sweet/sharp spicy flavor.
Pink Pearl	Unique pink-fleshed apple with translucent green skin. Crisp, tart flesh that is high in antioxidants.
Shizuka	Sweet and juicy, firm texture and crisp flesh. Excellent for snacking or cooking.
Ambrosia	From British Columbia. A good snacking apple with crisp texture and juicy aromatic flesh.
Northern Spy	The consummate pie apple.  Sprouted from a seed in New York in 1800.
Crimson Topaz	Developed in the Czech Republic. Crisp cream-colored juicy flesh with a tart punch!
Stayman	Firm, rich flavor and mildly tart. Great all-purpose apple.
Winesap	An American heirloom apple dating back to the 18th century. Tart – good for cooking or eating fresh.
Nittany	Introduced by Penn State Univ. Sweet-tart and spicy flavor with red-orange skin.
Suncrisp	A cross of Golden Del. and Cox Orange Pippin. Golden fruit with sweet-tart intense spicy flavor.
Fuji	Very firm and unusually sweet. Striped red and yellow. First discovered in Japan.
Granny Smith	The famous green apple. Very firm and tart. Good for all cooking purposes.
Pink Lady	Attractive pink blush. Crisp fruit with a sweet-tart flavor, and a long storage life.
Goldrush	Best apple in storage into new year. Extremely firm and tart. Chewy gold skin with russet.

Apricots

In Latin, the apricot’s name means “precious,” a label earned because it ripens earlier than other summer fruits. China deserves the credit for discovering and cultivating this richly sweet fruit over 4,000 years ago. Hundreds of centuries later, Spanish missionaries carried apricots to North America. A relative of the peach, the apricot is smaller and has a smooth, oval pit that falls out easily when the fruit is halved.

The May 2011 edition of the Washingtonian Magazine named our “juicy, flavorful apricots that arrive mid-summer” as one of the things that they crave most!

Varieties we grow include:

Variety	Description
Early Blush	A new early variety. Medium size with orange-red blush over a golden background.
Goldrich	Bright, shiny orange color freestone fruit. Flesh is firm, fine textured and deep orange. We affectionately refer to these as “Baby Rattles” because you can hear the pit shaking inside the fruit. Our favorite Apricot!
Goldcot	Medium-size nearly round fruit. Golden moderately think skin. Flesh is farm and medium orange.
Harcot	Medium to large fruit with sweet, juicy rich flavor. Originally developed in Canada.
Orangered	Fruit has a red blush over a bright orange background. Firm texture and high quality flavor.
Harlayne	Bright yellow medium size freestone fruit with yellow blush.
Harogem	Medium fruit with bright red blush over orange skin. Flesh is firm, and freestone. We affectionately refer to these as “Pink Cheeks.”
Hargrande	Very large fruit, yellow-orange in color. Flesh is firm, orange and freestone.
Sugar Pearls	A very new exciting white fleshed apricot! Very sweet, with a flavor similar to a white peach. Not something you can expect to get anywhere else!

Available at Markets: early July to late July

Berries & Grapes

Strawberries

We grow June-bearing and everbearing varieties:

Variety	Description
Chandler	Originally a California variety which has proven to be well-suited to conditions on the East Coast. These large, full flavored berries grow on raised beds and produce fruit over a 4-5 week season.
Flavorfest	A new disease-resistant June-bearing variety that was bred right here in the Mid-Atlantic.  We’re looking forward to tasting some of these medium-sized super-sweet berries.
Seascape	Strawberries in October? It’s true! Unlike the traditional June-bearing strawberries, these berries will fruit from July until the first frost in October.

Available at Markets: mid-May to mid-June for the majority of our crop; however since our everbearing varieties yield longer into the season and we usually have strawberries available until November (but be sure to shop early for them!)

Blackberries

Grown on thorny bushes called brambles, blackberries are one of the largest of the berries, with a tarter flavor than raspberries.  They’re great for eating out of hand, but cooks often strain out the seeds when making pies and preserves.  We grow several delicious varieties:

Variety	Description
Arapaho	A medium fruit, not seedy, and sweet with an excellent flavor.
Triple Crown	A medium to large fruit, not seedy, and very sweet and flavorful.
Chester	A large fruit that stores well.
Siskiyou	We grow this early-season variety in our high tunnel.
Prime-Ark 45	This fall-bearing variety produces fruit until the first frost, extending our berry-growing season!
Prime-Ark Freedom	Another fall-bearing variety that brings us fruit until the first frost.

Available at Markets: early July thru mid-September

Raspberries

The raspberry is composed of many connecting droplets— individual sections of fruit, each with its own seed—surrounding a central core.  This makes them very fragile.  We grow summer- and fall-producing red raspberries that are as fresh from the vine as you can get!

Varieties include:

Variety	Description
Caroline, Encore, Prelude, Himbo-Top & Nova	Classic red raspberries.
Anne	A fall-bearing gold raspberry.
Jewel	Our favorite black raspberry!  A glossy black fruit, large size and a rich, true raspberry flavor.

Available at Markets: mid-June thru mid-October (red raspberries); early July (black raspberries)

Blueberries

Blueberries are perfect for tossing into cakes, muffins, cereal bowls and fruit salads.  Like other berries, they also make good preserves and tarts.

We grow several varieties of the highbush type:

Bluecrop, Chandler, Patriot, Spartan, Duke, and Aurora and Elliott to help extend the season.  Chandler is our favorite–these blueberries often grow to the size of quarters!

Available at Markets: late June to early August

Gooseberries

These large, tart, translucent green or red berries in the Ribes family are round and about half an inch in diameter. They’re very acidic and pair well with roasted meats, like goose, and mix well in jam, pies or other desserts.

Typical harvest date: late June/early July

Currants

Another member of the tart Ribes family. The small fruit with translucent skin is harvested in clusters. Admired for generations in Europe for their versatility, these fruits make refreshing juice and wines and excellent jam and provide more Vitamin C than fresh oranges. We grow a wide array of red, white, pink champagne and black varieties.

Available at Markets: late June/early July

Grapes

We grow many varieties of seedless table grapes with an array of colors from pink to blue to black to green to amber. The beautiful clusters of these succulent seedless grapes are almost impossible not to munch on. The flavor of our grapes will blow you away – forget about ever buying another bunch from the supermarket! Our favorite varieties include Jupiter, Neptune, Vanessa and Einset.

We also grow several varieties of the slip-skin type of grape.  If you hold one of these grapes between your thumb and forefinger, you can pop or slip off the skin of the grape. These grapes are sweet with a “foxy” flavor and can be eaten fresh (minus the skin) or used for making jelly, juice and wine. Concord is the most popular variety with dark purple-blue fruit with a bluish bloom. Niagara has green fruit that is the source of most white grape juice.

Available at Markets: August thru October (table grapes)

Cherries

Sweet Cherries

We grow several varieties of sweet cherries, including:

Variety	Description
Summit	An early variety with large, heart-shaped cherry fruit with good flavor.
Ulster	Dark red, large, firm-fleshed, sweet fruit ripening mid-season.
Lapins	Developed in British Colombia, this unique dark red cherry is large in size, and has good flavor.
Black Gold	A dark red cherry with firm fruit and good size.
Hedelfingen	A large, firm-fleshed, high quality late dark red cherry.
Hudson	The latest of the good dark, black sweet cherries.
Emperor Francis	A large, high quality yellow cherry with red blush.
Schmidt Biggareau	A dark red sweet cherry ripening in the mid-season.
Regina	A late ripening, dark red sweet cherry. The fruit is very firm and large.
Rainier	Large yellow fruit with red blush and creamy yellow flesh. Considered “cream of the crop.”

Available at Markets: mid-June to mid-July

Tart Cherries

Also known as Sour Cherries or Pie Cherries.  These cherries are quite tart (hence the name) and are best known as the key ingredient in desserts such as cherry pie or cherries jubilee. They are also delicious in main courses, salads, jams and jellies, dried and beverages. Tart cherries are seldom sold fresh in your local grocery store and have a very short season, so get them when you can at market!

We grow:

Variety	Description
Jubileum	A very early variety with dark red fruit and good storage qualities. We often pick these up to a week or more before the other varieties!
Danube	Very dark red fruit that is very sweet (for a tart cherry). Planted widely in Europe.
Balaton	A Hungarian cultivar introduced in 1984 with very firm dark red fruit, red juicy flesh. Great for drying.
Montmorency	The traditional tart cherry.  Medium-sized with a bright red fruit and clear, juicy flesh.

Available at Markets: late June to mid-July

Nectarines

Nectarines, whose name comes from the Greek “nekter” for sweet liquid, are a fruit all their own, not a cross between a peach and a plum, or a fuzzless peach. Like peaches, nectarines may be yellow or white-fleshed and clingstone or freestone. A yellow nectarine’s flavor is similar to a peach, only richer.

Nectarines can be much more difficult to grow than peaches, which are somewhat protected from pests by the fuzz.  Most of us on the farm agree that Redgold nectarines are the tastiest piece of fruit we grow!  But the other varieties are still delicious too.  Our varieties include:

Variety	Description
Avalon	Very early season yellow variety with rich color and balanced good flavor. Developed at Rutgers Univ.
Easternglo	Medium to large yellow mostly freestone. Fruit is firm, nearly 100% red, with a smooth finish.
Nectafest	A new high quality yellow flesh fruit with a good flavor profile. Developed at USDA research station.
Summer Beaut	Exceptional yellow fleshed freestone. This early season variety has medium size.
Sunglo	A large, very red freestone yellow nectarine with drier flesh with good flavor.
Redgold	A high quality late yellow nectarine. Fruit is freestone, with excellent color and flavor.
Fantasia	Excellent quality, yellow fleshed, free-stone nectarine. Fruit is large with a smooth glossy finish.
Jade	Early season freestone white nectarine with very firm sweet flesh.
SilverGem	Medium-sized white nectarine with a pleasant balance of sugars and acid.
Arctic Jay	Mid-season white variety. The flesh is very firm and has a sub-acid sweet flavor.
Arctic Pride	White flesh clingstone nectarine. Moderate firmness and mid-sweet flavor.
Arctic Star	Medium-sized clingstone white variety with a sweet sub-acid flavor. Flesh is white with some red.
Arctic Sweet	One of the best-flavored white nectarines. Fruit is medium size, firm and highly colored.
Zephyr	Very large freestone white nectarine with excellent flavor.
Emeraude	Large, highly colored white variety with very good sweet flesh. Developed in France.

Available at Markets: mid-July thru late August; mid-July to mid-September (white nectarines)

Peaches

Our customers often tell us that our peaches are what draw them to our farmers markets. You just can’t find a good ripe peach in the grocery store! We bring our peaches to market freshly-picked and tree-ripe.

Yellow Peaches

Most of our yellow-fleshed peaches are freestone, meaning that the flesh easily separates from the stone or pit. Because we plant a wide variety of peaches, we’re able to extend our season into late September, and sometimes into October. Hope you’ll enjoy one of the many varieties we grow:

Variety	Description
Rich May	Our earliest ripening peach. Outstanding red skin, clingstone with firm flesh and good flavor.
Desiree	Semi-Freestone peach developed at Rutgers University. Juicy flesh with slightly sweetness acidic flavor.
Glenglo	Medium to large semi-freestone peach with good flavor.
Sentry	A firm, highly-colored, semi-freestone peach with excellent size for an early season variety.
Redhaven	Standard for the NE peach industry. Fruit is medium-size and colors to a brilliant red.
John Boy	Developed from Loring. High quality fruit with good color. One of our new favorites!
Bellaire	A mostly freestone variety with a very classy attractive coloring.
Bounty	Very large fruit that is firm and freestone. The best peach for canning!
Cresthaven	A very firm, highly colored mid-season variety. Yellow flesh shows red around the pit.
Autumnglo	A large late season variety with dark red blush and excellent flavor.
Encore	A very attractive late season peach with large firm fruit.
Laurol	A late season peach with large, attractive red skin fruit and firm yellow flesh.
Victoria	Large with firmer flesh and excellent flavor for a late season peach.
Ouchita Gold	A very late season variety. Medium fruit with attractive orange-red color on yellow.

Typical harvest date: early July thru late September

White Peaches

White peaches have white flesh and less acid than yellow-fleshed peaches, so they have a higher sugar content and taste “sweeter.” Some of our white peaches are freestone, with the flesh easily separating from the stone or pit, and some are clingstone, meaning the flesh clings to the pit.

The many varieties we grow include:

Variety	Description
SpringSnow	Medium clingstone fruit with semi-firm very sweet flesh.
Sugar May	One of the best in the early season. Medium in size, highly colored, firm flesh and clingstone.
Snowbrite	Large fruit that is typically freestone developed in California. White creamy sweet flesh!
White Lady	The fruit is highly colored and very firm with excellent dessert qualities. A sub-acid variety.
Klondike	Medium to large fruit is firm and very attractive.
Sugar Giant	One of the largest white fleshed sub-acid peach varieties. Exceptional color and firmness.
August Rose	Late season white peach developed at Rutgers Univ. Freestone with delicious flesh.
Snow Giant	Very large late season freestone peach with very good flavored sweet flesh.

Available at Markets: mid-July to mid-September

Flat Peaches (also known as Peento or “donut” peaches)

Although these peaches are a recent phenomenon in the fruit industry, scientists believe that peaches growing in the wild originally had this flat shape! We only grow one variety, Saturn. Their delicate white flesh, flat shape and exquisite sweet flavor with a high sugar content are quite appealing.

Available at Markets: late July to early August

Pears

We currently grow several of the well-known varieties, as well as sweet, crunchy, amazingly juicy Asian Pears (also known as “apple pears”).

European Pears

European Pears are what most folks think of as traditional pears.  They soften as they ripen and have a traditional pear shape. After many years of growing only the two traditional varieties, Bartlett and Bosc, we’re excited to finally offer a wider selection of pears, many of which are more disease resistant, store well and are better tasting!

Variety	Description
Sunrise	Yellow, often finishing with a slight blush and very little russet. Flavor is very pleasant and sweet for the early season.
Bartlett	A good all-purpose pear that is sweet and juicy with a smooth texture. The green skin turns yellow when ripe. Great for canning or eating fresh.
Blake’s Pride	Medium size fruit with an attractive yellow color and excellent, aromatic flavor.
Harrow Sweet	A late season pear developed in Ontario. Yellow skin with an attractive blush. Flesh is juicy and sweet.
Magness	Skin is greenish-brown, covered with light russet. Flesh is soft, juicy and almost free of grit cells. Flavor is sweet and of excellent quality.
Bosc	A large russeted pear with white flesh and a rich, delicious flavor. Great for poaching!
Beurre D’Anjou	A fine-textured pear, the flesh is mild and aromatic. Skin remains light green and flesh stays fairly firm even when ripe. Stores well.
Shenandoah	Very late season pear that stores well. Fruit size is large with traditional sub-acid pear flavor.

Available at Markets: early September thru February

Asian Pears (or “Apple Pears”)

Originally grown in Japan, they’re round, sweet, crunchy (even when ripe) and amazingly juicy. We grow several varieties:

Variety	Description
Hosui	Ripening in late August, the fruit is mildly flavored, sweet and juicy with solid russeted skin.
Yoinashi	Fruit is large, orange-brown with a russeted finish and crisp, richly aromatic, firm flesh.
Olympic	Round, large, heavily russeted brown pear has a crisp, juicy sweet taste. Stores well.

Available at Markets: late August thru June

Plums

Japanese Plums

A sweet tart fruit. Japanese Plums are usually eaten fresh. Our favorite varieties include:

Variety	Description
Methley	A small early plum with purple red skin, and sweet flesh that is very juicy.
Early Golden	A small early plum with red blush over golden yellow background. Fruit is very sweet.
Shiro	A sweet, juicy yellow plum. Fruits are round, clingstone, and medium to large in size.
Santa Rosa	A large, attractive, dark reddish purple plum with red flesh. The fruit is quite firm.
Ruby Queen	With an outstanding flavor, the fruit has reddish-black skin with a firm, red flesh.
Satsuma	A distinctive, dark red plum with red flesh. Fruit is oval shaped and very sweet.
Duarte	Very large blood red heart shaped fruit with red flesh. Excellent flavor, Good for eating fresh or for jams.
Fortune	Late season plum. Fruit is large, reddish-purple and very firm with yellow flesh. Our favorite!

European Plums (Italian or Blue Plums)

European Plums are small oblong fruits, most often with a blue skin and yellow, juicy, fine-grained flesh.  Although mainly used for cooking and making prunes, European plums can be eaten fresh and many people enjoy eating them this way.

We grow several varieties:

Variety	Description
Castleton Early	Early maturing variety with slightly ovate blue fruit.
Green Gage	Considered to be the ideal dessert plum in Europe. Green fruit with red mottling.
Stanley	Fruit is large, with dark blue skin and flesh that is greenish-yellow, juicy and fine grained.
Long John	Dark blue, very large fruit of high quality.

Available at Markets: early July thru mid-September