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Frequently Asked Questions These are answers to questions we routinely get from customers. They are not listed in any particular order. We hope this information is helpful to you. If you have a question that is not answered here, please contact us. We will do our best to answer your question, and may add it to this list! What
is the best apple or Asian pear? Which variety do we like the best? We often say that the best apple or Asian pear is the one that we are eating! Here at the farm, it seems it doesn't matter which kind it is…any variety we are picking at the time is the best! Nothing beats fruit fresh and warm from the tree! But still, we do have our preferences….. Ike: "The best apple I can remember eating in my life was an overripe Jonathan still hanging on the tree two weeks after normal harvest, on a farm I worked on right after college. Normally, I don't much care for Jonathan. Of the apples we currently grow, I consider Gold Rush to be the single best variety…but I enjoy most all our varieties in their season. Lisa: "In early October, my favorite by far is the Golden Russet. Now there's an apple that can divide people! Some people, like me, go nuts for it. I can't wait for them to ripen, and I nibble every one I eat down to the core. But other people, (including Ike), don't see the big appeal. Golden Russet has a decidedly different flesh quality than other varieties, as well as a complex, slightly sweet flavor. But, later on the Gold Rush come in, and I just love them! It's nice that they keep so well over winter in the fridge, because I'll eat one or two a day for several months. They may just be the best apples on the planet! For more information on varieties, please go to Fruit and Products How can I tell when the fruit is ripe? "Ripe" is a moving target! Apples, European pears, peaches, and plums continue to ripen and sweeten after harvest…which allows the farmer to pick them slightly under ripe. The consumer can then 'ripen' the fruit at home to their preference. Asian pears, raspberries, cherries, and grapes will continue to ripen after harvest, but they will not get any sweeter after harvest. They are best to be picked as close to optimal ripeness as possible. Many commercial orchards pick their fruit too 'green' (under ripe), and although the fruit continues to ripen after harvest, it usually will not be able to acquire the preferred sweetness or texture. At North Star Orchard, we strive to pick our fruit at the optimal time…allowing the consumer to keep the fruit in excellent quality for several days to a week (less for berries and peaches) or more, with proper care. See Fruit Care 101 for more information. Why haven't I heard of these varieties? Why don't you grow normal varieties? We have planted mostly disease resistant varieties in our quest to reduce pesticide usage. Many of these are still being tested by the universities that breed them, and only have a test number for identification. How would you like to try to remember which one you liked better, NY75414-1 or NY74840-1? Hence, we create our own names for them, which we use until they are given names by the breeder. (The two numbers previously mentioned are what we call Stars and Sugar Snap, respectively.) We have also planted uncommon and rare old varieties for their excellent flavors and disease tolerance….wonderful apples like Reinette Simerenko, Adam's Pearmain, and Golden Russet. With literally hundreds of wonderfully diverse varieties available, we prefer to grow fruit other than those commonly grown commercially. For more information on varieties, please go to Fruit and Products. How do you decide what to grow? We
have trial plantings of all the different crops we grow. For instance,
we have 40 apple, 5 Asian pear, 30 plum, 20 peach, and 7 cherry
varieties that we are testing now. What
are Asian pears? Asian
pears are not as easy to grow as pears or apples, but we strive
to grow wonderful pears by giving our trees lots of attention! Training,
fruit thinning, and harvest are all very labor intensive jobs…but
the end result is well worth it! Please refrigerate our Asian pears -we pick them ready-to-eat. Some varieties will keep up to 2 months in the refrigerator, but will lose quality if they are left at room temperature. Larger pears may be cut in half, and the unused portion wrapped in plastic wrap for later use - they will not brown like most cut apples or peaches! Do you spray? Are you organic? These are actually two separate questions! Do we spray? Yes….and so do most all fruit and vegetable growers, whether they are certified organic or not. There is a common misconception that organic growers do not spray at all. In reality, growers following organic guidelines spray approved products to protect their fruit and vegetables, just as conventional growers do. The difference is in what product is applied to the crops. Are we organic? No, we are not certified organic. Our vegetable crops are produced following certified organic requirements. However, we find that the record-keeping and yearly fees required for organic certification are not worth the time, effort, and expense. We'd rather spend our time and money growing good food. Our fruit is grown using a combination of Integrated Pest Management (ie. not organic) and organic methods. In our climate on the East Coast, we have growing conditions (in particular, high humidity and wet weather) that make it impossible to grow truly high quality fruit consistently using only organic products. Most organic fruit you find in stores is either of inferior quality, or is shipped in from other countries which have different (or no) organic standards than the USA, or is shipped in from the West Coast of the US. Growers there do not have the same types of problems or growing conditions as we do here. However, many fruit and vegetable crops from the West are grown in fragile desert environments, and many require that huge quantities of irrigation water be shipped in. We do not consider that practice very sustainable or kind to the environment. We like to call what we are doing to protect our fruit crops "Certified Sensible". We select what we consider to be the most sensible approach to crop protection to protect ourselves, our customers, and the environment. In some cases that means using approaches that are traditionally considered organic methods (trapping insects, planting resistant varieties, and using organically approved products), and sometimes that means using Integrated Pest Management methods (monitoring pest populations, predator release and encouragement programs, and using synthetic chemicals where needed). In making our decisions in fruit crop protection methods, we take into consideration both environmental and safety concerns. Every year there are new, and better products that can be used (both organically approved and conventional), and we constantly re-evaluate and update our methods. Due to these decisions, and our concern about safety and the environment, we have an orchard that produces relatively undamaged fruit, and that is abundant with insect, mammal and avian life…all of which we like to see! We've got plenty of grass and weeds, too! |
For more information... Email
Ike & Lisa Kerschner at Copyright 2007 North Star Orchard |