North Star Orchard • Peaches & Plums

Peaches and Plums

North Star Orchard currently grows 30+ varieties of plums, 30+ varieties of peaches, and 6 varieties of nectarines! The following alphabetized list includes details of those varieties that have borne fruit. Those without much information are young trees, and we will update this list with information as it becomes available.

Please note: We do not ship fruit at this time. Our fruit can be purchased at weekly farmers' markets in our area, or through membership in our CSA Fruit Share.

PLUMS

AU Roadside: (not fruiting yet)

Black Ruby: (not fruiting yet)

Bluebyrd: Blue, with excellent rich flavor. Late August

Bruce: (not fruiting yet)

Byrongold: Yellow

Cambridge Gage: (not fruiting yet)

Castleton: Blue, nice early European plum. Late August

Coe's Golden Drop: Very rich, sugar, almost dried apricot flavor.

Delicious: Caution: The juice in these is super-red and will make a mess of a light-colored shirt (or pants or dress or shoes!). Wear a bib to protect your clothes as you chow down on these tasty, luscious plums! Early September.

Earlimagic: Small and dark red, with very nice flavor. Asian. Early to mid-July

Early Golden: A beautiful yellow plum with pink blush. When soft, it is extremely juicy and sweet, although the skin is rather bitter. Free-stone variety

Early Laxton: Very sweet, rich flavor. Beautiful small plums.

Elephant Heart:

Empress: Very large(goose egg size), delicious European plum. Mid-September

Fortune: Large and very firm red Asian variety

Golden Transparent Gage: (not fruiting yet)

Herrenhausen Mirabelle: (not fruiting yet)

Imperial Epineuse: Early-season blue plum with fantastic rich flavor. May be Ike's favorite plum

Jewel (Oushi Washi): The first plum to ripen of the season, it is small, red and very flavorful. There is no bitterness in the skin. Asian variety. Clingstone. Late June to early July

Kirke's Blue: Blue (obviously!) Late August

LongJohn: Blue European plum. Tasty enough, but not wildly exciting, in our opinion. Mid-September.

Geneva Mirabelle: Very small yellow fruit you can eat like cherries

Mirabelle de Metz: Very small yellow fruit you can eat like cherries

Morris: (not fruiting yet)

Mt. Royal: Small blue plum, with average flavor. Late August

NY#51: Great flavor for aa as-yet 'nameless' plum! Early September.

Oullins: Another addictive plum, second-best to 'Rosy Gage'. Again, don't skimp if you can get your hands on these! Don't let the appearance and texture fool you. They are mostly green and fairly soft....but the flavor is amazing!

Ozark Premiere: (not fruiting yet)

Pearl: Excellent rich flavor. Yellow European variety. Mid-August.

Purple Gage: (not fruiting yet)

Purpleheart: Small and dark purple, with outstanding flavor. Asian variety.

Raintree Mirabelle: (not fruiting yet)

Redheart: Medium-sized with dark red flesh. Excellent Asian variety. Mid-August.

Rosy Gage: Pinkish plum. These have been the most popular, addictive plums we've had thus far. The flavor is just amazing. Don't skimp if you get the chance to buy some of these! Late August.

Rubysweet: (not fruiting yet)

Schoolhouse: Keep your eyes open for this one! We didn't have many in 2006, but they were mighty tasty...and mighty popular for those few people who got to try them (the North Star Fruit Explorers). A yellow prune-type plum. Mid-September.

Seneca: (not fruiting yet)

Simka: (not fruiting yet)

Valor: Very late blue plum with rich and sugary flavor.

Vanette: Small and early, nicely-flavored European variety.

Vanier: Medium-sized red/yellow Asian variety. Very fruity. Mid- to late August.

Victoria: Red plum

Victory: Blue plum with very intense flavor in dry growing seasons. Average flavor in a wet season.

Vision: Blue plum with very nice flavor.

Wade: (not fruiting yet)

YELLOW PEACHES

Our yellow peaches are all in production. With a few exceptions (noted below), many peaches are too similar to each other to give accurate descriptions. Plus, depending on extreme wet or dry weather just prior to harvest, the same variety of peach may vary greatly from year to year, or even from day to day! Your best bet? Ask us, when you're at the market, which is sweeter, firmer, 'peachy-er', or whatever you're looking for. We usually have a few varieties to choose from on any given day during the season.

Challenger

Contendor

Coralstar

Encore

Ernie's Choice

Glowingstar

Goldnine: All of the flavor of a really great peach, but the flesh stays firm! This is a 'non melting' type that doesn't get really soft. Sounds weird, but it's tasty! Late July

Intrepid

Jerseyqueen

John Boy

John Boy II

Laurol

M.A. Blake

Madison

Parade

PF1 (AKA 'Early Gem'): The first peaches of the year! Semi-clingstone and fairly small, but these have good flavor for such an early peach!

PF5B (AKA 'July Star')

PF15A (AKA 'Harvest Gem')

PF17 (AKA 'August Sun')

Redhaven

Redskin

Sentry: Summer is here! Still an early clingstone (ripens after PF5B), but these peaches have it all....all the sweetness and great peach flavor. Big and beautifully colored, peaches just don't get much better than this!

Sweet N Up

Wonderful: A different kind of peen-to (donut) peach - it has non-melting flesh (similar to Goldnine)

WHITE PEACHES

Our white peaches are in production, and are available at various markets in smaller quantities than our yellow peaches. White peaches tend to be lower in acid than yellows. They have a sweeter, more delicate flavor than the peachy 'bite' that yellow peaches have. Again, ask us at market for specific recommendations.

China Pearl

Glacier

Klondike

Saturn: A peen-to (donut) variety

September Snow

Snow Giant

Snow King

Snow Prince

Sugar Giant

Sugar May

White Lady

Yukon King

NECTARINES

I had no idea how amazing nectarines could be! Our first crop of them, in 2005, was a real eye-opener for me. I always figured that nectarines would just be like fuzzless peaches...but for whatever reason, they're even better than that. The flavor and juice is amazing, and the skin texture is awesome. We didn't have nearly enough of these to go around, though. North Star Fruit Explorers definitely are lucky here...they get to try a number of the varieties! Keep your eyes open for nectarines at market...or join North Star Fruit Explorers!

Easternglo

Fantasia

Flavortop

Redgold

Summerbeaut

Sunglo

Yumm Yumm: (a white-fleshed nectarine)