North Star Orchard

Peaches and Plums

We currently grow more than 30 varieties of peaches, 7 varieties of nectarines, and more than 50 varieties of plums. The following alphabetized list includes details of those varieties that have borne fruit. Those without any information are young trees, and we will update this list with information as it becomes available. Many varieties (especially peaches) have similar flavors, so we have only included more detailed notes here where there is something noteworthy to share about a particular variety. Please note that many of our fruit varieties are grown in very limited quantities, and may not be available at our farmer's market locations, as we distribute particularly rare varieties to CSA members first.

Plums

Forget those icky, flavorless grocery-store plums, and open your mind (and tastebuds!) to the amazing variety of colors, shapes, flavors, and textures of locally-grown plums! You're likely to become addicted. A few of our plum varieties routinely show up at farmers' markets. Many of the varieties, however, are in relatively limited quantities, and will go into the CSA Fruit Share first.

AU Roadside

AU Rubrum

Bavay Gage

Beauty

Black Ruby

Bluebyrd: Blue, with excellent rich flavor. Late August

Bruce

Burbank

Byrongold: Yellow

Cambridge Gage

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.

De Montfort

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.

Early Transparent

Early Wizzard

Elephant Heart

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

Ersinger

Fortune: Large and very firm red Asian variety

Golden Transparent Gage

Gras Romanesque: An odd-looking little, round and wrinkly plum. Flavor is sweet, with tannic overtones. Quite addictive.

Green Gage

Howard Miracle

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.

Jubileum

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

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

Mirabelle de Nancy

Moldavian

Morris

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

Oullins: Greenish and softer-to-the-touch than you think they should be. Another richly flavored and addictive plum, pretty much tied with 'Rosy Gage'. Don't let the appearance and texture fool you. The flavor is amazing, even when you think they are too soft to possibly be good anymore.

Ozark Premiere

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

Pozeqaca

Purple Gage

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

Queen Rosa

Redheart: Medium-sized with dark red flesh. Sweet plummy flavor, with a tart bite to the skin. Excellent Asian variety. Mid-August.

Rosy Gage: Color ranges from a speckly green to a speckly pink. One of our most favorite (and addictive) plums. 'Gage' plums have a certain flavor to them that just lingers and begs that you eat some more. They get sweeter the softer they are, but it takes no more than a day or two for them to develop their full, rich flavor and texture. Late August.

Ruby Queen

Rubysweet

Satsuma

Schoolhouse: Keep your eyes open for this one! A tasty yellow prune-type plum. Mid-September.

Seneca: Large, reddish-blue. Similar in flavor to Rosy Gage.

Simka: Very large and blue. Mild fruity flavor.

Spring Satin Plumcot

St. Catherine

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.

Voyageur

Wickson

Yellow Egg

Yellow Peaches

Our yellow peach varieties 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 in flavor and texture 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, peachier, or whatever you're looking for. We usually have a few varieties to choose from on any given day during the season.

Blake

Challenger

Contendor

Coralstar

Earlystar

Encore

Enterprise: From our own fruit breeding program, Enterprise may be small, but the sweetness and peachy flavor make for a superior eating experience.

Ernie's Choice: We don't know who Ernie was, but he did have good taste in peaches. Lots of sweet and juicy peachy flavor here. The only thing we don't much like about this variety is that it tends to bruise very easily. But, with flavor like that, we'll take it!

Gala

Glowingstar

Goldnine: One of our favorites, and it is truly unique. Goldnine has 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 mighty tasty! You can eat them right away, or let them sit in the fruit bowl for awhile, as they won't get soft. Late July

Intrepid

Jerseyglo

Jerseyqueen

John Boy

John Boy II

Laurol

Madison

Margaret: A favorite from our own fruit breeding program. Margaret are fairly small, have a dark red skin and red streaks in a bright yellow flesh. Strong peachy flavor with a great sugar content that balances the flavors perfectly.

PF1 (AKA 'Early Gem'): The first peaches of the year! 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')

PF25

Redhaven: This was one of the first freestone peaches developed, and it has become a classic. We think other varieties taste better at this point, but this is a good start to the height of peach season!

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 all in production, and are available at various markets and the CSA 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: A personal and CSA member favorite. Odd-looking small greenish peach with red blush. But the flavor is amazing, and the flesh smooth and creamy. A true delight of a white peach. We never have enough of these to go around, but try our best to rotate them around to different CSA pickup locations from year to year.

Glacier

Klondike

Manon

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 never have nearly enough of these to go around, though. CSA Fruit Share members definitely are the lucky ones here, as they get first dibs. While the 2009 crop was rather decimated by deer, we have gone to some lengths to make sure that doesn't happen again. Additionally, we are anxiously awaiting our new planting of nectarines to come into production over the next couple of years...so hopefully there will be more of these gems to go around!

Easternglo

Fantasia

Flavortop

Redgold

Summerbeaut

Sunglo

Yumm Yumm: a white-fleshed nectarine.