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Boise August harvest news

Posted at 6:07 AM on August 18, 2008 by Scott Swendsen (4 Comments)

Boise's weather is almost perfect for growing great fruit. There are enormous orchards of peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, apples, apricots and cherries scattered across the "Treasure Valley" and right now is the prime time for peaches, plums and nectarines. And for those of you who haven't heard of a pluot - boy, this is one very special fruit - a cross between a plum and an apricot. Here is a link to one of my favorite local orchards - Williamson Orchards and Vineyards with more details on my new most favorite fruit - pluots!

And with the hot summer weather, a variety of melons are now coming into season as well. I have a watermelon, a couple of cantaloupe, and also something new to me - an Israeli melon - boy was this ever sweet! I guess it's also called an Ogen melon - here is a link to some more info about this melon variety.

I got to the farmer's market early a week ago Saturday to stand in line to buy a couple of flats of blueberries, raspberries & boysenberries - it ended up being the last of the season for this vendor so all week I have been working on freezing blueberries and baking berry muffins, a berry custard pie and a berry crisp - I think that all of the weight I lost over the past couple of months from eating fresh greens and veggies will be regained this next week as I now have a pile of desserts and baked goods to consume! And what better way than with local ice cream from Sun Valley. A warm slice of pie with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on a hot summer's day is almost perfect eating food, eh?

But off to the kitchen this morning as I have a dozen summer squash to prepare - some for dehydrating, a couple for shredding for muffins and a bunch for sautéing for dinner. One thing that I have discovered from being a locavore - there is never a dull minute in the kitchen!

See ya!

Comments (4)

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I so agree that August is "full bounty" time in Boise. The tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are finally coming in larger numbers. I don't preserve as much as other people because I tend to feed my 4-family dinner co-op from the garden in the summer. It's really fun to plan meals around what is ready to harvest and then deliver delightfully fresh meals to my dinner co-op buddies. If you haven't heard about dinner co-ops before, they're a group of friends or neighbors who trade cooking duties one night a week in exchange for 2 or 3 other nights of "free eating". Check out www.dinnerco-ops.com for more info on how it works. Happy Harvest! Diana

Posted by diana | August 23, 2008 12:01 PM

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I have been growing the Ha Ogen melon for 16 years. It is indeed a good one. The neat thing is you can grow Ha Ogen, Charetais, and the best of all, Old Original Israeli with no more fuss or care than it takes to raise an very ordinary cantaloupe. The hard part is locating seed but all three are on this page http://www.botanicalinterests.com/store/search_results_sample.php

Now to the tomatoes. We are in avalanche time. I mostly slice and dehydrate the surplus. The dehydrator is on the back patio so I do not put heat into the house. We also have cucumbers, pepper, yard long beans, okra and eggplant coming in from the garden.

The Japanese plums are ripe. 3 trees of them. I am making plum mead. If that does not work I will turn it to vinegar.

The grapes are just starting and there have been a few apples. (many more to come) The apricots are done.

This area along the Snake River is rightly called "The Treasure Valley."

The chickens are slowing down on eggs but the goats are still milking strong.. the new hay is terrific.

Posted by Naomi | August 23, 2008 3:08 PM

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Hi, Scott. I found a really good recipe for summer vegetable gratin in the July and August issue of Cook's Illustrated. I used zucchini and yellow summer squash. If you need to use up alot of squash, I highly recommend it! Happy cooking!
Laura

Posted by Laura Solorio | August 24, 2008 11:32 AM

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Hey Scott!
How about plum sauce? You can use it for both sweet and savory purposes.
(Chicken with plum sauce.)
Paulette

Posted by P. Thompson | August 29, 2008 4:56 PM