Local Orchard Farms and Plum Preserves
Oct 16th, 2011 by Matt
Saturday morning, we paid a visit to two of our favorite local orchard farms. First we went to River Bend Farm & Pleasant HIll Orchard, which is a few miles west of Pleasant Hill. They have an attractive market store with their products nicely displayed.
We picked up a few apples to eat and a gallon of cider. They also sell a variety of other vegetables, honey, hazelnuts, prepared foods and baked goods.
Next we made our way to Detering Orchards, which is located between Coburg and Harrisburg. This farm caters to a larger crowd. This weekend they offered hayrides, a hay bale maze, free apple cobbler with ice cream, and lots and lots of pumpkins. Bulk fruit is one of their specialties. We picked up a full box of Mutsu and Ozark Gold apples that we will process into applesauce.
They have quinces for sale too. We couldn’t resist their sales line of “makes great jelly”, and bought about 8 fruits to try our hand at a small batch.
We also picked up a full box of italian plums. Friends of ours who joined us stocked up on squash big time. Shown is all of the produce loaded in the back of my pickup truck.
Yesterday and today, Amy has been busy converting our plums into three different preserves - a chutney, an asian plum sauce, and a Pinot Noir jam. Pictured is the chutney cooking down and then getting poured into jars for canning.
