The Fruit Company

At The Fruit Company, Cherry harvest is one of the most anticipated and busiest seasons. Our orchards are located in the Columbia River Gorge, home to the highest concentration of sweet cherry acreage in the United States. When all of those acres need to be harvested in the same few weeks, the orchards become a frenzy of activity!

Cherries have a short window of availability, and require a lot of care and attention to grow and harvest. Although the temperate climate of the Pacific Northwest, with ample sunshine and cooling winds, makes for ideal growing conditions, there are many variables that can easily ruin an entire crop, especially rain at the end of the growth cycle. If it rains close to harvest, the water settles in the stem bowl (the divot where the stem meets the cherry) or on the skin and is absorbed into the delicate fruit. As the water expands it causes the cherry’s skin to crack, deeming the cherry undesirable in the market. Because we do not receive much rainfall in the summer months, our region is ideal for growing cherries. The threat still looms, however, and every cherry grower casts a nervous eye over any suspicious cloud heading their way.At Webster Orchards, we take every precaution necessary to protect the Cherries, even if it means hiring a helicopter on stand-by! Flying a helicopter at a low altitude over our Cherry orchard helps generate wind to shake, blow and dry the Cherries of any unexpected rainfall. As fun as it is to watch, it is also a very crucial part of care that we put into growing our delicious cherries!

Cherry harvest in the Northwest generally begins in early June and lasts until August, depending on the cherry variety and elevation of the orchard. Harvest starts at first light, when the fruit is still cool and firm. Workers pick the fruit by hand into buckets strapped over their shoulders, then transfer it into buckets on the ground, which are emptied into shallow bins being pulled behind a tractor. The bins are stacked and loaded onto a truck which then brings the fruit to a warehouse, where it is cooled, cleaned, sorted, and packaged. The Fruit Company Cherries from Webster Orchards are generally harvested, packed and sent to you or your gift recipient all within a day! To order your orchard-fresh Cherries, visit our premium fruit selection today!

Patriotic Popsicles with Bing & Rainer Cherries, and Blueberries
(approx. 6 popsicles)

1/2 c Bing Cherries, pitted and quartered

1/2 c Rainer Cherries, pitted and quartered

1/2 c Blueberries

3/4 c Cherry Juice

3/c c Blueberry Juice

1/2 c Plain Yogurt

1/4 c Half & Half

1/4 c Sugar

2 t Vanilla

1. Divide Bing cherries between popsicle molds, filling 1/3 of the way up. Cover cherries with cherry juice and place in freezer for at least an hour or until firm.

2. In a small bowl or measuring pitcher, mix yogurt, half and half, vanilla, and sugar. Set aside.

3. After first cherry and juice layer has firmed, divide rainer cherries between popsicle molds, filling up another 1/3 of the way. Cover cherries with sweetened yogurt mixture. Before placing molds back into the freezer, nestle popsicle sticks into the center of the yogurt mixture until it hits the first, already frozen layer. The thicker yogurt mixture should keep the sticks upright. Place molds into freezer for an least an hour or until firm.

4. After the second layer of cherries and yogurt has firmed, divide blueberries between popsicle molds filling molds the rest of the way up. Cover blueberries with blueberry juice and place in freezer until completely firm, at least 2 hours.

5. When you’re ready to enjoy, dip molds for short 5 second intervals into a bowl of warm water to slightly melt the outside of the pops until they just loosen.

6. Enjoy!

Patriotic Popsicle Variation – Easy Patriotic Yogurt Pops
(approx. 6 popsicles)

 1. Fill molds with fruit, dividing cherries, and blueberries 1/3 of the way up each or mixing as desired.

2. In a medium mixing bowl or large measuring pitcher, blend, yogurt, half and half, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and sugar has dissolved, increasing volume as follows:

1 1/2 c Plain Yogurt

3/4 c Half & Half

3/4 c Sugar

2 T Vanilla

3. Cover fruit completely with yogurt mixture then insert popsicle sticks.

4. Place in freezer for at least 2 hours or until completely firm.

5. Removes from molds as previously indicated when you’re ready to enjoy.
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Thoughts:

A delicious sweet treat always makes any gathering better, but in the middle of enjoying a sun filled summer day of fun, it has to be cold and it has to be easy. This festive dessert is both!

Fourth of July is the time for barbecue, but after we’ve finished our burgers and ribs, nothing tops off a backyard lunch or picnic in the park than a cool & sweet popsicle to help beat the heat. The problem is, the ones you buy at the grocery store are filled with so much sugar. Even the ones that claim to be “whole fruit” still often have added sweeteners.

Making them at home is so easy and when you make them yourself, you know and can control exactly what goes into them

The use of cherries and blueberries to make these celebratory desserts, not only add a sweet yet tart flavor, but also help us commemorate what a great country we live in! And not with artificial colors or dyes, but with the real, natural colors of the fruit.

The cherries in this dessert are perfect. They flavors pop when mixed with the creamy yogurt, and freeze beautifully without losing any of their distinct freshness. The blue berries are also an unexpected but fun accompaniment for the cherries, and both are at the PEAK of freshness at the moment, perfectly ripe and a ready addition to any Fourth of July celebration.

If you don’t have any popsicle molds laying around, simply use some disposable paper cups to make your popsicles in. Wrap the tops tightly with plastic wrap and puncture the top of the tightened plastic with your popsicle stick. The plastic wrap will help the sticks to stay upright until your pops freeze.

When the pops have firmed, simply tear away the paper cup to reveal the sweet cooling treat beneath.

This dessert can be made way ahead to lessen the tasks you have to do on the day of your party, freeing you up to spend more time with your friends and family, and a dessert filled with fresh fruit and 100% juice is something you will be proud to serve the people you love.

About the Author
A former baker, chef, caterer, and a forever foodie, John is now a writer and essayist, who has written for newspapers and magazines across the country, and enjoys spending his spare time traveling and collecting bow ties.

Father’s Day is just around the corner.  if you are by June 13 you can still get your gifts sent out in time for delivery!  Let dad know just how special he is to you this year!  Visit our Father’s Day page to find the perfect gift!

I know it sounds crazy, but seriously, this sandwich is the most delicious and suprising food twist I’ve tried in a long time, and when you think about it, it kind of makes sense. Tomatoes are a red fruit. Watermelon are red fruit. You can kind of make the exchange without too much of a stretch. Right?

Okay, I know it may seem odd, but in the South, they’ve been salting watermelon for years at picnics and barbecues. And what a more delicious “salt” to use than crispy bacon? The peppered bacon really makes this sandwich pop along with interplay of the sweet juicy watermelon. Then the spicy watercress in place of traditional lettuce, and the zip from raw garlic in the mayo really give additional zest. The creamy avocado just adds that last bit of desired unctuousness against an altogether refreshing and great summer sandwich.

This is how it happened. You get a watermelon. You slice it up. It’s delicious, but then you have the other huge half and unless you have a party or big barbecue at your house, the rest often spoils before you get to it.

This sandwich is a great and unexpected way to use that watermelon that will astound your family and friends. Plus, if you use my technique of slicing it thin and then cutting out rounds with a upturned glass or biscuit cutter, no one will be the wiser until they’ve already sunk their teeth into it’s juicy wonders.

It’s also really fun to turn this whole sandwich into a salad. You can slice all the ingredients into bit sized pieces and use a 1/4 cup of your mayo with an additional 1/4 c of lemon juice and a few tablespoons of olive oil with some salt and pepper to taste for another twist on a savory watermelon recipe.

The basil mayo is also great to use on all your summer sandwiches. You can make a big batch of it and it’ll keep in the fridge for about two weeks. Just give it a good stir before you use it as the basil releases it’s natural juices.

But of course the big surprise here is the watermelon. It’s a fruit that we often only think of in sweet preparations, but this sandwich makes it the star with all of the other complementary flavors.

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BLW – Bacon, Lettuce and Watermelon Sandwich with Basil Mayonnaise.

(per sandwich)

1 ciabatta or similar sandwich roll

3 slices peppered bacon

1 slice of watermelon, approximately 1/2 in. thick (to fit bread)

1/4 cup watercress (washed and dried)

1/4 avocado, sliced

2 T basil mayo (recipe follows)

1 clove garlic

• Slice sandwich roll in half and toast till slightly browned while keeping a soft center. When bread is toasted rub the toasted cut side with your clove of garlic, infusing the roll with the aroma of garlic.

• Slice each piece of bacon in half and prepare to desired crispness.

• Prepare watermelon by slicing into 1/2 in. thick slices and trimming edges so that your slices will fit your sandwich rolls.
  • Note: I like to use a glass turned upside down to cut out round shapes from the             watermelon to mimic the look and shape of a tomato. (see picture)

• Assemble sandwich by first spreading a generous tablespoon of basil mayo on each side of your toasted roll and then putting down a bed of watercress followed by your slices of avocado. This triple layer will help stop your roll from getting soggy from the juicy watermelon that follows.

• After your slice of watermelon, top it off with your slices of bacon and another roll half smeared with your basil mayo.

• Enjoy the surprising deliciousness.

Basil Mayo  (makes 1 1/4 cup)

1 c mayonnaise (best possible quality)

1/2 c basil (shredded)

1 clove garlic, finely minced or grated

2 T lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

• Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and allow it to sit for at least an hour to allow flavors to marry.

About the Author
A former baker, chef, caterer, and a forever foodie, John is now a writer and essayist, who has written for newspapers and magazines across the country, and enjoys spending his spare time traveling and collecting bow ties.

*Pre-Summer Sale* Save 40% off select gifts now through midnight May 27 with coupon code: MAY40 ! A perfect assortment of gifts for upcoming Birthdays, Weddings and Baby showers! We Have a perfect assortment for all your upcoming summer events.  Be sure to visit our sale page here!

“M” is for the many things she gave you…and now you can give back many delights in return! The 8-box Mother’s Day Tower lets her know how much you love her in a big way with her favorite orchard-picked fruit combined with delightful sweet treats: dark chocolate fudge square, lemon yogurt pretzels, lemon shortbread mini-cookies, fruit biscotti bites and so much more. What a towering tribute to mom!

Be sure to order your Mother’s Day Decadent Tower today!

April is a beautiful time of year at The Fruit Company. After surviving cold winds, snow showers, and rainy winter nights Spring begins to show itself everywhere you look when you step out  the front door. The Hood River valley is filled with orchards that run all the way to the base of Mt Hood.  As the temperature warms the trees begin to bud and we see a the entire landscape flower before our eyes.  Its a quintessentially perfect!

Naturally we celebrate this gorgeous time of year with the Hood River Valley Blossom Festival. Thousands of people from around the world come to our charming hamlet to view the cheerful blooms set against the looming snow-capped peaks of the Cascade mountains and relish the opening weekend for many of our local fruit, food and craft stands located all along the Fruit Loop.

Its a perfect time to come and visit the Gorge!

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 If you’ve never had a passion fruit before, prepare for a pleasant surprise! Roughly between the size of a golf ball and a small apple, the thick skin of a ripe passion fruit is purple, leathery and wrinkled. Inside are a number of seeds covered in a juicy yellow to orange pulp, which are edible and have a very flavorful and tart taste. Due to its similarities the Spanish nicknamed the fruit “little pomegranate”.

The passion fruit was named for its flower by Catholic missionaries in South America, who saw symbolism between the passion flower’s complex structure and the passion of Christ. They saw the flower’s corona threads as a symbol of the crown of thorns, the five stamens for wounds, the five petals and five sepals as the ten apostles (excluding Judas and Peter) and the three stigmas for the nails on the cross.

Passion fruit juice is often used with other fruit juices to enhance flavor and aroma. They’re fairly easy to eat fresh—all you need to do is cut one in half and scoop out the pulpy seeds with a spoon and enjoy! Passion fruit are rich in vitamin C and potassium. When selecting a ripe passion fruit, make sure the skin is slightly wrinkled; if it’s smooth the fruit is still immature and not ready to eat. Ripen your passion fruit by leaving out of direct light at room temperature. Avoid passion fruit with a lot of black marks on the skin.

-Photo Source

You’ve probably seen Chicken Apple Sausage in your grocery store or favorite restaurant for years now. It’s delicious. It’s moist. It delivers that perfect blend of sweet and savory. It’s a fantastic option to have when you have friends coming over that don’t eat red meat or pork, and it’s great when you want something hearty and satisfying that’s not going to weigh you down. The thing that most of us didn’t know (until now) is now foolishly easy it is to make at home.

I love this recipe because I am crazy about the mixing of sweet and savory, and the addition of maple syrup in the mix really delivers in flavor. I love eating this sausage with pancakes or waffles and letting the maple syrup and butter migrate over for the perfect sweet and salty bite.

However, the sweetness is still subtle enough to have with scrambled eggs or to crumble into am omelet. I’ve even used the leftover patties to create one of those “griddle sandwiches” from that drive through restaurant (I’m sure you know which one I’m talking about, and with a little Swiss cheese on a soft breakfast bun, the flavors are complimentary surprising.

The golden delicious apples are of course the star of this recipe, they shine against the mild flavors of the chicken and do their job of keeping the sausage patties insanely moist. Some recipes call for sautéing the apples first, and you can certainly do that for a richer apple flavor, but I prefer to put them in raw. The raw apple adds a ton more moisture and has a fresher crisper apple flavor.

These patties are so easy to make that I often double or even triple the batch. You’ll be done start to finish in less than half an hour and the patties freeze perfectly for up to a year. They’re definitely the kind of thing you’re going to pull into your everyday arsenal of recipes.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground chicken

1 lg. golden delicious apple, grated

1/2 small onion, grated

1/4 c Fresh Sage, minced fine

1/4 c Maple Syrup

1T Olive Oil

1T Fennel Seeds, toasted

1 T. Salt

2 t. Pepper

1 t. Ground Mustard

Additional oil for frying

• Grate onion and apple into a large mixing bowl, making sure not to lose any of the juice created by grating.

• Mix in all remaining ingredients, incorporating well but not over mixing, this could make your sausage gummy, and we want the mixture to remain light.

• Head a heavy bottomed skillet on medium heat with enough oil to thinly coat the bottom of the pan.

• Using a measuring cup or portioned scoop, create patties directly into the preheated oil that are about 1/4 cup in volume and about 1/2 inch thick.

• Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown and the chicken is just cooked all the way through.

About the Author
A former baker, chef, caterer, and a forever foodie, John is now a writer and essayist, who has written for newspapers and magazines across the country, and enjoys spending his spare time traveling and collecting bow ties.