Stone Fruit Festival Orchard Setting
Comfortable Paths and Benches were available
Way back last month the day after the Summer Solstice, we attended the first annual Organic Stone Fruit Festival/Jubilee held in Clovis at the Mokichi Okada Association orchards. We learned of it by invitation and advertisement from Kern Family Farm, our own local organic farmers right here in North Fork. They were there running the children's activity booth.
Hansel Kern and Friends
Creating Pine Cone Bird Feeders at the Kids Booth
Finished Pine Cone Bird Feeders
Cute Bunnies, also at the Kids Booth
At the festival there were about a dozen local organic stone fruit farmers represented. Each had a table and tent canopy nestled amongst the orchard trees and along a nice walking path. Our modest entry fee of $5 allowed us to sample fruit (peaches, plums, nectarines, pluots and apricots) from each farm. Most farmers also had their fruit for sale at the big fruit stand in the front of the event.
Tasting Booths & Tasters
My favorite Sweet & Juicy Peaches
More Tasters Wait Their Turn
We tasted and sampled until we were almost completely full! We then each purchased a bag of organic fruit to take home. All the fruit was priced at $3/lb.
The Fruit Stand
Beautiful Apricots
There were delicious flaky pastries and sweet & tangy paletas (Mexican popsicles) for sale both made from the same organic fruit. The pastries were provided by La Boulangerie de France. The paletas were made by La Reina de Michoacan. We ate some of each even after filling up on all of that fresh fruit. The peach pastry and the plum paleta that I personally snarfed down, were magnificent!
Flaky, Juicy Peach Pastries ~Don't they look good?
Peach, Apricot, Nectarine and Plum Pastries
It was a fun and interesting event. I look forward to attending again next year.
© Copyright 2008 North Fork News
2 comments:
Very nice news coverage, the photos presented were fabulous. It was a good event, and I enjoyed myself.
Personally, I never ate so much fruit in one sitting in my life. A great way to get your daily dose of fiber I discovered.
The $5 entry fee was very reasonable for the unlimited tasting rights. A few booths had slices of brie cheese apparently to enhance the fruit's flavor.
Interesting combination, but not my favorite cheese. Sharp cheddar would have been easier on the taste buds and a better texture, than the slimy brie cheese.
Several of the orchard offerings weren't quite ripe enough for my liking, a little too crunchy, but the fruit looked absolutely gorgeous.
Then there were a few booths where the juice from the peaches and nectarines ran profusely down your chin during the sampling process. Yummy, yummy,and very messy, just the way I like it.
The pastry was definitely heavenly and required seconds.
I agree, the Fruit Festival was interesting and a lot of fun. I get discuraged many times when I buy fruit in the market. They sell it partially ripe. It doesn't always ripen well. I like brie cheese. But, I agree that a different cheese would have been a better companion for the fruit. The pastry and icecream made with fresh fruit was really good!!
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