The fruit trees around here are putting on their spring show—everywhere you look, there are blossoms in the sky and petals in the air. It makes for a nice view, and it’s also a sign that we’ll soon be sending the first run of perfectly ripe fruit down the conveyor belt at the cannery.

The Pacific Northwest—where nearly all the fruit we preserve is grown—produces some of the finest stone fruit there is. Naturally, that’s one reason we use it!

And there are many other advantages to sourcing our fruit from local growers. We can preserve fruit at its perfect ripeness when it has a short journey from tree to tin. We support the local economy that we’re a part of. And we get to know some great folks that we’re proud to call our neighbors.

As we look forward to the first crop of the season, I’d love to share a little more about some of the fruit we preserve—and the people and places that produce it.

Cherries

Ben Synon has been growing our Rainier cherries for ages, since before I took over the cannery. His orchard is just down the road from us, and during cherry season I see him in the fields from daybreak to well past dark. Sometimes I wonder if he sleeps in the field—it wouldn’t be a bad night’s rest, under the beautiful trees in our mild spring weather! That picture above is from Ben’s orchard, where everything is blooming right now.

It’s no surprise that some of the nicest cherries come from one of the nicest guys I know. It’s always a pleasure to stop and chat with Ben—he’s been in the business a long time, and he’s got the stories to prove it. Ben and I share the old-school values of producing the highest quality products and supporting our local community.

Every time you open a can of our light cherries, I hope you can see and taste the care that went into it. It just goes to show that knowing your neighbors—and knowing where your food comes from—never goes out of style.

Apricots

Apricots are one of the first fruits we start preserving in the summer, which means in a couple months we’ll have a truckload of freshly-picked fruit from Gilbert Orchards: a family-owned operation just a tick north of us in Yakima, WA.

Gilbert Orchards grows the variety of apricot I happen to think tastes best: the Robada. I must like to make things hard on myself, because the Robada is not what’s known as a “processing” variety—it’s more delicate and tricky to preserve. So it shows up in the fresh produce aisle during the brief window of peak ripeness, but you’re not likely to get it any other time of year—it’s too difficult for big canneries to bother with.

But I think flavor matters most, and while the processing varieties may be easier to keep firm during canning, they lack that amazing taste an apricot should have. I’ve enjoyed perfecting our process to find the balance of cooking Robadas just long enough to make them shelf stable without losing the wonderful texture. That way, Gilbert Orchards sends down the perfectly ripe Robadas, and we capture that summertime taste in the can.

Peaches

Peaches would certainly win the popularity contest when it comes to canned fruit—we have a hard time keeping them in stock! We have some great growers in Oregon and Washington, but sometimes go a bit further afield (into Idaho and California) to get enough harvest.

But I’m excited to say that my favorite variety of peaches for preserving—Elbertas—are once again being grown right here in The Dalles, OR by Howard Clark.

The Elberta is hands-down delicious, but it gets passed over in the produce aisle because people tend to “buy with their eyes” when it comes to fresh fruit. The Elberta stays green on the outside right up until the moment it’s ripe; not very appealing when it’s sitting next to a pile of red and orange varieties. But the problem with those other varieties is that they might look ripe and ready, but be hard as rocks inside.

When Howard’s Elberta peaches roll into the cannery, they’re the ideal yellow color—so I know they’re perfectly ripe and ready to preserve at their peak flavor.

Summer is coming

One of the nice things about being a small family operation is that we can prioritize quality over quantity—and source the very best fruit from the local growers we’re proud to call neighbors and friends. Because we only preserve fruit when it’s ripe, we work on a seasonal schedule, just like the folks who grow our fruit.

That all makes springtime a bit of a waiting game; the blooms on the trees are the beginnings of the harvests that will keep us hopping come summer. In the meantime, we’re preparing the cannery for production and eagerly watching flowers transform into top-quality Hood-Crest fruit for our happy customers.