While any fig is a good fig, my favourites are kalmyra or Turkish figs. Their skins are light green and rouge stripes, they are succulent: I eat them skin and all. This recipe makes a great hors d’oeuvre or a savory dessert or lunch or…..

Fig Tart With Caramelized Onions, Rosemary and Stilton
Time: 1 1/2 hours
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large onions (1 1/2 pounds), halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 sprig rosemary, more for garnish
Pinch sugar
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
Flour for dusting
3/4 pound prepared puff pastry
1 pint fresh figs ( 3/4 pound), stemmed and cut in half lengthwise
1 1/2 ounces Stilton cheese, crumbled (about 6 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons pine nuts
Good-quality honey for drizzling, optional.
1. In a large skillet over low heat, melt butter with oil. Add onions, rosemary and sugar. Cook, tossing occasionally, until onions are limp and golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, scraping any browned bits from bottom of pan.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and egg until smooth. Stir in the onions. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line an 11 by 17-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to a 9 by 12-inch rectangle. Transfer to baking sheet.
3. Use a fork to spread onion mixture evenly over pastry (let excess egg mixture drip back into bowl), leaving a 1-inch border. Arrange figs, cut-side up, in even rows on onion mixture. Scatter cheese and pine nuts over figs. Use a pastry brush to dab edges of tart with egg mixture. Gently fold over edges of tart to form a lip and brush with more egg mixture.
4. Bake until pastry is puffed and golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve, sprinkled with rosemary needles and drizzled with honey, if desired, warm or at room temperature.
Yield: 8 servings.

One of the main reasons we started City Fruit was to develop ways  to become more financially sustainable, rather than depend on an ever-shrinking pool of grant money for funding

As part of that, we’re experimenting with selling a small portion of the fruit we harvest – with a goal of selling no more than 20% of the usable fruit we harvest. So far this year, we’ve harvested 5,775 lbs. of fruit and have sold 448 lbs., so about 8%.

We always talk to home owners before selling fruit from their trees, explaining that the sale of this fruit goes directly to funding the neighborhood fruit harvests next year. We aim to be as transparent as possible and so will again release an annual report early  next year detailing how much we earned from fruit sales and how much it costs to organize our harvests.

Restaurants

We’re specifically targeting restaurants that have a reputation for caring about and seeing the value of using local foods as much as possible.  A couple of the places we’ve been selling to are A Caprice Kitchen and Kathy Casey. A Caprice Kitchen is even Tweeting about how they’re using our fruit:

“Be sure not to miss asian pear caramel pancakes at brunch this weekend, made with ballard pears from @cityfruit !”

And Kathy Casey featured us in her late summer newsletter, writing:

“Right now it’s Jam Time! It’s that time of year again when summer fruits are in abundance (despite this crazy weather!). We’ve been hooking up with City Fruit, a cool non-profit organization that gathers excess fruits from neighborhood yards then delivers them to food banks and restaurants. We love supporting them and are donning our sexy hairnets to cook up lots of great tasty treasures, which we will feature at Kathy Casey Food Studios annual open house this December … yes, we are thinking ahead!”

A few other ways in which the restaurants we’re selling to are putting our local fruit to good use:

• Crab apple butter
• Apple pies
• Escarole with Asian pears
• Red plum tarts

So far it’s been very exciting to see how the restaurants are using the fruit. They seem to really like the quality and variety of our local fruit and the customers seem to enjoy the food as well.

Farmer’s Markets

In addition to helping fund our harvests, one of the goals of selling fruit was to serve people who are low-income but don’t go to food banks or soup kitchens. In many places throughout the city, this population doesn’t have access to low-cost, healthy, local fruit.

To help address this, a portion of our fruit is sold to the New Holly Farm Stand and to the Clean Green Market. We sell fruit to each at a much reduced price so that they can then offer this local fruit to their customers at an affordable price.

New Holly Farm Stand is part of the Seattle Market Gardens program and most of the farmers are immigrants from South East Asia and East Africa. It’s a relatively new farmers market and operates every Wednesday from 4-7 p.m. It’s at the corner of South Holly Park Drive and 40^th Avenue South.

Clean Green Market was founded by Rev. Robert Jeffery (who along with City Fruit Executive Director, Gail Savina, was listed as one of Seattle Weekly’s Best of 2010), in an attempt to “supply fresh, wholesome produce to families in need in Seattle’s Central District.” The market is open from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. on Fridays & Saturdays at the corner of 21^st and Fir Street.

We hope that these efforts to sell a small portion of fruit, as well as our membership program, classes, and donations, will help us reduce our dependence on grants and increase our financial independence.

We’ll keep you posted on how this experiment goes.

A few stories have caught my eye recently about farmers taking advantage of new legislation and government grants in order to reduce their carbon footprint by building up their renewable energy resources. Some legislators are even exploring ways to build renewable energy in to farm bills to provide a more holistic benefit to farmers.

Carlson Orchards – Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

I’m kind of a Scientific American junkie and so the first piece that caught my eye was in there. It’s about how one of the largest orchards in Massachusetts is benefiting from that state’s cap & trade auctions. Carlson Orchards is cutting their electricity bill by 80% with the help of grants from the state of Massachusetts that helped with the installation of 1,050 solar photovoltaic panels.

Massachusetts got the money from a 10-state cap & trade program called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Through this, the states set a carbon emissions cap and then earn revenue when companies buy additional credits. So far the combined 10 states have earned over $400 million dollars ($106 for MA) that they then re-invest in renewable energy programs.

And Carlson Orchards is taking advantage of that. In addition to growing apples and making apple cider, that orchard is reducing its footprint and electricity bill.

Clark Family Orchards – Rural Energy for America Program

Similarly, in Colorado, a fifth-generation farmer is taking advantage of a program that was in the 2008 Farm Bill called the Rural Energy for America Program to cover about 25% of his costs to install solar panels that will offset about 55,000 kilowatt hours of electricity yearly.

A bit about the REAP program from their website:

“REAP offers grants and/or loan guarantees for the purchase and installation of renewable energy generating systems and for energy efficiency improvements.  Assistance is limited to small businesses and farmers & ranchers.  Projects must be located in a rural area.  REAP grants and guarantees may be used individually or in combination.  Together they may finance up to 75% of a project’s cost.  Grants can finance up to 25% of project cost, not to exceed $500,000 for renewables, $250,000 for efficiency.  There are also REAP grants to help pay for technical assistance on energy projects.”

With the energy costs continually going up, the solar panels going on the packing shed will save him about $4,500 a year.

Dennis Clark grows cherries, apples, peaches, pears, and plums on the orchard and now with the help of solar panels he’s also saving more than 116,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the earth’s atmosphere.

The Next Farm Bill

As more and more farmers take advantage of incentives and grants to create renewable energy, legislators are looking at how the existing programs are doing and thinking about how future farm bills might be written to increasingly encourage renewable energy use on farms and in rural communities. The next farm bill is still 3 years away, but that’s not stopping folks from thinking about it now.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recently visited several New York farms, to better understand their needs — including those around renewable energy. She’s on the agriculture committee and so has a vested interest in making sure the next farm bill works for New York farmers — and presumably farmers across the country.

Let’s hope more senators take the time to get out there, talk to farmers, and create the next bill that really helps farmers not only produce great fruits, vegetables, and livestock, but also empowers them to reduce their carbon footprint and leverage more renewable energy.

As part of their Seattle reLeaf program, the City of Seattle is giving away more trees this year — including one variety of fruit tree, the Italian Plum (which is my favorite). The hope is to get 1,000 trees to residents to plant in their yards which will help the city achieve it’s 30% tree canopy goal.

If you live in one of the neighborhoods listed below, you need to get an application in by September 13.  The city is specifically targetting South Seattle neighborhoods this year and the following are eligable to apply:

• Beacon Hill
• Columbia City
• Georgetown
• Highland Park
• North Beacon Hill/Jefferson Park
• Rainier Beach
• Roxhill/Westwood
• South Beacon Hill/New Holly
• South Park
• Steward Park

There is no need to apply as a group, so individual houses can apply. Trees may be planted along the street or in your yard — keep in mind the fruit tree can’t be planted along the street and needs to go in your yard. There is a limit of 4 per household. The program participants will recieve:

• Free trees, of course – Available species
• Watering bags
• Training on proper tree planting & care
• One free bag of GroCo compost, made with King County biosolids
• Helpful tree care tips & reminders

If you don’t happen to live in one of the neighborhoods listed above, you can still get free trees from the city — but time is running out. The Department of Neighborhoods Tree Fund provides free street trees to groups of 5 or more neighbors working together anywhere in Seattle. Groups can request 10 to 40 trees. But the applications are due Monday, August 16 — so get your application in now!

Dear Don & John,

Not a fruit question, but what’s with the new name?

Thanks,

James

Hi James,

As you know, we’ve done a few Q&A pieces on this blog, answering people’s quesitons about their fruit trees, fruit shrubs, and, well, fruit. Well, turns out that there’s actually a company called The Fruit Guys and because of that, we’re changing the name to Fruit Q&A with Don & John. Same idea — you ask questions, we answer them — just a different name.

I do want to talk about The Fruit Guys, though. They were very nice in contacting us to let us know about their company and they care about the same stuff we do. From their site:

“The FruitGuys provides fresh seasonal fruit from local farms to thousands of American businesses, from small family-run businesses to major Fortune 500 corporations…..We consider ourselves fortunate to work with customers who share our ideals about health, the environment, and our communities. The FruitGuys launched our Farm Steward Program in April 2008 to support sustainable small family farming. We donate 88,000 pounds of fresh fruit a year (more than 7,000 pounds a month) to non-profit groups and regional food pantries nationwide, such as Somethin’ Fresh. With your support, we sent over 7,000 pieces of fresh fruit to food-banks and programs for families in need over the winter holidays with our Donate-A-Crate Program.“

Seems like a great company and we’re happy to have made their acquiantence. Learn more: http://fruitguys.com.

Don & John

fruitqa@cityfruit.org

I garden at Greenwood P-Patch, where we have a row of blueberries along our garden’s western edge. Unfortunately, the planters did not gauge the light level correctly, and most of the trees have failed to thrive and set fruit.

We have about six bushes that look healthy. The plan eventually move them into garden plots, where they will get more light and presumably do better. I have six gardeners who have pledged to put their mud boots on and move the bushes while they are dormant.

My question concerns the remaining bushes, which are in very poor condition–stunted with yellow leaves. I’ve pulled out several dead bushes while weeding. How can I tell if these bushes are likely to survive? Once the other bushes are moved, it may be possible to move the sick bushes to areas in the row with more light.

Thank you,

Debby

Hi Debby,

This article appeared in this last weekend’s Financial Times of London’s Weekend. It has interesting news about fruit in another part of the world and some great recipes.

The fruits of a long hot summer
By Peter Gordon

Published: August 7 2010 00:39 | Last updated: August 7 2010 00:39

August is a lovely month in the kitchen as the summer heat ripens blackberries and bilberries, apricots, greengages and plums, as well as tomatoes, peppers and aubergines. The flavours tend towards the sweet and rich – whether it be hedgerow fruit or the slight bitterness of rich purple aubergines. Lightly cooked and lightly handled is my motto at this time.

I am on a brief trip to New Zealand and was reading in the newspapers that the relentless summer heat in Italy has cut the tomato crop there by 20 per cent. This is terrible news for the Italians – with their dairy production dropping at a similar rate, will mozzarella and tomato salad soon seem a luxury?

But in Britain and northern Europe, the hot summer has tomato vines bursting at the seams and brambles dripping with juice. Next weekend brings the start of the British game season, so before grouse starts to make itself regularly known on your table, make the most of the last of the summer goodies.

Peter Gordon is the chef at Providores in London, www.theprovidores.co.uk

…………………………………………..

Tomato and aubergine salad

This is great served under pan-fried mackerel fillets or with a poached chicken breast – just add a lemon wedge and salad greens. Serves four.

Ingredients

6-8 large vine-ripened tomatoes

2 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced into rings

The juice of 1 large lemon (you may need more)

1 aubergine

1 large handful flat parsley leaves

1 handful basil leaves

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

● Score the tomatoes with a cross in the stem end and plunge into boiling water for 15 seconds, then in iced water. Peel the skin from them, cut into very thin wedges and mix with the shallots and lemon juice.

● Cut the stem from the aubergine and slice lengthwise 1cm thick. Brush with vegetable oil and griddle or pan-fry until coloured and softened. Cut crossways into “fingers” and mix into the tomato.

● Add the parsley, basil and olive oil and season. It may need more lemon juice. Leave for one to two hours, stir and it’s ready.

…………………………………………..

Greengage and blackberry fool

Greengages are a subtle but richly flavoured relative to the plum, and they’ve been making a revival in recent years. They’re lovely poached and bottled for winter crumbles, or split, stones removed, and frozen on trays for adding at the last minute to chicken and pumpkin curry, or even lightly pickled with ginger and cloves to be served with cold meats at Christmas. In summer, it is best to cook them gently and fold them into a custard-rich fool with a juicy blackberry topping. Serves six to eight.

Ingredients

400g greengages: remove stems and wipe with a damp cloth

120g unrefined caster sugar

¼ vanilla bean, split lengthways

300ml milk

3 egg yolks

300g blackberries

2 tbsp icing sugar

400ml double cream

Method

● Place the greengages in a pot with half the sugar and a few tablespoons of water and bring to a simmer. Put the lid on and slowly cook until they’ve burst from their skins and the mixture becomes pulpy – stir frequently.

● Make your custard by bringing the remaining sugar, the vanilla and milk to a simmer. Whisk the egg yolks until foamy then whisk in half the hot milk mixture. Return to pan and cook over moderate heat, stirring until it coats the back of a spoon. Tip into a clean bowl and gently whisk for 20 seconds to help cool it. Cool, then chill in the fridge.

● Remove the stones from the cooled fruit and put in the fridge. Mix together the blackberries and icing sugar and place in the fridge.

● An hour before you want to eat the fool, lightly whip the cream to soft peaks. Beat in the cold custard until firmer peaks, then fold in the fruit, rippling it in. Place in a bowl – a glass one is best – and drizzle the blackberries on top. Top with toasted almonds or pistachios.

We try not to toot our own horn too much here on the blog, but I had to share that our fearless leader, Gail Savina, was identified as one of Seattle Weekly’s Best of Seattle 2010 — Best Fruit Savior. For all the work Gail’s done, including her work with City Fruit. From the article:

“After talking to Savina, your own view of Seattle may change. Adjust your gaze, even slightly, and you begin to see the “urban orchard” Savina describes, fruit trees rising from the landscape: plums, apples, pears, cherries, figs, quince. City Fruit’s work strengthens communities now, but in a town that was once home to many farms and orchards, it also paints a lovely, almost ghostly, portrait of Seattle’s past. “

The Seattle Weekly had a special section of their Best of… series with a section they called The City of Angels — highlighting people and organizations that are giving back tot he city, trying to make it a better place. So we’re very honored to have Gail among that list.

There were also two other food-related Angels that are worth checking out — Bunly Yun and Reverend Robert Jeffery. Each of them are doing great work to help provide more healthy food to people.

Here is a great recipe, quick and easy, for hot summer days!

Summer Pudding with Blueberries and Raspberries
Serves 6

* Active time:20 min
* Start to finish:8 3/4 hr (includes chilling)

A little easy preparation, plus time, yields a gorgeous old-fashioned English dessert that showcases summer berries in the most glorious way. The bread retains a bit of its texture and absorbs all the natural juices exuded by the berries for a cool, smooth intensity.

* 1 unsliced rectangular loaf of brioche or good-quality firm white bread such as a sourdough or other favourite (1 lb), crusts discarded (although, I am a crust fan)
* 4 cups blueberries (1 lb)
* 5 cups raspberries (18 oz)
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Equipment:
a deep 2 1/2-quart bowl (preferably 8 inches in diameter across top and 3 inches across bottom); a platter with a lip

Accompaniment:
lemon verbena ice cream

Cut bread into 14 (1/2-inch-thick) slices. Cut out a 3-inch round from 1 slice and put in bottom of bowl. Line side of bowl with 10 slices, overlapping them slightly.

Bring berries, sugar, and lemon juice to a boil in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, then simmer, stirring occasionally, until berries collapse and release their juices, about 8 minutes. Spoon fruit into a sieve set over a bowl and let drain 15 minutes. Spoon drained fruit into bread-lined bowl (reserve juices) and cover completely with remaining bread, cutting bread to fit.

Pour juices evenly over bread, making sure all bread is saturated. Cover pudding directly with a piece of wax paper and place a 7-inch plate, upside down, on top of paper. Put a 1- to 1 1/2-pound weight (such as a large can) on plate and chill at least 8 hours.

Remove weight, plate, and wax paper and invert platter over bowl, then invert bowl onto platter. Carefully unmold.

Note: Pudding can be chilled (with weights) up to 3 days

A New Pest in Town

We’ve made reference to it previously, but more and more we’re getting reports of the Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) being in WA state — both out east in the orchards and here in the city. It’s kind of a big deal as it’s a new pest and so there are still a lot of experiments with how to deal with it. And it’s attacking soft fruit (peaches, berries, etc.), which have previously escaped things like the Apple Maggot Fly and Coddling Moth. More and more we’re finding it necessary to undertake pest prevention methods for all kinds of fruit.

About SWD

The pest is originally from Asia, but has made its way up to Washington from California — it’s rapidly spreading from state-to-state. They are closely resemble the common vinegar fly but the difference is instead of attacking rotting fruit, the SWD attacks perfectly healthy fruit. It was really first seen around Japan and other parts of Asia in the 1930s. The way it works is that females search for soft fruit, land on the fruit, and then lay their eggs — laying as many as 300 eggs in their lifespan and up to 13 generations per season. The larvae then grow inside of the fruit.

This is a great resourceto see photos of the life cycle of the SWD and its impact on fruit.

The economic impact could be somewhat significant for soft fruit and would vary by region. But not enough research has been done to provide an accurate estimate.

Treatment

We only recommend non-chemical ways at managing existing SWD infestations. If only some fruit is infested, the best approach is to harvest & sort the crop immediately — separating the good from the bad. And to help reduce the number of SWD in the future, we suggest placing infested fruit in a sturdy, sealed plastic bag and dispose of it in the trash. Also, be sure to remove any fruit that has fallen on the ground and any infested fruit remaining on the plants. But do not compost! This will not kill the insects.

Prevention

As this is somewhat of a new pest to the U.S., there are a lot of tests going on as to the best method to prevent SWD infestations and protect vulnerable fruit. Oregon State University has a great resource for backyard growers. The best known approaches so far….

• Traps: There are a number of different types of trapspeople are trying, but below is a video for one in particular. These will not only help you capture SWDs, but also monitor how many are in your area.

• Netting: A few places have suggested setting up netting over your soft fruit plans and trees prior to the fruit developing.
• Habitat & Varieties: One way to prevent the SWD is by selecting thick-skinned fruit varieties that are more resistant to the pests. Also, to modify any other plants you have in your yard that might attract the SWD — thus making it less likely that they’ll find your habitat attractive.

So keep an eye out for this pest. We’ve already heard from folks about it attacking their raspberries and currants. If you find it in your backyard, definitely drop us a line (info@cityfruit.org) — we’d love to better understand how and where this infestation is happening so we can help work to manage it better.