HMC News – September 25, 2019

We are currently in the process of placing vine cover on our late season grape varieties. Vine cover protects grapes from early rain in September and October. The timing of the cover placement is important because we don’t want to cover the vines in very hot temperatures and trap heat around the grapes, but we also want to protect the grapes from rainfall as early as possible. We normally begin covering our grape vines in early to mid September, when we begin to see chances of precipitation in the forecast.

Crop Update:

Harvest continues to slow for HMC Farms tree fruit. Table grape harvest is in full swing. Timco red seedless grapes have begun harvest. Allison red seedless and Autumn King green seedless grapes will harvest soon. The weather on our farms has jumped back into the 90s for a few days, but the forecast shows a progressive drop in high temperatures, putting highs in the 70s to start next week.

Stone fruit galette recipe, as seen on Indy Style morning show

Stone fruit harvest is beginning to slow down at HMC Farms, so we are squeezing in as many ways to enjoy our delicious bounty as possible. One of our favorite quick and easy recipes for a dessert that’s sure to impress is a stone fruit galette. If you haven’t heard of a galette, it’s similar to an open-faced pie. It can be made using a single type of stone fruit, like peaches, or a variety of your favorites. In this case, we used peaches, nectarines, and plums to make a mixed fruit galette.

This recipe was featured on the Indy Style morning show by Lori Taylor from The Produce Moms. If you missed the episode, click here to watch how easy it is to make this crowd-pleasing dessert or brunch addition.

What you’ll need:

  • 6-8 pieces of HMC Farms peaches, nectarines, plums, plumcots, or summerwhites
  • Pie crust (pre made crust works just fine, but you can also make it from scratch)
  • 1/3 cup of sugar + 1 Tbsp for sprinkling (raw sugar can be used here)
  • 1 Tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tsp lemon juice
  • 1-2 Tbsp flour or cornstarch to thicken the filling
  • Beaten egg or cream for the edges of the crust

Steps to the easiest impressive dessert you’ve ever made:

  • Preheat the oven to 375° and roll out pie crust on parchment paper on top of baking pan or stone.
  • Slice the HMC Farms fruit.

Tip: A lot of our HMC Farms peaches and nectarines are clingstone varieties. We’ve found that the easiest way to create pretty slices of fruit is to place the fruit on a cutting board with the stem side down and slice straight down on each side around the pit. These larger pieces can be sliced more easily that trying to separate each slice from the pit individually.

  • Combine all ingredients (except for the egg or cream wash and the 1Tbsp of sugar) in a large bowl and gently stir.
  • Place the mixture from the bowl in the center of the pie crust.
  • Fold the crust in about 2” in overlapping pieces to create a pleated look.
  • Brush the top edges of the crust with the cream or beaten egg, and sprinkle the remaining sugar on it.
  • Bake for about 45 minutes, checking every 5-10 min beginning at 30 min.
    Tip: some of the juices will run out from the galette in the oven. Don’t be alarmed by this, but do prepare in order to prevent a mess in the bottom of your oven..
  • Remove galette from the oven and cool on a rack.

HMC News – September 18, 2019

Holiday plums are here! We wait all year for this HMC Farms proprietary red plum that has green undertones, speckled skin, and a sweet and distinctive flavor. Contact your HMC Farms salesperson for more information on availability.

Crop Update:

Harvest is slowing for HMC Farms tree fruit. Scarlet Royal and Krissy red seedless table grapes and Autumn King green seedless table grapes are in harvest. Timco and Allison red seedless grapes will harvest soon. The forecast shows high temperatures ranging from the low 80s to the low 90s. We are closely monitoring any chances of early rain, which tend to pop up in the second half of September.

STEM activity sheets – learn with grapes!

What is STEM?

STEM stands for an idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It is an applied, blended and cohesive approach that encourages a hands-on experience while allowing students a chance to gain and apply relevant “real world” knowledge in the classroom.

STEM has become a critical component to nation-wide Academic Standards. Together with The Produce Moms and a middle school science teacher, we developed two STEM projects for middle school students using grapes. Because why not combine a science experiment with one of the most popular fruits?

The best part about our two grape STEM experiments…you can download them and print them off for FREE.

Grapes for STEM Projects

Grape Smash. Our Grape Smash STEM Project is designed for students to practice classification along with learning about the Law of Conservation of Mass.

Download the free HMC Farms Grape Smash STEM Activity Sheet

Dancing Grapes. Our Dancing Grapes STEM project focuses on using the POE (Predict-Observe-Explain) strategy.  Predicting, Observing and Explaining incorporates the fundamental processes associated with all discovery learning. This project allows students to use all 5 senses and allows them to communicate and demonstrate their understandings through written and visual explanations.

Download the free HMC Farms Dancing Grapes STEM Activity Sheet

To learn more about The Produce Moms, visit their website.

HMC News – September 11, 2019

HMC Farms just won the Buyer’s Choice Award with our new SpongeBob™ and PAW Patrol™ grape multipacks at the California Food Expo! For more information on these products, contact Chelsea: chelseak@hmcfarms.com. These products will be in the Fresh Ideas Showcase at PMA Fresh Summit, where HMC Farms will be present at booth #3079. Contact your HMC Farms salesperson if you’d like to schedule a time to meet at PMA regarding this or other topics.

Crop Update:

Harvest is slowing for HMC Farms tree fruit. Holiday plums are now available! Krissy and Scarlet Royal red seedless table grapes, and Great Green green seedless table grapes are in harvest. Timco and Allison red seedless and Autumn King green seedless grapes will harvest soon. The forecast shows fluctuating temperatures. At this point in the year, we have to watch out for chances of early rain.

HMC News – September 4, 2019

HMC Farms is competing in the California Food Expo’s Golden State Award with our new SpongeBob™ and PAW Patrol™ grape multipacks. This award is based on social media likes on the product photo on Instagram and Facebook. Help us win by liking the photo on both platforms! For more information on how to purchase these products, contact Chelsea: chelseak@hmcfarms.com.

Crop Update:

Harvest is slowing down a bit for HMC Farms peaches, plums, and nectarines. Table grape harvest continues with Krissy and Scarlet Royal red seedless table grapes, and Ivory and Great Green green seedless table grapes in harvest. Timco red seedless grapes will harvest soon, followed by Allison red seedless and Autumn King green seedless grape harvest beginning near the end of the month. The forecast shows a few more hot days, with a break in the heat over the weekend and into next week.