Plumsicle™ Ice Cream!

If you’ve tasted our proprietary HMC Farms® Plumsicle™, you already know that the flavor is unlike any other piece of fruit. The taste reminds us of a frozen treat from the ice cream truck on a hot summer day, and we were inspired to create our own version of that creamy, frosty goodness in our farm kitchen to get us through this heat wave. We know it’s hard not to eat Plumsicles when they’re right in front of you, so grab an extra bag to snack on while you make this Plumsicle ice cream.

 

We used our home ice cream maker for this recipe. You may need to adjust the portions depending on the size of your ice cream maker.

Ingredients: two bottles of milk, bowl of cut plums, 3 brown eggs, bowl of sugar, bowl of vanilla, salt grinder on white marble surface

Ingredients:

  • 1 bag of HMC Farms Plumsicle, pits removed (about 2lbs)
  • Half and half – ¼ gallon + 1 cup
  • 1 cup sugar
  • Splash of vanilla
  • Pinch of salt

 

Start by rinsing off your Plumsicles and carefully remove the pits. We like to leave the skin on for little pockets of extra Plumsicle flavor, but if you can’t come to terms with the skin in your ice cream it’s okay to remove it. Place all of the ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. If you want some Plumsicle chunks, try blending all of the other ingredients first, and then adding Plumsicle and using the pulse blend option to leave some chunks. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and use the manufacturer’s instructions. That’s it! An easy path to homemade Plumsicle ice cream that will make you look like a seasoned confectioner.

Waffle bowl containing two scoops of pink ice cream on multi-colored striped background, purple towel and 3 plums in frame

Watch us make this recipe here.

 

Don’t have an ice cream maker, or looking for a dairy-free option? Check out this recipe for Plumsicle ice pops and wine pops from The Produce Moms!

For more information on Plumsicle, visit our dedicated website!

HMC News – June 2022

We are tipping and thinning clusters in our table grape vineyards. During this process, each grape cluster is inspected and clipped to reduce the density of berries and obtain a manageable overall bunch size.

Two images of green grapes on the vine

At this point, we are getting into a nice harvest groove. Peach, plum, and nectarine harvest is moving right along in our orchards, with flavor continuing to impress across our early season varieties. 

Plumsicle™ harvest has begun! As expected, the crop is sweet and flavorful. Plumsicle is available only in limited supplies this year, but we continue to add more acreage to our Plumsicle orchards each year. For more information on Plumsicle, visit our new dedicated website hmcplumsicle.com.

three plums on a tree with leaves. The word Plumsicle and tagline "oh so sweet" in the top left corner.

Last week, some heavy winds and precipitation made their way to our farms. This actually kept us out of the fields for a day, which never happens in the summer. The wind blew quite a bit of fruit off of our trees, and some trees even blew over. After a week of days peaking at over 100°F, the forecast finally shows a little relief as we are expected to drop back into the 90s, and potentially a hair below that for the holiday on Monday. In our table grape vineyards, we’ve seen a little bit of burn on the varieties that haven’t entered veraison yet, but nothing compared to last year. Thankfully, this year’s heat wave came a little later, which meant that there was more canopy coverage in the vineyards to offer shade and protection to berries susceptible to sunburn. Our Sweet Bond and Flame red seedless varieties are gaining color, and Ivory green seedless is in veraison. Berries are still sizing up across our vineyards.

dirt road with row of fruit trees and dust in the background. Fruit lying on the ground beside the trees.

HMC News – February 2022

Pink blossoms on a tree in an orchard

After a winter with sufficient chill hours, some of our earliest stone fruit varieties have started to wake up from their winter hibernation as they push the first blooms of the 2022 season. These first flowers bring anticipation for the upcoming season along with the anxiety of knowing that unfavorable weather conditions can now have deleterious effects on the 2022 crop. Blossoms become commonplace around the valley as hundreds of different stone fruit varieties will be in different stages of bloom in late February and early March.

Dirt field with stick. Man wearing jeans, boots, and gloves wrapping white tape around stick.

We are in the process of grafting trees in some of our stone fruit orchards. Grafting is a process in which scion wood (a piece of wood from the desired varietal) is bonded to existing rootstock. This allows the new variety to reach harvest more quickly than planting entirely new trees. Different root stocks are beneficial for different reasons, such as drought resistance, increased vigor, or successful growth in a particular soil type.

Bundles of baby trees in two white bins

We’re planting new trees on the blocks of land we’ve spent the last few months preparing for this very thing. Selecting new varieties is a process which requires a lot of research to ensure that only the best tasting varieties make it to our farms, but we also take other factors, such as harvest timing, into consideration to ensure a consistent flow of delicious fruit is available throughout the harvest season.

Unlike peaches and nectarines, most of our plum varieties are not self-fertile and require pollination from another variety to set a crop. Many blocks of plums are comprised of two or more varieties for cross-pollination. Every year we place beehives in our plum orchards to promote the cross-pollination process. Often, we include “bouquets” of a third plum variety in bins near the orchard as a supplemental pollen source.

Plumsicle™ BBQ Sauce Recipe

This recipe was created by The Produce Moms.
You can’t have a summer barbeque without the right sauce to go with it! A good BBQ sauce
brings warm weather and backyard fun to mind, no matter what time of year you enjoy it. There
are as wide a range of flavors of BBQ sauce as there are ways to use it – but nothing beats a
homemade sauce filled with fresh ingredients! Mix up this Plumsicle™ BBQ Sauce and give a
sweet new taste to a classic flavor.

How to Make Plumsicle BBQ Sauce
Sure, you can buy all kinds of BBQ sauce varieties in the store. But you won’t get the exact
flavor you’re looking for unless you make it yourself! Fortunately, this cookout essential is easy
to make in your own kitchen – and Plumsicle BBQ Sauce is no exception.

Featuring deliciously sweet Plumsicle along with garlic, red pepper, and other flavorful
ingredients, this BBQ sauce is a treat for the taste buds. Ketchup and brown sugar provide a
simple base for this sauce, but it’s the Plumsicles that give it a standout flavor.
Plumsicle BBQ Sauce starts in the blender. Chop the plums into smaller, blendable pieces
and add them to your food processor or blender along with the rest of the ingredients.
Homemade BBQ sauce has a bit more texture than the typical store-bought variety, but your
blender will make it smooth enough to slather on ribs, burgers, or pizza. Then just reduce it on
the stove, store it in a container (we used a canning jar), and serve it with your favorite summer
dish!

Overhead photo of a food processor containing chopped plums, brown sugar, and other ingredients for Plumsicle BBQ sauce

Ingredients
● 3 HMC Farms Plumsicles, pitted and chopped (skin stays on)
● 2 garlic cloves, minced
● 1/2 cup ketchup
● 1/4 cup brown sugar*
● 2 T Apple cider vinegars
● 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
● 1 tsp red pepper flakes
● Salt and pepper to taste

*Plumsicle is naturally very sweet. You may want to adjust the amount of brown sugar up or down, depending on how sweet you like your BBQ sauce.

Directions
1. Chop plums.
2. Put all ingredients in food processor or blender. Blend until smooth
3. Put in a cast iron skillet, reduce over medium heat. It should take about 10 minutes.

Cast iron skillet half full of Plumsicle BBQ sauce, surrounded by a kitchen towel and several pieces of Plumsicle fruit

Savoring the Sweetness of Plumsicle
Want a new way to celebrate summer flavor? Plumsicle is just what
you need! This incredible plum variety is bursting with sweetness! It’s the perfect plum for
making tasty treats like these Wine Pops and Ice Pops or for blending into delicious sauces to
complement all of your favorite barbeque foods.

Jar of Plumsicle BBQ sauce, kitchen towel, 2 pieces of Plumsicle fruit, and wooden spoon full of sauce

How will you know a Plumsicle when you see one? It’s one of the most eye-catching plums
around! Look for a yellow starburst of speckles dotting a deep, rich skin. Bite into one and you’ll
find juicy reddish-purple flesh that’s ideal for adding vibrant color to your recipes. And of course,
look for the HMC Farms logo! Look for Plumsicle at your local grocery store between
mid-June and late-July in one pound clamshells and two pound stand-up bags.
What did you think of this Plumsicle BBQ Sauce? Did it impress the neighborhood grilling
gourmand or your family’s cookout connoisseur? Leave a comment below, follow us on Facebook, or tag us in your plum-perfect photos on Instagram @HMCfarms and @theproducemoms.

 

Jar of Plumsicle BBQ sauce with kitchen towel and 2 pieces of Plumsicle fruit. Header with The Produce Moms logo and text reading Plumsicle BBQ Sauce

HMC News – March 2021

This month, HMC Farms held a two day COVID-19 vaccination clinic for employees of HMC and several nearby ag businesses. At this point, we have successfully distributed vaccines to more than 450 agricultural workers in California’s Central Valley, in partnership with the California Farmworker Foundation and Heart of Ag (the free-to-employee clinic we sponsor) – both relationships built before the pandemic. Sarah McClarty, Chief Financial Officer at HMC stated at the event, “To watch every employee in our organization who wants a vaccine receive one over the last two days has been the biggest win in what has been an extremely challenging twelve months.”

People waiting in line at vaccination clinic

Research and development are crucial to our success as a farming business. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our farming methods by studying a wide variety of topics. One of our Plumsicle™ orchards is pictured above. This is one example of the results of years of research and development to improve the maintenance and growing processes, while planning ahead for the use of future ag technologies. While we often show you these trees during harvest time, the blossom stage gives a clear view of the high density setup.

Blooming plum trees in high density planting block - trees are planted close together and supported by a trellis

This month, we’ve had both rain and hail in the Central Valley. Hail can pose a significant threat to our crops if it occurs at the wrong time. Right now, our stone fruit is in three different stages: blossoms, developing fruit with the jacket (base of the blossom) still attached, and juvenile fruit outside of the jacket. Blossoms essentially have no vulnerability to the hail we’ve had – even if we lose some blossoms, that can be chalked up to thinning. The developing fruit with the jacket still attached still has some protection against the elements. The most vulnerable of these stages is the juvenile fruit that has just shed its jacket, and the growth process moving forward. About 20% or less of our crop is in the post-jacket stage at this point, and we will evaluate any hail damage in the coming days.

Orchard of fruit trees with pink blossoms, water puddle from rain in the foreground

Bud break is happening in our early season table grape vineyards. This means that tiny buds on the vine have begun to swell up and give way to leaves using energy stored up during dormancy over the winter. Pictured above is a Flame red seedless table grape vineyard, our first variety to harvest. We generally compare the timing of the growth cycle with previous years, but bud break itself is not a solid benchmark for harvest time because the weather after it occurs has a significant impact on timing for the rest of the growth cycle. While bud break began about the same time as last year, the cooler weather over the past couple of weeks has slowed down growth across our vineyards.

Pruned grape vineyard with green leaves beginning to open up from dormant vines

We are now thinning our early season stone fruit varietals. During the thinning process, we remove excess immature fruit, leaving behind only about 2-4 pieces per hanger (shoots from permanent tree branches which bear fruit). This time consuming job is labor intensive, and can only be done by hand. The amount of fruit we leave behind varies based on the specific variety. Thinning will continue for months as our mid and late season varietals reach the appropriate point in the growth process.

Three photos: one of a peach tree branch with clusters of baby fruit before thinning, another of lots of baby fruit on the ground from thinning, and the third with a peach tree branch after thinning with only one or two pieces of fruit left