Free E-book from HMC Farms and The Produce Moms!

We’ve collaborated with our friends at The Produce Moms on so many activity sheets that we decided to make them into a fun (and free) e-book! Our downloadable E-book is full of activity sheets, STEM lessons, and even recipes designed for kids. Want in on all the fun? Click here to download the E-book.

Image of digital E-book cover and peek inside of peach activity sheet

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

Poolside Peach Salsa Recipe – From The Produce Moms and HMC Farms

This recipe was originally posted on The Produce Moms® website.

Long days spent poolside are what summer dreams are made of. But when hunger strikes a dreamy day can quickly turn into a nightmare. Growling bellies turn happy swimmers into little sharks.

To keep everyone happily swimming and splashing, moms know great poolside treats are a must! Peach salsa is a perfect pool day snack. It’s light and refreshing. It’s sweet without added sugar or sweeteners.

Overhead shot of white bowl filled with peach salsa and surrounded by tortilla chips - peaches on left and right side

Peaches are a good source of vitamins A and C. They also contain fiber, potassium, niacin, and vitamins E and K. One medium-sized peach contains less than 60 calories. You can always feel good about eating a peach!

Take tortilla chips for a dip. Serve peach salsa with either chips or crackers.

Grilling out? Peach salsa is excellent served on top of grilled chicken or fish. If you have extra peaches, throw a few on the grill for another sweet poolside treat!

White bowl of peach salsa, surrounded by peaches, limes, tortilla chips, and cilantro

Poolside Peach Salsa
 Course Snacks
 Cuisine Gluten-Free, Kid-Friendly, Vegetarian
 Prep Time 10 minutes
 Servings
servings
INGREDIENTS
  • 4 cups peaches diced
  • 1/2 cup pineapple diced
  • 1/2 cup red bell pepper diced, seeds removed
  • 1/2 cup red onion minced
  • 3 tsp jalapeno minced, ribs and seeds removed
  • 2/3 cup cilantro chopped
  • 2 limes juice only
  • salt to taste
Poolside Peach Salsa
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Place ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving.
RECIPE NOTES
  • Pineapple is optional.
  • For more heat, leave in some of the jalapeno seeds.
Need to keep kids busy as you whip up a snack? Entertain them with these peachy activity sheets!
Overhead view of peach salsa in a white bowl surrounded by tortilla chips - The Produce Moms logo with peach salsa as the caption

One Year Later: An open letter from Sarah McClarty

One Year Later: An Open Letter from Sarah McClarty, HMC Farms

Twelve months ago, I wrote an open letter to give an update on how HMC Farms was dealing with the pandemic. I was asked to write a follow-up piece once everything “settled back down” in a few weeks, which became a few months… fast forward to a full year removed from that letter, and things are still far from settled.

Something people often do not understand is that there is no rest in agriculture. Beyond farming being an all-consuming way of life, there is no pause button. If you are sick, the plum trees don’t prune themselves and the grapes don’t stop growing. If we miss a harvest by a window of even a few hours, we risk losing an entire block of peaches.

When you already work in an industry with no pause button and then must deal with new rules and regulations overnight, it is exhausting. Being an essential business is a privilege, but also a burden.

Over the past year, there have been several instances when a compliance deadline for a new rule or regulation was approaching with no formal guidance or FAQs from the issuing body, which meant we put our normal jobs aside to digest the new rules and create our own policies to be in compliance.

We did not have the ability to close the office for a short time to get this done. Instead, it meant working on these special projects all day (or week) and then starting in on our regular job duties when the workday would normally be ending. It also meant waking up in the middle of the night thinking about an angle that hadn’t been considered.

Photo of CFO Sarah McClarty wearing a blue and white checkered shirt in a peach orchard with quote: For the last year, owning and operating a vertically integrated farming organization has meant laughing at the idea of being able to take a day off. It has meant being tired all the time; it has meant no rest.

For the last year, owning and operating a vertically integrated farming organization has meant laughing at the idea of being able to take a day off. It has meant being tired all the time; it has meant no rest.

We, as owners and management, are not the only tired ones, so are our employees. Working in the field or a packing house is arduous work. Having to go home after a long day of work to help children do schoolwork, worry about being around vulnerable family members, and dealing with the burden of a global pandemic has weighed heavily on them too.

Our employees are our family, and not being able to give them answers or put all their worries to rest is hard. We have been able to offer them continued access to our free health care clinic, which included same-day appointments for COVID tests when everywhere else had a 3-5 day wait to get an appointment. We have also had the benefit of working with the California Farmworker Foundation to be one of the first sites in California to give on-site (literally right on the farm) vaccines to farmworkers in early February, and then again to any employees in our organization that wanted them a few weeks later. So many people left the building after receiving their vaccine smiling, thanking us for getting the vaccines to them, and in general, being able to finally put their minds at ease. In all honesty, seeing that weight lifted from their shoulders was the highlight of the past year for me.

Just like last year when I wrote the letter, we are approaching our harvest season, which again brings a lot of questions and unknowns. We have raised wages. Packaging has even longer lead times and higher costs. We are spending more money on PPE, increased sanitary measures, testing, and contact tracing; all while losing efficiencies because of the priority we put on safely distancing employees.

Most of our retail customers are not willing to pay more for our products, even though it is costing us more to produce them and the outlook for the foodservice industry is still full of question marks. Crunching those numbers keeps me up at night.

A year without rest is hard, but we believe in what we do and are dedicated to growing the best fruit we can. As always, we will get creative in the solutions we offer our customers and put our employees’ best interests at the forefront of our decision-making. Hopefully someday soon I can write that “settled back down” update and take a vacation, but for now we will be doing our best to get fresh fruit on people’s tables all summer long.

Photo of CFO Sarah McClarty wearing a blue and white checkered shirt in a peach orchard with text that reads: one year later, an open letter from Sarah McClarty at HMC Farms

Note from The Produce Moms original blog post featuring Sarah’s letter:

One year ago, The Produce Moms Covid-19 content series provided our community of consumer followers with perspectives and real-life stories from the agriculture supply chain.  In our series, we posted a guest blog authored by Sarah McClarty, Chief Financial Officer and Co-Owner of HMC Farms.  You can read it here.

Rooting back to 1887, HMC Farms is a multi-generation family farm located in California’s Central Valley. HMC Farms is a leading grower in table grapes and tree fruit including peaches, plums, nectarines and plumcots.

HMC Farms is a leader in bringing fresh produce to schools.  You can learn more about their commitment to schools at grapesforschools.com. And you can learn more about the family farm at HMCFarms.com.

HMC Farms and The Produce Moms have been brand partners for nearly 4 years.  We are so passionate about what they do and the delicious fruit that they grow. Enjoy this reflective letter from Sarah, one year later.

Feeling Peachy: Activity Sheets for Kids from The Produce Moms

Stone Fruit {Tree Fruit}

Feeling peachy? Stone fruit season is in full bloom, and we couldn’t be more excited that our friends at The Produce Moms created some fun peach-themed activity sheets for kids!
Original blog on The Produce Moms website

What exactly is a stone fruit (also referred to as tree fruit)? It’s a fruit with a large, hard pit or “stone” inside of it. The stone contains the seeds or kernels of the fruit. The stone fruit category includes peaches, nectarines, plums, plumcots, apricots, cherries and more!

Let’s take a little closer at the anatomy of a stone fruit…

Feeling Peachy Activity Sheets

As we know, education is key to consumption.  We love to create activity sheets focused on fruits and veggies.  It is a great way for kids to learn more about the fresh produce that they love to eat. In our first activity sheet, we have the kids complete the basic anatomy of a peach.  Using a color-by-number approach, they will also learn what each part of the peach is called.  Also on the first activity sheet is a fun math problem.  But be careful, the math problem is a bit tricky!

Our second activity sheet is a funny & peachy story created “Mad Lib” style.  Kids will fill in the blanks with words of their choice and be able to create their own story! Some of the younger kids may need help with the parts of speech. The best part is that you can create multiple stories with this activity!  We also have a fun suggestion for adding stone fruit to your next pancake breakfast!

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.

Peach oat muffins recipe, as seen on Indy Style morning show

Peaches make a great addition to baked goods from breakfast to dessert. One of our go-to breakfast recipes at HMC Farms is for peach oat muffins. These muffins are a great way to incorporate HMC Farms peaches into your breakfast, and they’re easy to make. This recipe makes about 10 muffins, so you won’t have to recruit a soccer team to help you eat them. You may have watched Lori Taylor from The Produce Moms demonstrate our recipe on the Indy Style morning show. If not, you can watch the segment here.

What you’ll need:

  • 2 medium HMC Farms peaches
  • 1 cup Greek yogurt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 stick unsalted butter melted and cooled
  • 1 cup quick oats
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup of light brown sugar, packed (dark brown sugar will also work)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Steps to homemade muffin deliciousness:

  • Preheat the oven to 400° and either line a muffin pan with paper liners, or lightly grease the muffin wells.
  • Chop the HMC Farms peaches into small to medium chunks. There is no need to peel the peaches unless you prefer to do so.
    Tip: Chop peaches in the summer and freeze them to use in muffins during the fall and winter months.
  • Combine all dry ingredients except for the cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl (oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt).
  • In another bowl, beat the egg and then whisk in the Greek yogurt and butter. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until combined well.
  • Gently mix the chopped peaches into the dough.
  • Scoop batter into the muffin pan, leaving 2 wells empty. These will not rise much, so fill them up to about the size you’d like them to be once they’re baked.
  • Combine cinnamon and sugar, and sprinkle over the top, using as much or as little as you’d like.
    Tip: for a fun twist, fill the wells halfway, add some of the cinnamon & sugar mixture, and top with more batter.
  • Bake for 20-26 minutes, checking every few minutes. The muffins are finished when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  • Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack until ready to serve!

Recipes to Celebrate Summer Fruit