Other Fruits

Besides apples and peaches, we also sell quite a few other fruits! Plums (pictured at right), pawpaws, pears, and strawberries.

Pawpaws (Michigan Bananas)

Pawpaws are also called Michigan bananas. They are a delicious native fruit and our three plantings are beginning to produce respectable quantities of this hardy tropical fruit. We usually start picking our pawpaws in mid September and stop.

Pawpaws are really strange because it doesn't take a degree in botany to figure out they really belong in the tropics. One look at their weird blossom, or a glance at their huge leaves or one taste of their sweet custardy fruit and your mind takes you immediately to a tropical jungle. In fact, the botanical family they come from -- the custard-apple family -- is primarily tropical except for the ... Pawpaw! Pawpaws are easily grown from seeds. Also, they don't need any type of spray to get great fruit. How to grow them? Simply plant their seeds in the ground where you want the tree. Anytime in the fall or winter you can dig in the ground is a perfect time to plant--don't plant after tax time (April 15) since they need lots of cold to get them set to germinate.

Pears

We grow Starkrimson, Bartlett and Comice pears.

Starkrimson - red skinned Clapp’s Favorite. This is a delicious, smooth textured pear when you eat them at the right stage. However, they don’t keep well. It ripens in August.
Bartlett - the well known canning pear. It ripens in September.
Comice - this is our favorite pear and is also called Royal Riviera. Harry and David sells this pear in their special gift packs. Delicious! It ripens in October.

Plums

At present we grow two types of plums - Shiro, an early golden juicy plum, and Burbank - a reddish purple plum that is firm with a delicious flavor. We also have planted Green Gage and Santa Rosa but don’t expect to have enough for sale until 2011.

Strawberries

Our irrigated strawberries are now grown on plastic mulch and they are protected from deer and other wildlife by an electric fence. Remember, strawberries ripen early—sometimes as early as June 5. Also, we do not have everbearing strawberries so they are done producing three weeks after they start in normal June weather—even shorter in hot weather.