This is one of the season’s most anticipated harvests – my peaches. My peach trees are so productive – look at all these fruits, and there are still so many more on the trees.
When picking peaches, color is a great indicator of maturity. Peaches are ripe when the ground color of the fruit changes from green to completely yellow and the fruit is a bright red-orange.
If the peach is firm to the touch, it’s not ready. It’s ripe when there is some “give” as it is gently squeezed. Some could have used a little more time, but we wanted to get them before the squirrels.
Another indicator of ripeness is if the peach separates easily from the tree when pulled.
Peach tree leaves are oval-shaped and simple, with a length that is greater than the width. They are bold green in color, but turn yellow in the fall before falling.
After just minutes, we had all these peaches picked. I always use trays and place them in a single layer so they don’t get bruised.
Once the peaches are brought into my Winter House kitchen, they are pitted and sliced into wedges, and placed in a large stainless steel bowl.
Then they are sprinkled with one cup sugar and left in the fridge to macerate.
I added some blueberries picked from my bushes the same day.
While the oven was pre-heating to 375-degrees Fahrenheit, I buttered two baking dishes.
I prepared the filling – the fruits, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt and transferred the mixture into the dish.
I decided to use a buttermilk biscuit topping, so I prepared my ingredients – flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, butter, and buttermilk.
I combined the dry ingredients and then added the buttermilk until a soft, sticky dough was formed.
I turned out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.
Then I rolled it out until it was about an inch thick.
Using a floured 2 1/4-inch round biscuit cutter I cut out the biscuits.
To be efficient, when cutting out the biscuits, do it as close together as possible.
The biscuits are spaced evenly on top of the fruit.
I brushed the tops with some buttermilk and then sprinkled them with sanding sugar.
Here they are all ready to go into the oven. I made two, so the recipe was doubled. Cobblers, crisps, buckles, and crumbles are all fruit desserts that are similar but have different toppings and textures. Cobbler has a top crust made of biscuit or pie dough, and usually no bottom crust.
The cobblers are cooked until the biscuits are golden brown and the fruit is bubbling in the center of the dish – about an hour and 15-minutes.
Just perfect out of the oven. Once done, let it cool about a half hour before serving. This dish is for my hardworking crew. I know they’ll love it!
Pre-order your copy of my landmark 100th book “Martha: The Cookbook: 100 Favorite Recipes, with Lessons and Stories from My Kitchen” today from Clarkson Potter. I am so proud of this book. I know you’ll read it cover to cover and want to make every recipe!
It's still berry picking season and the blueberries at my Bedford, New York farm are ripe for the picking!
Plump, juicy, and sweet, with vibrant colors from red to the deepest purple-black, blueberries are one of nature’s finest treasures. I love to use them for jams, jellies, and pies, but they’re also wonderful with cereal, in pancakes and cobblers, and of course, in handfuls on their own. Low in fat, yet packed with vitamin-C and antioxidants, it’s not surprising they’re one of America’s favorite fruits.
Enjoy these photos.
Blueberries are among the most popular berries for eating. Here in the United States, they are second only to strawberries.
My blueberries are all from these bushes located between my flower garden and large Equipment Barn, next to a stand of quince trees. The posts are the same 18th-century Chinese granite uprights I use for the clematis pergola, my apple espaliers, and my raspberry bushes.
Standard blueberry bushes grow about six to 10-feet tall. New shoots grow from the crown under the soil.
At the base, blueberry shrubs have multiple canes growing directly out of the soil in clumps. The canes or branches are smooth and thornless. These bushes have done so well here at the farm. I am always so pleased with how prolific they are every year.
There are two types of blueberries, highbush and lowbush. Highbush blueberries are the types you commonly find at grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Lowbush blueberries are smaller, sweeter blueberries often used for making juices, jams, and baked goods.
They are pale greenish at first, and then reddish-purple and finally dark purple-blue when ripe for picking.
Here, one can see the colors of the berries as they develop – green, then red, then blue.
When harvesting the fruits, select plump, full berries with a light gray-blue color. A berry with a hint of red is not fully ripened.
And blueberries don’t actually reach their full flavor until a few days after they turn blue, so a tip to know which ones are the best – tickle the bunches lightly, and only the truly ripe ones will fall into your hand.
Blueberry bushes have glossy leaves that are green or bluish-green from spring through summer. The leaves are ovate, in an irregular oval or slightly egg shape that is wider at the bottom than the top. Blueberry leaves can also be harvested and dried for teas.
These bushes are so full! I grow many blueberry varieties, including ‘Bluegold’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Darrow’, ‘Jersey’, and ‘Patriot’.
Many blueberries also fall to the ground. All those picked are carefully inspected – only the best are saved. And do you know who also loves blueberries? The wild turkeys here love to forage and eat the berries that fall.
Each of these fruits is about five to 16 millimeters large with a flared crown at the end.
They were once called “star fruits” by North American indigenous peoples because of the five-pointed star shaped crown.
Blueberries are also covered in a protective powdery epicuticular wax known as the “bloom”. These berries are just right for picking. Blueberries are high in fiber, high in vitamin-C, and contain one of the highest amounts of antioxidants among all fruits and vegetables.
We like to pick berries using these small boxes. After they are picked, store blueberries unwashed for a few days in the refrigerator for up to five days.
Enma and Elvira are careful to pick only the bluest of them all, leaving the light green ones and reddish ones to mature.
Elvira picked this box from just two bushes, but there are many more to go!
Blueberries produce from early summer through late fall – we will pick lots and lots of berries before the end of the season.
There is always so much work to do on my Bedford, New York farm.
During summer, all my large potted tropical plants are displayed outdoors in various locations around the farm. Smaller potted specimens are also put out in groups near my greenhouses where they can be closely maintained. One collection of alocasias and colocasias, some new and some which I've been growing for awhile, was ready to repot into larger containers. Repotting can be a tedious process, but a very important one that keeps all my plants healthy.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Many alocasias are loved for their striking foliage. Varieties can be found with different leaf colors, sizes, and shapes. Alocasia plants are native to tropical regions of Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific, and can grow up to 10 feet tall in their natural environments. I have many alocasias and love to display them every summer.
Alocasia ‘Borneo Giant’ has bold green leaves on rigid stems. When mature, it can be seven to 10 feet tall with leaves up to five feet wide.
Alocasia ‘Sumo’ has large, dark green leaves and can grow up to 10 feet tall. It is a hybrid plant between Alocasia ‘Portora’ and ‘Purple Cloak.’ Look closely and notice the stems are dark reddish-black.
This is Alocasia Macrorrhiza Variegata. Variegated plants have leaves, stems, fruits, or other parts with more than one color. The colors can appear as stripes, blotches, borders, speckles, or dots, and can be white, light green, yellow, red, pink, brown, or violet. The patterns can be symmetrical and regular, or more sporadic and uneven. This alocasia variety is a little more rare than the others. I always look for rare and unusual plants.
Every leaf is different, showing off its interesting green and white markings. Another leaf on the same plant has one half completely white.
The undersides of alocasia leaves can be leathery and have striking veins and textures.
Alocasia and Colocasia are both elephant ear plants in the Araceae family. This is Colocasia ‘Black Ruffle.’ It has dark, heart-shaped leaves, which become ruffled at the edges as they grow.
My gardeners always save pots – they come in very handy when repotting growing plants and seedlings.
Whenever potting a large selection of plants, the team does so in a production line process, which is quick and efficient. They also work on tarps, so any spilled soil can be collected easily and used elsewhere.
There is at least one drainage hole at the bottom of each pot. Drainage holes allow excess water to drain and help protect the plant’s roots from bacteria, fungus, and rot, which can occur when roots sit in water for too long and can’t breathe.
Alocasias prefer soil that is both well-draining and loose. Choose a tropical mix with bark, sand, and loam. I like to use Miracle-Gro Potting Mix.
The pot is filled about a third of the way up. The root ball will sit on top of this layer and be surrounded with more soil. The right amount of soil will allow the base of the plant to sit right under the rim of the pot.
Matthew removes the plant from its old pot and gently cuts the root ball with his Hori Hori to stimulate growth.
The root ball is placed in the center of the pot at a similar depth to its previous pot and positioned so its roots grow down.
After backfilling, Matthew tamps down to ensure good contact with the soil.
I am a big believer in feeding all plants – if you eat, so should your plants.
These plants are given Osmocote Plus from Miracle-Gro, a controlled release fertilizer that’s ideal for container plants.
Each granule is covered with an organic resin that regulates the daily release of nutrients.
Josh pots up another alocasia. It doesn’t take long before all the plants are done.
These plants will be given a good drink of water and then placed where they can get bright, indirect sunlight. It is so nice to have all the tropical plants outside this time of year.
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