Great fruits, Silvia, and those nuts just make me dream of autumn. So nice you have all that available close by. Thanks for the pretty picks. And, ooooooh, do share when you scramble up some yummy cooking from all that freshness.
Meems

Your in Florida right? The plants are in Florida right? If so, OUTSTANDING! I did not know you could grow pears in Florida. What variety and where did you get it?

sand pears. they do exceptionally well here, are long-lived, bear heavily, and are very tasty. lot of grit, tho, and that bothers some people.

where's the farm, silvia? is it open to the public?

Hi Meems
I am still thinking recipes...And I already sampled everything, delicious! Of course in my book, the prize goes to the chestnuts. It reminds me of chestnuts roasted on the streets of NY, around Christmas.
Those are some picky nuts, we had to use rubber gloves. The owner of the farm said he saw them in Venice for sale with those picky shells on!

Linchat
I am in Oakland, next to Winter Garden and Clermont. The farm is in Clermont and they have great fruit trees. And the best part is they are so cheap!
Besides that is a very scenic drive on top of the hill. Like Michael told you, they are sand pears and they are good! You just have to peel them, I don't have any problem with that.

Michael
Farm is open to the public, Saturday morning from 8.30am to 10.30am and I think Wednesday night. The name is Valley View Vineyards, it is on the Florida u pick farms. There is a phone number and address when you google the name.
If anything, I will go back for more chestnuts!
The persimmons are the astringent Asian variety, and I think the name of the pear is Confederate.
It is a beautiful place to visit. They have a huge butterfly garden and he said that he only uses fertilizer on the fruit trees twice a year. They pretty much take care of themselves after that.

Silvia

Silvia --- So, you got to go back to VVV. I wished that I lived close like you to a nice U-Pick place like that. That place seems to have everything.

For those that want more info on this place, ask to be put on their email list. They will tell you what is ripe to pick. Sil, did they still have grapes ripening?

Do you have any more info on the chestnuts? I don't know anybody else that are growing those down here. Did you roast them? I also think of Christmas up north when I hear the word chestnuts.

Christine

chris--we should run down there sometime... i'd love to see chestnuts again... i had no idea they grew this far south.

Hi Christine
The place is fantastic, they have everything! I went for the pears, then I saw the persimmons, then we spotted the chestnut because it prick us. lol

I made dinner tonight, roasted chestnuts, pear cucumber salad,those pears are great for this dish, and persimmon bread with very ripe persimmons. Everything came out delicious!

Here is a recipe for the bread, we all like it!

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: persimmon bread

Thank you for this post!

Everything looks wonderful! That appears to be close to our favorite German bakery in Yalaha, so I have a feeling I'll be paying them a visit soon!

Those pears make wonderful preserves. Mmmmm, on a biscuit with a cup of fresh ground coffee........

wt

The chestnuts caught my attention too, I'd thought it would be too far south by about 75 miles seeing how well you all do with summer veggies I'm not surprised....

Tom

i love persimmons immoderately. just saying...

WT
Those pears are very good. They can be used for anything. I am sure preserves will be great!

If you get to go picking, try this salad, it is very simple and good.

Tom
When I was coming down the hill, looking at Lake Apopka, I saw some huge veggie gardens. I don't think they post here. And I did not take pictures either. :-)
The good news are that the fruit trees pretty much take care of themselves. They were not mulched, or trimmed or show baby care and they are great producers!lol

Michael
I have it all figured out, I will go pick Asian persimmons at the farm. And when mine start producing it will be good, because I only have two and they are the non-astringent type.

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: pear salad

Way too cool! The chestnuts surprised me.

Thanks Miranda, I love chestnuts! They were great just roasted while I was baking the persimmon bread.

I have never had a roasted chestnut- or one at all that I can remember. Did they tell you the variety name? I imagine the trees must be quite large, but I have room to grow one. Do they sell seedlings?

Miranda
Chestnuts in my opinion are the best tasting nuts there is. They are also pack with nutrition and are lower calorie than other nuts.
Roasting is the best way to bring out the flavors, you can also grill them, but have to watch carefully that you don't burn them.
I usually make Thanksgiving stuffing with 2 different kind of breads, veggies and chestnuts.
Very rarely I see them for sale at the store, expensive. I don't think many people are familiar with it.
I had them in French ice cream too.
When I lived in Arizona, the Arab store by my house, would order them from Italy and I was the first customer buying them.

When I was at the farm, I really did not ask many questions, I was just busy picking. But I did not see any seedlings for sale.

I think I saw Felix had one growing, maybe he can give us more info.

And if you decide to get one, that is a good choice, maybe a pecan tree too. Nuts are expensive! You will get your money's worth growing them. Since you are young, by the time the trees are grown, you can make some money selling the nuts. Think maybe a little business in the future, that can include specialty veggies and eggs. :)

I will do a follow up when I go back to the farm

Silvia

Thanks Silvia! I'm going to research the chestnuts some. I have always wanted to try to grow nuts- though they might be rough on the mower if I'm not careful. TYTY might have what I'm looking for.

I already checked it out. Just Fruits and Exotics has some chestnut trees for sale. They say that you need to have 2. Sounds like a lot of sunny land is needed for these trees.

Silvia --- I wrote down the recipe for the persimmon bread. I never made fruit bread with booze in it! I have so many persimmons ripening that I have pulp in the freezer too for future baking. I gave Michael some persimmons last week so don't feel too bad for him. The food looks so delicious.

Christine

Christine

On a slope going to the grape vines they had the persimmons, limes and chestnuts. All the trees look like no care is required and they all produced a lot!

I think the bourbon that I put in the bread, is what it gave the taste, everybody like it in the house, including some friends that we had over. And they never had a persimmon before.

I have a lot of bread recipes with booze on them, they are all very, very good. One that comes to mind is a zucchini bread with brandy. And when this bread is aged is even better. I will make them sometimes and post them. The good thing is that when you use spirits for cooking, they kind of evaporate.

Silvia

Miranda, Christine

Compare prices with this other source.

Here is a link that might be useful: chestnuts

You are correct,Sylvia,I have two Chinese Chestnut trees.
I got the Chinese because they are immune to the blight that devastated our Chestnut trees in this country at the turn of the 20Th century.
I have notice,the last 2 or 3 years that both trees have different blooms or tassels. So I know that one is female and the other male. So far I have not gotten any nuts from them but hopefully soon.
I also have two pecan trees and two hickory nut trees.
Oh,and two hazel nut trees that have given their tassels or what ever you call them.
I have a pear tree that is very big and loaded with fruits. I'll be making some pear juice tomorrow.
I have two oriental persimmon trees but this year they were loaded with fruits and then most of them have fallen and I only have a few. I have been eating figs every day. The grapes were very good but those are finish. I also am still eating strawberry guava but they did not produce as heavy as the year before. Tangerine tree has a very heavy load,best ever. My lemon trees, I lost one to the freeze.
The other one that gave me over 100 lemons last year almost got kill but is coming strong again but no lemons this year. The grapefruit tree that also, gave me over 100 fruits last year got hurt bad past winter. Is strange but ,now is flowering and has some fruits the size of golf balls. My 3 orange trees have no fruits yet. I also have peach,nectarine,plums. I want to plant a couple of satsuma. When you come here you get the fruits free and a bottle of honey from my bees. I don't charge.
Felix

Wow! Felix, you have the whole farm supply at your hands. Very nice, there is nothing better than homegrown fruits and nuts.

Thank you for the invite, and I am looking forward to visit your place some day.

You can also come and visit us, I have a "rustic" type garden with veggies and "bonsai" fruit trees, lol

Silvia