"harvest" news and stories

With the exception of a few bad storms, this has been a fairly mild winter for most of the US and Canada. The warmer temperatures mean fewer snow days, lighter jackets and an early start to maple syrup season.

The season typically begins in early spring when it is still below freezing at night but slightly warmer (40F or higher) during the day. The reason for the time frame is that the sap levels are at the peak at that point in the year and the daytime temperatures allow it to flow more freely from the tapped trees. Mild winters produce the same effects, although the sugars in the sap are not as intensely concentrated as they will be later in the year. One of the primary reasons that a farmer might begin to harvest sap early, relying on a processes to concentrate the sugars in the sap, is to stay in business, although some traditionalists will turn up their noses at the practice.

'Some people say it isn't natural to make a hole in a tree during the winter, but it is also unnatural to tap trees during the spring,' said one Canadian farmer, noting that only a small portion of the sap is taken and that the trees heal rather quickly and that "only producers who've never tried making syrup in winter would criticize the practice."

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If you are fortunate enough to have access to an apple tree (or several), you probably have had the pleasure of having fresh, homemade apple cider. Cider, in this case, is not the alcoholic beverage, but a minimally processed apple juice made by pressing as much juice as possible from the whole fruit. Often, cider apples are used to make commercial ciders, but if you want to try making cider at home, you will probably have good results with most types of apples, using a mixture of whatever fresh ones are available. A farmer's market is the best place to get apples if you can't get access to an orchard.

Once you have the apples and they are scrubbed clean, they are pulverized and the juice is strained out. For big batches, a cider mill and press is the easiest tool to have, but if you are willing to put a bit more muscle into yours, the food processor and a jelly bag (a very fine cheesecloth bag) can be used. Apples should be quartered and pureed, then the juice can be extracted by carefully pressing it out through the bag with pressure from a rolling pin.

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Now, I'm usually not one to split hairs, but as I read this AP story about this year's crop of watermelons in Georgia, I found the following sentence a little odd: "Watermelons are often viewed as a fruit, but they technically are a vegetable, related to cucumbers, pumpkins and squash." Last I checked, all of those were fruits. I'm no botanist, but I know that watermelons are the seed-bearing parts of the vines that they grow on. Anyone with more knowledge of the plant kingdom care to weigh in? As for this year's Georgia watermelons, they're supposed to be some of the sweetest ones seen in recent years. Apparently all the recent dry heat has something to do with that.

The New York Times recently featured a great piece about the current peak of mango season in India. For you mango fans out there, the piece should be both a delight and a tease, as the U.S. has yet to begin importing mangoes from India. That is scheduled to change though, hopefully soon. The NYT's John Allen tours Mumbai, rhapsodizing about the famed Alphonso mangoes and the various incarnations of the sweet, golden fruit. If that isn't enough to make us state-side mango fans jealous, Allen reports spending little over $1 on some of the finest specimens.

[Photo: Santosh Verma/NYT]