Garden Basics with Farmer Fred

055 Fabulous Fruit Friday! Chill Hours Explained. Apple Jelly

October 16, 2020 Fred Hoffman Season 1 Episode 55
Garden Basics with Farmer Fred
055 Fabulous Fruit Friday! Chill Hours Explained. Apple Jelly
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

It’s Fabulous Fruit Friday, and today we talk with Ed Laivo of Tomorrows Harvest about a delicious, sweet, crunchy white peach, the Ivory Angel. And, Ed explains why your fruit trees need cold winter weather.  Master Food Preserver Laura Doyle tells us what to do with all the apples you might be harvesting this month: make some apple jelly.  Plus, she goes over the basics of using a water bath canner.  And, Professor Debbie Flower explains USDA zone maps.
It’s Episode 55 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you by Smart Pots and Tomorrow’s Harvest. And we will do it all in under 30 minutes.

Links:
Smart Pots
Tomorrow's Harvest Ivory Angel white peach
Chill Hours Explained
UC Master Food Preserver Program
National Center for Home Food Preservation
Water Bath Canning Basics for Apples, More Apple Recipes
Canning Jars and supplies
Jelly Bag

More info including live links, product information, transcripts, and chapters available at the home site for Garden Basics with Farmer Fred.

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Farmer Fred:

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. it's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred.

Farmer Fred 2:

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information well you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred:

It's Fabulous Fruit Friday, and today we talk with Ed Laivol of Tomorrow's Harvest about a delicious, sweet, crunchy, white peach. It's called the Ivory Angel. Master Food Preserver Laura Doyle tells us what to do with all the apples you might be harvesting this month. how about making some apple jelly? Plus, she goes over the basics of using a water bath canner. And, Professor Debbie Flower explains USDA zone maps. It's all on episode 55 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast brought to you by Smart Pots and Tomorrow's Harvest. And we'll do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go.

Farmer Fred 2:

It's Fabulous Fruit Friday here on Garden Basics. And what sort of interesting fruit do we have for you today? Ed Laivo from Tomorrow's Harvest dot com is with us, and he brought with him an Ivory Angel white peach. Oh, it sounds like a really white peach, Ed.

Ed Laivo:

Man, it is very white. stark white. I mean, this is a fantastic variety of white flesh fruit. And it's a really, really great winner because this is a complex white fleshed fruit, really, not just the straight sugar bomb, as so many white flesh fruits are. This one has a hint of acid so it is absolutely the perfect midsummer treat to just kind of you know, every bite give you that little burst of flavor that this slightly acidic, highly sugared fruit does give you.

Farmer Fred:

And it's a widely adaptable to USDA zones six through nine,

Ed Laivo:

six through nine, and it also has low chill adaptation, it does well in zone nine in the areas of course that get somewhere between let's say 400 to 600 hours of chill, it performs very well there.

Farmer Fred:

So let's explain to people what we mean by chill hours. Deciduous fruit trees need a certain number of hours, basically between 32 and 45 degrees during November, December, January, February. Why do they need chill hours?

Ed Laivo:

Actually, it's to accumulate the carbohydrates to sustain the carbohydrates so that they have plenty to flush and burst out with in the spring. If not, they will just burn them off slowly. And if in low chill climates, trees have trouble going to sleep. And so they burn off a lot of the carbohydrate just in dropping leaves and, you know, just take forever and so a lot of peaches and nectarines, plums, apples, not so much apples. apples do well everywhere. But they have trouble you know, not being able to accumulate enough winter chill. And I'm a big believer in the winter chill being very, very important in the beginning of the season. So I'm really winter chill accumulated for me is winter chill accumulated between the months of say, November and then maybe up to mid January. And I don't know how much I value the chill collected after mid January to be perfectly frank.

Farmer Fred:

Well, I think a lot of researchers would agree with you there, because they've come up with a totally different system, not totally different. It's a tweaked system. It's not chill hours, it's chill units. And what that takes into consideration besides the hours that are the temperatures between 32 and 45 degrees, the number of hours accumulated there, they will subtract the hours during warmer days where during the winter, the daytime temperatures get over 65 to give you a more accurate representation of what's happening with that tree.

Ed Laivo:

Right. And that's a more appropriate gauge of what the accumulated chill is, for instance, you know, if I'm talking about like UC Irvine, where my colleague, Tom Spellman, has done a lot of work with apples. I've always been under the I've always had the impression that apples required no chill at all. And Tom has done the research to really kind of support that. And it's it's ironic that down in UC Irvine, he gets what we you know, kind of jokingly refer to as IOU chill, you know, by the end of the season, you know, he may have negative 20 hours chill hours.

Farmer Fred:

chill hours is not really garden basics. But there. you learn something new folks, for people who live in the northern latitudes, you don't have to worry about chill hours you get plenty, you know, 1000-2000 hours. in USDA zone nine, especially though, you may be struggling to get 800 chill hours and most fruit trees do well with 800 to 1000 chill hours. And when you get down into 400 to 600 hours, that just expands the range for those deciduous fruit trees,

Ed Laivo:

especially those folks in USDA 9B, you know, 9B is you know, now you're down into below 500 hours,

Farmer Fred:

and (B would be basically Southern California.

Ed Laivo:

Yes, that's right, you know, down the LA basin in those areas. So, you know, we're really talking in the case of the Ivory Angel white peach, this is a variety that is really adapted to a broad range of climates, you know, zones six, you get the high chill like you say, and it's not an early bloomer under those conditions but it will react in bloom in a timely fashion in the low chill climates and produce a great crop. This is a really, really neat piece of fruit because it's crunchy when it's firm and sweet. So for those people who like a firm, crunchy peach, it's right there. But it really still is wonderful when it's soft, ripe and that juice just flows down your arm and I mean it's still a wonderful piece of fruit then so a long harvest period as well. To enjoy this. This fruit from mid July say, you know to the early weeks of August.

Farmer Fred:

It's the Ivory Angel white peach if you will, and by the way, it's a Freestone peach too, isn't

Ed Laivo:

it is a Freestone peach. You got it.

Farmer Fred:

All right, that means the pit falls right out.

Ed Laivo:

It's the pits.

Farmer Fred:

The Ivory Angel white peach, you want more information about it. You can find it at tomorrow's harvest.com the ivory Angel white peach. Fabulous Fruit Friday with Ed Laivo, Ed thanks so much.

Ed Laivo:

You're very welcome, Fred.

Farmer Fred:

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Laura Doyle:

Oh, thanks for having me. happy to help.

Farmer Fred:

All right, well, let's talk about maybe something that's in season right now. And that would be apples. Mm hmm. What equipment do I need?

Laura Doyle:

So for apples you're really looking at either a jelly or a applesauce. And so the equipment that you're going to need for an apple sauce which is sort of or an apple butter, which is sort of like a an apple jam, is you're going to need your apples, a peeler, some knives, chop it all up, put it in a pot, boil it down with with sugar and pectin, you're going to want to find a an actual recipe that's been tested. So the good place to look for that is the National Center for Home Food Preservation website. on there you can find recipes for all these things.

Farmer Fred:

The website that Laura mentioned is the National Center for Home Food Preservation. It's run by the University of Georgia. it is probably the most complete Home Food Preservation website that you can find. all the information on it is free. It is NC h f P which stands for National Center for Home Food Preservation. N c h f p dot UGA for the University of georgia.edu. And from there you can go to wherever you want to go as far as finding out about canning, freezing, drying, smoking, fermenting, pickling, and jams and jellies as well. Another good source is the University of California master food preserver Program website mfp.ucanr. That stands for university of california Ag and natural resources.edu. mfp.uc anr.edu. And there you can find all sorts of recipes and preservation information. They even have a new category called the recipe card library. And from there, you can get all sorts of good recipes for fruits and nuts and vegetables, herbs, tomatoes, and a lot more. So check that one out. mfp.uc anr.edu. So Laura, let's harvest some apples and talk about making Apple jelly.

Laura Doyle:

Yeah, so what you're going to need to do first is you're going to meet me to make juice basically. So for the apple jelly, you're going to be chopping up the apples. Don't peel them, don't core, just chop them up, bring them to a boil some water, cook them until they're nice and soft, mash them up. And then you're gonna pour them into a jelly bag and the jelly bags lets them drips. And then you've got this beautiful apple juice which you could drink. Or you could make it to jelly. And if you're gonna make it into jelly, if you're following the National Center for Home Food Preservation recipe, you're using apple juice, lemon juice and sugar. And that's really all you need. Because as I mentioned before, the apples themselves have a lot of pectin in them. So they're, they're something that you can make a jelly without any added pectin. So it's just a sugar and lemon juice.

Farmer Fred:

I noticed that the National Center for Home Food Preservation mentions on their Apple jelly recipe that about four cups of apple juice includes about three pounds of apples and three cups of water. Now you mentioned, Did you say an apple bag or a jam bag?

Laura Doyle:

A jelly bag? Yeah jelly bag.

Farmer Fred:

What is it jelly bag?

Laura Doyle:

It's kind of a muslin bag that has a stand and put the muslin bag on the stand and you put all of your fruit in it and it drips into a bowl.

Farmer Fred:

With this recipe for Apple jelly is it going to involve canning?

Laura Doyle:

Yes, it will. So once you've got your juice, you measure out four cups and then you put that into a pot and add lemon juice and sugar. So for this recipe if we've got four cups of apple juice for using two tablespoons of lemon juice and three cups of sugar, and you're going to boil until the jelly sets and the way to test that is you put a little bit you put a if you put some cold spoons in the freezer, then you can as you ready to test it turn off the heat take a little bit of the jelly drop it onto the spoon when you kind of push it with your finger on the cold spoon because the cold makes it kind of firm up a little bit it should kind of wrinkle a little bit instead of spreading to the sides. We need to make sure that our jars are very, very clean and sterile. And the best way to do that is to wash your jars with some really hot soapy water wash also the rings and the lids and you need to make sure that you use a brand new lid for each time that you make jams so if you can save the jars and you can save the metal rings but the lid that attaches to the jar, that's a one time use thing. So you have to get new ones with those and you can buy those just separately. They come with just the rings and the lids

Farmer Fred:

people would be surprised about how easily it is to find the jars and the rings and the lids. They're at most grocery stores. And sometimes in that same section you're going to find if you need it the pectin and some bigger grocery stores may even have the water canner and you do need that big canner with the rack to hold the jars with the boiling water.

Laura Doyle:

He needs to be able to put your jars in the in the canner and make sure the water comes goes over the canner by a few inches so it can't just be barely covered. It really needs to have a good amount of water above it before you fill your jars. You want to when you're cleaning them if they're jars that you have, even if they are new jars, it's a good idea to check just from your finger along the top of it. Just to make sure that there's no chips, the tops are clean and you're setting the lid on screwing the ring on and you want to screw it on just what we call fingertip tight. So you just kind of loosely spin it on there and then you kind of once it stops by itself you one more turn so that it's not really screwed on tight because that can kind of the lid can end up warping a little bit if you screw it on too tight if you leave it too loose, you know contents can come out.

Farmer Fred:

One thing I've learned from personal experience. you can keep your rings from year to year, but check the inside of the rings for rust . You don't want to use any rings that have obvious rust on the inside. if you can't scrub it clean, because that will interfere with a good seal. Definitely, yeah. When people are using waterbath canners It seems like every fruit or vegetable has a different processing time. the amount of time you leave it in the simmering water. And what is it for an apple jelly recipe?

Laura Doyle:

For Apple jelly recipe, It is five minutes. Once it has finished canning, you want to leave it in the canner for another five or 10 minutes just to make sure. that's a recent addition to the recommended processing time.

Farmer Fred:

really, you're making my grandma's head spin. So when the timer goes off, set the timer again for another 10 minutes. Yeah, but I bet you reduce the heat.

Laura Doyle:

you just turn off the heat, it just sits in the hot water, if this really ensures that everything is okay. And then you want to very carefully you can get a jar lifter. And that's really the best tool for the job of lifting the contents out of a very hot pot of boiling water

Farmer Fred:

a jar lifter, for people who don't know, is actually like a pair of tongs that is sort of semi circle that grabs either side of the jar underneath screw portion and you just lift it and set it onto a towel.

Laura Doyle:

Yeah, so just set it on a towel if and then you want to leave them undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours. Because you know, if it sloshes at all, and the seal hasn't completely set yet, then you could disrupt that seal. So what I like to do is I put my towel actually on a sheet pan, and then I move them onto the sheet pan and then I can very carefully lift the sheet pan and carry it to a table and set it down. And that way it's not taking up space on my counter for that.

Farmer Fred:

That's a good idea. Yeah. So should should you refrain from poking at the lid to see if it took or not?

Laura Doyle:

Yes. And, you know, so you really just kind of want to leave it be here pretty quickly. That little thing, which if you've ever had anything, you know, that sounds a little like that tells you Oh, it did it right. It's it's sealing. Um, and that's a little top getting sucked down flat. If after a couple of hours, there's one that doesn't have its seal sucked down. Usually what I do is I just put that one in my fridge and that's the first one that we eat.

Farmer Fred:

We've been talking with Laura Doyle, Master food preserver and Yolo and Solano County's here in Northern California. Cooking instructor, personal chef, you want to throw a plug in for your website.

Laura Doyle:

Yes, I'm I have a website. It's lildoyliecooks.com. it's got a blog and information on all the stuff I do.

Farmer Fred:

All right, Laura Doyle master food preserver cooking instructor, a personal chef we learned a lot thanks for a few minutes of your time.

Laura Doyle:

Thank you for having me.

Farmer Fred:

For a gardener, fall is for planting. the air is cooler than summer, the soil warmer than spring. it's the ideal conditions for getting your home orchard started with the outstanding fruit and nut trees as well as berry plants from tomorrow's harvest. And that includes that flavorful and productive Ivory Angel white peach, a Tomorrow's Harvest exclusive. Tomorrow's Harvest fine line of fruit trees is the result of 75 years of development, testing and growing three generations of the Burchell family have been at the forefront of research and development of plants of the highest quality. All of these beautiful edible plants have been carefully cultivated for your home garden. Look for Tomorrow's Harvest fruit trees at better retail nurseries everywhere. And if your favorite nursery doesn't carry the Ivory Angel white peach or any of Tomorrow's Harvest other fruit nut or berry varieties, you can order them directly from TomorrowsHarvest.com. Let the Burchell family's three generations of experience take root in your home orchard landscaping garden. It's TomorrowsHarvest.com. It's goodness you can grow. We talked about the different growing areas on this show a lot. We usually refer to them as USDA zones. Well how are those determined? Let's talk to our favorite retired college horticultural Professor Debbie Flower and find out. Now usually when people look at a USDA zone map, there'll be a list of temperatures, for instance, zone one, and I don't think I'd want to live in zone one, because the temperature there says 60, below zero to 50, below zero, whereas here is where we are in California zone nine, the temperature reading it says 20 to 30 degrees. now is that the extreme low it reaches or an average low?

Debbie Flower:

It's the extreme, but it's the average of the extreme. So they look at data over a period of time, the math I'm looking at is, what 30 years of data, and they average the very lowest. so for zone nine, it's 20 to 30 degrees, but it doesn't mean it will never go below that. It's just an average.

Farmer Fred:

How many times does it have to get to that low, just one time qualify you for that map?

Debbie Flower:

I doubt it. I think it's probably a mathematical equation that they use to create that number that degrees. So if there were a few days or a few times in that 30 years where it hit 18, and maybe a few times where it never got below 32. When they did the math, they took the the lows for those 30 years, added them up and divided them by the 30 years. They came up with a number between 20 and 30 degrees.

Farmer Fred:

What is nice is I mean I thought living in zone nine was close to living in the Garden of Eden with average winter time, low extremes being between 20 and 30 degrees. But there's also zones 10, 11, 12 and 13. And zone 13 has average extreme lows between 60 and 70 degrees.

Debbie Flower:

Right. And that presents its own gardening problems, you don't plant things in summer that we would plant in summer, because if they're 65 to 70, they may get up to 110. In summer, they may not be very moderate because they're surrounded by water like an island would be. So those are very, as you say all the time, all gardening is local. So those are very local situations. And they have a whole bunch of different rules about when to plan and what their minimum and Max temperatures are really.

Farmer Fred:

and if you're looking at the extremes for the 48 contiguous United States, it looks like maybe the Southern California, southern Arizona stretch along with South Florida and maybe in Brownsville, Texas. There's zone 10 maybe zone 11 but 12 and 13. Where would you find that, Hawaii?

Debbie Flower:

I would guess and Puerto Rico the size of state and territory on my map are so small that I it's hard to tell what the colors are.

Farmer Fred:

Yeah, but I'm looking at where my relatives come from in North Dakota and I'm feeling sorry for them. They're in a zone, it looks to be they're in zone two or three. Yeah, that's where the lows could be between 30 below and 50 below.

Debbie Flower:

That's cold stuff. Yeah.

Farmer Fred:

The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast has a lot of information posted at each episode: transcripts links to any products or books mentioned during the show, and other helpful links for even more information. Plus, you can listen to just the portions of the show that interest you. It's been divided into easily accessible chapters and you'll find more information about how to get in touch with us. We have links to all our social media outlets, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Also a link to the farmerfred.com website. That's where you can find out more information about the radio shows. You remember radio, right? Now, if the place where you access the podcast doesn't have all that information, you can find it all at our home podcaster, Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout.com. Just look for the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. You'll find a link to it in the show notes.

Farmer Fred 2:

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Fabulous Fruit Friday! The Ivory Angel White Peach, Chill Hours explained
Smart Pots!
Apple Jelly recipe, Water Bath Canning Basics
Tomorrow's Harvest
USDA Zones Explained