When John Warmerdam was a child, his college bus didn’t drop him off at house—and even on the nook close to his home. As a substitute, it took him to his household’s fruit packing shed.
Farmer John Warmerdam
“That’s the place my mother and father had been,” John informed The FruitGuys. “All of my summers had been spent across the packing shed entering into hassle and getting in the best way.”
John’s mother and father, Invoice and Audrey Warmerdam, began Warmerdam Packing in 1965 to pack and promote cherries and plums from their orchards in Hanford, California. The enterprise has modified fairly a bit over the a long time—the orchards now have their very own title, New Excelsior Farming—but it surely’s nonetheless a household affair with John on the helm.
The FruitGuys have added Warmerdam Packing’s fruit to our fruit supply containers since 2016, and on Might 1 we touched base with John to speak about one thing that has our complete staff buzzing: The beginning of cherry season!
A Shocking Season for Cherries
When John talks about his fruit, he sounds a bit like an enthusiastic faculty professor. He might wax poetic about crop masses, cherry genetics, and the “consuming expertise” all day lengthy. Nonetheless, he informed us that this yr’s crop stunned him.
A New Excelsior Farming cherry orchard
“Initially, it wasn’t trying that promising as a result of we didn’t have a lot chilly climate throughout the winter. We’d like winter chill for our bushes to get a great dormant cycle, get up, and prepare for work early within the season. However it seems it was sufficient for them to get up and set a very nice crop,” John stated.
Actually, this yr’s cherries had been nearly too plentiful. The climate hit a candy spot for bees, which pollinated an immense variety of flowers.
“My home overlooks the orchard, and through bloom time we had an attractive sea of white and pink flowers to look over, and the fantastic aromas that include that,” John stated.
To maintain the cherry tree branches from getting too heavy and guarantee his fruit retained the very best taste, John and his staff thinned out the cherries by hand. The tactic labored, and by Might 1, his staff was busy packing them for distribution.
John’s High Cherry Varieties
Warmerdam Packing handles greater than a dozen natural and traditional cherry varieties, plus Golden kiwis and Verry Cherry plums. John has his favorites—and a specific yen for the Black Pearl cherry, which is in season all of Might.
“I’d put the Black Pearl up in opposition to something that comes out of Washington by way of consuming expertise for the buyer,” he stated. “It’s 22–25 brix [brix is a measure of a fruit’s sugar content, and 22–25 is sweet for a red cherry]with a darkish pores and skin coloration, darkish flesh coloration, and vivid inexperienced stem. It’s a crunchy fruit with a robust, intense cherry aroma.”
A bin of New Excelsior Farming’s cherries
John can also be enthusiastic about this yr’s crop of Arvin Glen cherries. The Arvin Glen is the offspring of the Sequoia®, a spread that New Excelsior Farming licensed from the breeders at B Q Genetics in Le Grand, California, within the early 2000s.
“It has a excessive brix, good firmness, giant to extra-large sizing, and is total a really good piece of fruit to eat,” he defined.
Rainier and Royal Rainier cherries, that are in season from early Might by way of early June, are additionally excessive on John’s record. He fell in love with their distinctive two-toned pores and skin and candy yellow flesh in 1996 throughout a go to to Auvil Fruit Firm in Washington.
Need farm-fresh fruit?
We have got you lined.
One thing Recent: Verry Cherry Plums
Cherries aren’t the one factor developing at Warmerdam this yr. Mid-June indicators the tip of cherry season however brings Verry Cherry plums—a flavorful cross between a plum and a cherry bred by Zaiger Genetics in Modesto, California.
The Verry Cherry plum
“It appears to be like like a plum, only a small plum, however when you chunk into it you notice it’s one thing fully completely different,” John stated.
Most stone fruits style finest after they’re gentle, ripe, and dripping with juice. However Verry Cherry plums ripen otherwise.
“A Candy Pixie [a variety of Verry Cherry plum] at full maturity continues to be a agency and crispy piece of fruit with an amazing quantity of juiciness and a extremely robust burst of taste whenever you first chunk into it,” John stated. “You’ve obtained this lingering form of after-flavor that is available in as you chew by way of it and benefit from the consuming expertise. It’s a taste that type of unwraps itself, nearly like a superb wine. You’re taking that first stiff of the bouquet, then that first preliminary sip when it hits your tongue, after which get the lingering taste as you undergo it. It actually evolves.”
Need farm-fresh fruit?
We have got you lined.
Why John Loves Farming
Sequoia ® cherries packed by Warmerdam Packing
John is adept at discovering new fruit varieties and increasing his rising season so long as doable. He informed The FruitGuys that one in all his favourite issues about farming is the chance for innovation.
“I like utilizing expertise to search out higher methods of doing what we do, develop higher merchandise, and be extra productive, extra environment friendly, and simpler on the surroundings with much less of a footprint,” he stated.
The folks John works with—together with his household, his staff, his clients, and different cherry growers from all over the world—additionally preserve him going. A few of Warmerdam Packing’s staff have been with the corporate for greater than forty years. They watched John develop up and graduate from using on the again of their tractors to working the corporate. He has steered the household enterprise by way of numerous adjustments within the final 20 years.
The Evolution of a Household Farm: Warmerdam Packing, New Excelsior Farming, and The Taste Tree Fruit Firm
John joined Warmerdam Packing full-time in 1998 after learning crop science and administration on the College of California, Davis. He contributed a brand new stage of enterprise savvy to the packing home and made a couple of adjustments to maintain it rising and thriving. Within the mid-2000s, he introduced on an investor (Fiera Comox) and cut up Warmerdam Packing into three elements.
New Excelsior Farming – The Warmerdam household orchards (together with John and his spouse Tara’s 110-acre orchard) which develop scrumptious California fruit off Excelsior Avenue
Warmerdam Packing – The packing facility, which packs fruit from New Excelsior Farming and forty different growers within the San Joaquin Valley
The Taste Tree Fruit Firm – The corporate that markets all the fruit packed at Warmerdam Packing
Sequoia ® cherries packed by Warmerdam Packing
John is the CEO of each New Excelsior Farming and Warmerdam Packing. Assist from Fiera Comox helped him purchase new packing tools, add acreage to its orchards, and usher in new sorts of fruit.
“We’re nonetheless family-owned and run, however the actuality is that agriculture is an especially capital-intensive enterprise that requires companions like them to maintain the enterprise aggressive,” John stated.
The FruitGuys linked with John by way of The Taste Tree Fruit Firm in 2016, and we’ve been shopping for Warmerdam Packing’s cherries, Verry Cherry plums, and Golden kiwis ever since! They add an additional pop of vivid coloration and taste to our workplace fruit supply containers and college deliveries within the spring and summer time.
Should you’d prefer to attempt The Taste Tree Fruit Firm’s produce, attain out to us in Might or June whereas stone fruit season continues to be going robust!
Need farm-fresh fruit?
We have got you lined.
Source link
