About Our Orchard at Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc.

We have been inspired by the trend toward organic food and ecologically clean food.  We are currently expanding our orchard as we conduct research to implement the latest research and findings to keep our environment ecologically clean.

Organic food is defined as foods that are made according to certain production standards.  For the vast majority of human history, agriculture can be described as organic.  Only during the 20th century was a large supply of new synthetic chemicals introduced to the food supply.

USDA National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) definition, April 1995

• “Organic” agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity.  It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony.
• “Organic” is a labeling term that denotes products produced under the authority of the Organic Foods Production Act.  The principal guidelines for organic production are to use materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems and that integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole.
• “Organic” agriculture practices cannot ensure that products are completely free of residues; however, methods are used to minimize pollution from air, soil and water.
• “Organic” food handlers, processors and retailers adhere to standards that maintain the integrity of organic agricultural products.  The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.

Ecologically clean food is defined as foods which, by their production, do no harm to the physical environment or to any living species.  Care is taken to keep the ecosystem clean and unharmed.

In 2010 we began the expansion of our orchard to include apricots, cherries, sweet cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums, apples, English walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, black walnuts, pecans, pawpaws. We are also starting a small vineyard.

The following is the current list of orchard trees on Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc. Please note that this orchard is new and will take time to come into full production.  Please order early as we have a waiting list.

Apple Trees

Arkansas Black

The Arkansas Black apple tree originated in Arkansas, USA in the 1870s.  It produces a hard and crunchy eating apple that stores well up to 6 months.  The Arkansas Black apple is excellent for eating, cooking pies, cakes, and apple butter.

Arkansas Black apples are generally medium sized with a somewhat flattened shape. Generally a very dark red on the tree, occasionally with a slight green blush where hidden from the sun, the apples grow darker as they ripen, becoming a very dark red or burgundy color. With storage the skin continues to darken. Arkansas Black is one of the darkest of all apple cultivars, hence the name.

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CandyCrisp®

The CandyCrisp® apple is a glossy yellow with a pink blush and a very mild, pear-like flavor when picked at the right time. The flesh is crisp and yellow. It is best eaten fresh, but also works well for other purposes.

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Cortland

This apple is a cross between the McIntosh and the Ben Davis and was named after nearby Cortland County, New York in the 1890s.  Its flavor is sweet compared to the McIntosh, and it has a flush of crimson against a pale yellow background sprinkled with short, dark red stripes, and gray-green dots.  Cortland is an excellent dessert apple.

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Enterprise

The Enterprise apple originated in Illinois, USA in the early 1990s.  It is a Classic North American red apple and is an eating apple.  The apples store well up to six months and make very good candy apples.

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Gala

Gala apples are small and are usually red with a portion being greenish or yellow-green, vertically striped. Gala apples are fairly resistant to bruising and are sweet, grainy, with a mild flavor and a thinner skin than most apples. Quality indices include firmness, crispness, and sweetness.

The first Gala apple tree was one of many seedlings resulting from a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Kidd's Orange Red planted in New Zealand in the 1930s by orchardist J.H. Kidd. Donald W. McKenzie, an employee of Stark Bros Nursery, obtained a US plant patent for the cultivar on October 15, 1974.

Gala is a clonally propagated apple with a mild and sweet flavor. Gala apples ranked at number 2 in 2006 on the US Apple Association's list of most popular apples, after Red Delicious and before Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Fuji (in order).

Gala apples are grown from May through September in the northern hemisphere, but, like most apples, are available almost all year through the use of cold storage and controlled atmosphere storage. Australian Gala are available from late January. California fruit is available until October. While the season usually lasts only 9 or 10 months, they are able to last all year round.

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Fuji

The Fuji apple is an apple clone developed by growers at the Tohoku Research Station in Fujisaki, Aomori, Japan, in the late 1930s, and brought to market in 1962.  It originated as a cross between two American apple varieties, the Red Delicious and old Virginia Ralls Genet (sometimes cited as "Rawls Jennet") apples.  It is named after Fujisaki, Aomori Prefecture, but often mistakenly thought to be named after Mount Fuji.

Washington, the grower of more than half of America's apple crop, produces about 135,000 tons of Fuji apples each year, with only Red Delicious and Golden Delicious outweighing Fuji.

They have a very long shelf life, even without refrigeration.  Fuji apples are Japan's predominant eating apple.

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Idared

Idared is a type of red apple cultivar from Moscow, Idaho, United States.  It was developed in 1942 by crossing two apple varieties (Jonathan x Wagener).

The Idared has a white flesh with a firm body, and generally considered to be tart and juicy.  For these reasons, it is very well suited for making apple sauces, pies, and cakes.  It remains hardy and durable until the end of January, and can even last until June with proper storage.

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Jonafree

This attractive glossy red apple closely resembles Jonathan in size and shape.  Orchardists like to grow this apple because it has some resistance to diseases, such as apple scab, cedar apple rust, and fire blight that often plague other varieties.  Mostly used as a fresh eating apple, Jonafree's flavor is like Jonathan but slightly less acidic and mildly tart.  Slightly harder than Jonathan, the medium to small size fruit averages 2¾ inches with smooth, russet free skin.

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Shizuka Japanese

The Shizuka Japanese apple works well in apple salad.  The fruit is juicy and firm with low acidity, and browns slowly when cut. The Shizuka Japanese is a Golden Delicious cross and has yellow skin.  It ripens in October, and stores well into early spring.

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SnowSweet®

The SnowSweet® apple has snowy white flesh; hence, its name. The flesh is firm to crisp. Its flavor is sweet with a slight tartness. It works well for salads and snacks because it is slow to turn brown after cutting. The fruit averages 3 inches in diameter and has a bronze-red blush over a green-yellow background.  It is a late-season apple.

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Ultra Gold

The Ultra Gold is a variety of Golden Delicious.  It has a glossy skin and has a more conical shape than the Golden Delicious. It is a good all-purpose apple that is good for snacking and cooking. It is excellent for sauce, pies, and juice when mixed with another variety.

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Winter Banana

The Winter Banana Apple originated on the David Flory farm in Case County, Indiana, about 1876, and was introduced by the Greening Brothers Nursery of Monroe, Michigan, in 1890.  The fruit has a shiny, smooth yellow skin with a rosy blush. It has a subtle banana aroma and the crisp, juicy flesh has a mild flavor. It is a good dessert apple and can be used for cider. The Winter Banana Apple bruises easily, so it doesn’t do well with shipping and handling in stores.

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Yellow Transparent

This apple originated in Russia and was introduced to the United States in 1870.  It is an early yellow apple that ripens during the first week in July.  The fruit is crisp, juicy, and flavorful, making it a favorite for homemade applesauce, pies, and drying.  It is a long-time favorite cooking apple for the very early summer.  The skin of the fully ripe fruit is pale yellow, waxy, thin, and transparent.

Apricot Trees

Stark® SweetHeart^TM

The apricot was known in Armenia during ancient times, and has been cultivated there for so long it is often thought to be native there. Its scientific name Prunus armeniaca (Armenian plum) derives from that assumption. An archaeological excavation at Garni in Armenia found apricot seeds in an Eneolithic-era site. However, the Vavilov center of origin locates the origin of the apricot's domestication in the Chinese region, and other sources say the apricot was first cultivated in India in about 3000 BC.

The apricot is a small tree, 12 to 25 feet tall, with a dense, spreading canopy and will produce fruit for 20 to 25 years. Apricots are ready to harvest in July and August, depending on the variety.  The fruit is a drupe similar to a small peach, from yellow to orange, often tinged red on the side most exposed to the sun; its surface can be smooth or with very short hairs. The single seed is enclosed in a hard stony shell, often called a "stone," with a grainy, smooth texture except for three ridges running down.

Seeds or kernels of certain types of apricot are so sweet that they may be substituted for almonds. We have chosen to plant the Stark® SweetHeart^TM variety, which produces fruits with edible pits. Be aware, though, that nearly all other apricot and peach pits are NOT edible.

Cherry Trees

Bing

The Bing is a cultivar of the wild or sweet cherry and was first produced in the Pacific Northwest in Milwaukie, Oregon, by a horticulturalist named Seth Lewelling who named the cultivar for his farming foreman, a Chinese man named Ah Bing.

The Bing cherry is the most popular cherry grown in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia for the fresh market.  The Bing cherry ships well because of the firm flesh, but the fruit will crack if it is exposed to rain just before harvest.  It is the most produced variety of sweet cherry in the United States.

Bing cherries are high in anti-oxidants.

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Emperor Francis Sweet

The Emperor Francis cherry is a sweet cherry cultivar (Prunus avium) that produces a bright red fruit which is resistant to cracking.  In 1996, it was the source of the first cherry genetic map, which was created from a haploid-microspore derived population from the Emperor Francis cultivar.  It is also one of the sources of the Newfane sweet cherry, which was created by crossing the Emperor Francis with the Stella cherry.

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Sweetheart Pontaleb Mahaleb

Mahaleb cherry is a species of cherry native to central and southern Europe, western and central Asia, and northwest Africa, from Morocco north to France, southern Belgium, and Germany, and east to northern Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The fruit is a small thin-fleshed cherry-like drupe about 1/3 inch in diameter, green at first, turning red then dark purple to black when mature, with a very bitter flavor; flowering is in mid spring with the fruit ripening in mid to late summer.  Left unpruned the tree will grow to a height of 25 to 35 feet.

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Rainier

The Rainier cherry tree produces sweet, large, yellow fruit with a red blush. The fruit is firm and the flesh is fine-textured and clear to light yellow.  Fans of the Rainier appreciate the creamy-yellow flesh, which gives the blush of the skin a sunny undertone.  The sweetness is what keeps them coming back for more. Rainiers are considered a premium type of cherry.

The Rainier was developed in 1952 at Washington State University by Harold Fogle.  It is a cross between the Bing and Van cultivars.  The Rainier has a distinct sweet flavor.  It is a very productive tree that resists cracking, spurs, and doubles.  The tree will pollinate with the Bing Cherry.  It will not self-pollinate. Mature Rainiers reach a height of 30 to 35 feet and are widely adaptable to a variety of soil types.  Rainiers will produce fruit for 3 to 5 years, with a bloom period in early April. The fruit is ready to harvest late June through early July.

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Regina^TM Sweet Cherry Mazzard

The Regina is a new sweet, dark cherry from Europe. It is on Mazzard (standard) rootstock. Left unpruned, it will grow to 30 to 40 feet in height. It is a late-season variety, and produces a large, dark red cherry with a mild, sweet flavor.

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Stark^® Gold^TM Sweet Cherry

This Stark Bro’s cherry is a golden color, which may explain why birds don’t bother it. These cherries are cold-resistant and produce large, tangy sweet cherries in mid-June.

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Sweetheart

The Sweetheart Cherry tree is a new self-fruitful cherry tree.  It produces a fruit that remains crunchy when picked and eaten.  The tree resists cracking and ripens late.  It is fast becoming a popular cherry tree.  Because the Sweetheart is self-pollinating, it can be used in location where you would only want to plant one tree for delightful cherry fruit.

Sweetheart Cherries are the last cherry of the season!  Their unique taste is a spectacular finale for the summer.  Stretch out the cherry season with the Sweetheart cherry.

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Van

The Van cherry is very hardy.  It resembles Bing cherries because the fruit is similar to Bing, though usually smaller.  A pollenizer is required.  It will pollinate (inter-fruitful) with all popular sweet cherries.  Enjoy their magnificent cherry blossoms every spring.

Van is one of the best pollinators for any other sweet cherry tree.  The Van cherry tree is hardy, vigorous and a prolific bearer of high-quality sweet cherries.

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Whitegold^® Sweet Cherry

This Stark Bro’s cherry is a hybrid of the Emporer Francis and the Stella. It is cold hardy, self pollinates, and produces heavy crops. Harvest for this cherry is mid-June.

Peach Trees

The peach tree (Prunus persica) is a species of Prunus native to China that bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach. It is a deciduous tree growing to 13–33 feet tall. It is classified with the almond in the subgenus Amygdalus within the genus Prunus, distinguished from the other subgenera by the corrugated seed shell.

The fruit has yellow or whitish flesh, a delicate aroma, and a skin that is either velvety (peaches) or smooth (nectarines) in different cultivars. The flesh is very delicate and easily bruised in some cultivars, but is fairly firm in some commercial varieties, especially when green. The single, large seed is red-brown, oval shaped, and is surrounded by a wood-like husk. Peaches, along with cherries, plums and apricots, are stone fruits (drupes).

Cultivated peaches are divided into clingstones and freestones, depending on whether the flesh sticks to the stone or not; both can have either white or yellow flesh. Peaches with white flesh typically are very sweet with little acidity, while yellow-fleshed peaches typically have an acidic tang coupled with sweetness, though this also varies greatly. Both colors often have some red on their skin.

Coralstar^® (Lovell)

Coralstar^® is a large, beautiful, 3-inch, freestone peach with 80% coral red fruit.  The flesh is firm and clear with a wonderful sweet flavor.  Coralstar holds well on the tree and in the cooler and does not brown when cut.  Its size and quality make it excellent for local sale or shipping.  It ripens with multiple pickings over a long period, and will produce heavy tonnage per acre.  The tree is hardy and resistant to bacterial spot.

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Redhaven (Lovell)

The Redhaven Peach, Prunus persica 'Redhaven' is the peach by which all others are measured.  It is heavy-bearing, cold-hardy, and resists leaf spot, and the fruit is spectacular.

The Rehaven produces large quantities of big, luscious peaches that have an almost fuzzless skin over firm, creamy yellow flesh.  Fruit is medium to large in size and is excellent for fresh snacks, canning, or freezing. Ripens in late July.

Nectarine Trees

 

The nectarine cultivar group of peaches have a smooth skin. It is often referred to as a "shaved peach," "fuzzy-less peach," or "shaven peach," due to its lack of fuzz or short hairs. Though fuzzy peaches and nectarines are regarded commercially as different fruits, with nectarines often erroneously believed to be a crossbreed between peaches and plums, or a "peach with a plum skin," they belong to the same species as peaches. Several genetic studies have concluded nectarines are created due to a recessive gene, whereas a fuzzy peach skin is dominant. Nectarines have arisen many times from peach trees, often as bud sports.

As with peaches, nectarines can be white or yellow, and clingstone or freestone. On average, nectarines are slightly smaller and sweeter than peaches, but with much overlap. The lack of skin fuzz can make nectarine skins appear more reddish than those of peaches, contributing to the fruit's plum-like appearance. The lack of down on nectarines' skin also means their skin is more easily bruised than peaches.

The history of the nectarine is unclear; the first recorded mention in English is from 1616, but they had probably been grown much earlier within the native range of the peach in central and eastern Asia. Nectarines were introduced into the United States by David Fairchild of the Department of Agriculture in 1906.

Pear Trees

 

The pear is a fruit tree of genus Pyrus and also the name of the tree's edible pomaceous fruit. The pear is classified in subtribe Pyrinae within tribe Pyreae and is a perennial. The apple (Malus domestica), which it resembles in floral structure, is also a member of this subcategory.

The cultivation of the pear in cool temperate climates extends to the remotest antiquity, and there is evidence of its use as a food since prehistoric times. Pears are native to coastal and mildly temperate regions of the Old World, from western Europe and north Africa east right across Asia. They are medium-sized trees, reaching 12 to 20 feet tall, often with a tall, narrow crown; a few species are shrubby. Most are cold-hardy, withstanding temperatures between −13 degrees F. and −40 degrees F. in winter, except for the evergreen species, which only tolerate temperatures down to about 32 degrees F.

The pear is very similar to the apple in cultivation, propagation and pollination. The pear and the apple are also related to the quince.

Pears and apples cannot always be distinguished by the form of the fruit; some pears look very much like some apples. One major difference is that the flesh of pear fruit contains stone cells (also called "grit"). Pear trees and apple trees do have several visible differences.

According to Pear Bureau Northwest, there are about 3000 known varieties of pears grown worldwide. In the United States only 10 heirloom varieties are widely recognized: Green Bartlett, Red Bartlett, Bosc, Green Anjou, Red Anjou, Comice, Forelle, Seckel, Concorde, and Starkrimson.

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Bartlett

The Williams' bon chretien pear, commonly called the Williams pear, or Bartlett pear in the U.S. and Canada, is the most commonly grown variety of pear in most countries outside Asia.  It is a cultivar (cultivated variety) of the species Pyrus communis, commonly known as the European pear.  The fruit has a bell shape, considered the traditional pear shape in the west, and its green skin turns yellow upon later ripening, although red-skinned derivative varieties exist.  It is considered a summer pear, not as tolerant of cold as some varieties.  It is often eaten raw, but holds its shape well when baked, and is a common choice for canned or other processed pear uses.

Bartlett’s are traditionally known as the canning pear due to their "definitive flavor and sweetness," making them well suited for many forms of processing.

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Hosui (Asian Pear)

Pyrus pyrifolia is a pear tree species native to China, Japan, and Korea. The tree's edible fruit is known by many names, including Asian pear, nashi or nashi pear, Korean pear, Japanese pear, Taiwan pear, sand pear, apple pear.

The fruits are generally not baked in pies or made into jams because they have a high water content and a crisp, grainy texture, very different from the buttery European varieties. It is not a cross between apples and pears, as common names like apple pear may suggest, but its shape and crisp texture are reminiscent of apples. They are commonly served raw and peeled. The fruit tends to be quite large and fragrant, and when carefully wrapped (it has a tendency to bruise because of its juiciness), it can last for several weeks or more in a cold, dry place.

Cultivars are classified in two groups. Most of the cultivars belong to the Akanashi ('red pears') group, and have brownish-yellow rinds. The Aonashi ('green pears') have yellow-green rinds, and fewer cultivars with 'Nijisseiki' as the only famous Aonashi cultivar. These pears are usually cultivars of Yamanashi, wild Japanese pears whose fruits are inedible because they are small, hard and sour.

An attractive fruit with a golden russeted skin.  The Hosui flesh is firm, juicy, and mild with good quality. It ripens in early September.

Plum Trees

A plum or gage is a stone fruit tree in the genus Prunus, subgenus Prunus. The subgenus is distinguished from other subgenera (peaches, cherries, bird cherries, etc.) in the shoots having a terminal bud and solitary side buds (not clustered), the flowers in groups of one to five together on short stems, and the fruit having a groove running down one side and a smooth stone (or pit).

Mature plum fruit may have a dusty-white coating that gives them a glaucous appearance and is easily rubbed off. This is an epicuticular wax coating and is known as "wax bloom." Dried plum fruits are called dried plums or prunes, although prunes are a distinct type of plum.

Dried plums (or prunes) are also sweet and juicy and contain several antioxidants. Plums and prunes are known for their laxative effect. This effect has been attributed to various compounds present in the fruits, such as dietary fiber, sorbitol, and isatin. Prunes and prune juice are often used to help regulate the functioning of the digestive system.

Plums come in a wide variety of colors and sizes. Some are much firmer-fleshed than others, and some have yellow, white, green or red flesh, with equally varying skin color.

Plum cultivars in use today include:

• Damson or Damask plum
• Greengage (firm, green flesh and skin even when ripe)
• Mirabelle (dark yellow, predominantly grown in northeast France)
• Satsuma plum (firm red flesh with a red skin)
• Victoria (yellow flesh with a red or mottled skin)
• Yellowgage or golden plum (similar to greengage, but yellow)

When it flowers in the early spring, a plum tree will be covered in blossoms, and in a good year approximately 50% of the flowers will be pollinated and become plums. Flowering starts after 80 growing degree days.

If the weather is too dry, the plums will not develop past a certain stage, but will fall from the tree while still tiny, green buds, and if it is unseasonably wet or if the plums are not harvested as soon as they are ripe, the fruit may develop a fungal condition called brown rot.

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Burbank^TM Plum CVI Red Leaf

The Plum, Burbank, Prunus salicina, is a prize variety that was created by the master plant breeder himself, Luther Burbank over 100 years ago. Burbank is a natural semi-dwarf, reaching only 12-15' with a graceful spreading form. It is super-sweet, red mottled yellow in color, and has a deep yellow flesh with a very good flavor. This plum is semi-freestone, which means it partially separates from the pit.

Luther Burbank (7 March 1849 – 11 April 1926) was an American botanist, horticulturist and a pioneer in agricultural science. Burbank created hundreds of new varieties of fruits (plum, pear, prune, peach, blackberry, raspberry); potato, tomato; ornamental flowers and other plants. This list includes 113 plums and prunes, 11 plumcots, 10 apples, 8 peaches, 5 nectarines, and 4 pears.

The Burbank^TM CVI has a reddish purple fruit with a deep yellow flesh and good flavor.

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Burbank^TM Elephant Heart Plum

This Stark Bro’s plum is the size of a baseball! This plum was introduced to home gardeners by Stark Bro's in 1929. It is sometimes called a blood plum because of its dark red flesh. This freestone plum is juicy and flavorful. The Elephant Heart Plum is great fresh or for canning. It ripens in September.

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Ozark Premier Plum (Marianna)

The Ozark Premier plum is huge.  It ripens early to mid-August. The fruit is nearly round and has a bright red, tough skin. It has a fine-grained, firm, yellow flesh that is juice and tart. This plum is semi-freestone.

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Redheart Plum (Marianna)

The Redheart Plum has a deep-red skin with sweet, bright red, fine-grained flesh. It ripens in early August, and is an excellent plum for jams, sauces, and chutneys.

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Santa Rosa

The fruit is large, round, and uniform in size.  Santa Rosa has a dark red to crimson colored skin with delicious, yellow flesh.  The tree is large and productive.

Santa Rosa plums remain an old-time favorite with sweet, juicy red flesh perfect for eating off the tree or for canning and baking.  The trees put forth beautiful fragrant blooms, adding to the garden's beauty in early spring.  In late fall, the large fruits are ready for harvesting, making all the work of growing Santa Rosa plums well worth the effort.

Plumcot Trees

The Plumcot is a hybrid cross of an apricot and a plum.  The characteristics are 50% plum and 50% apricot.  It has a large size with, yellow blushed, melon red skin.  The Plumcot has a juicy, plum-like flesh with a unique aromatic touch of apricot flavor.  Plumcots ripen in early June and are self-fertile.

Natural plumcots have been known for hundreds of years from regions of the world that grow both plums and apricots from seed.  The plumcot was credited to and named by Luther Burbank.  Similar hybrid fruit are marketed today under the name pluot.

Most commercial plumcots are from California.  The plumcot has a very smooth skin similar to a plum.

Nut Trees

Butternut

Juglans cinerea, commonly known as Butternut or White Walnut, is a species of walnut native to the eastern United States and southeast Canada, from southern Quebec west to Minnesota, south to northern Alabama and southwest to northern Arkansas.  It is absent from most of the Southern United States.  It is a deciduous tree growing to 60 feet tall, rarely 100 feet, with a 1- to 3-foot stem diameter, and light gray bark.  The fruit is a nut, produced in bunches of 2 to 6 together; the nut is oblong-ovoid, 1 to 3 inches long and ¾ to1½ inches broad, surrounded by a green husk before maturity in mid autumn.  Butternut grows quickly but is rather short-lived for a tree, rarely living longer than 75 years.

Commercial seed-bearing age begins at about 20 years and is optimum from age 30 to 60 years.  Good crops can be expected every 2 to 3 years, with light crops during intervening years.  The white walnut is more valued for its nuts than its lumber.  The nuts are eaten by humans and animals.  The nuts are usually used in baking and making candies, having an oily texture and pleasant flavor.

Butternut wood is light in weight and takes polish well, is highly rot resistant, but is much softer than black walnut wood.  Oiled, the grain of the wood usually shows much light.  It is often used to make furniture, and is a favorite of woodcarvers.

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Hazelnuts (a.k.a. Filbert)

The Barcelona is considered the number one hazelnut and is the most planted European filbert in America.  These trees produce large crops of delicious and flavorful nuts.  The trees will grow to be 15 to 18 feet and are easy to train to tree or shrub form.  Hazelnuts are produced in commercial quantities in Turkey, Italy, and in the American states of Oregon and Washington.  Turkey is, by far, the largest producer of hazelnuts in the world.

There are many cultivars of the hazel, including Barcelona, Butler, Casina, Clark Cosford, Daviana, Delle Langhe, England, Ennis, Fillber t, Halls Giant, Jemtegaard, Kent Cob, Lewis, Tokolyi, Tonda Gentile, Tonda di Giffoni, Tonda Romana, Wanliss Pride, and Willamette. Some of these are grown for specific qualities of the nut including large nut size, and early and late fruiting cultivars, whereas others are grown as pollinators. The majority of commercial hazelnuts are propagated from root sprouts. Some cultivars are of hybrid origin between common hazel and filbert. One cultivar grown in Washington state, the DuChilly, has an elongated appearance, a thinner, less bitter skin, and a distinctly sweeter flavor than other varieties.

Hazelnuts are harvested annually in mid autumn. As autumn comes to a close, the trees drop their nuts and leaves. Most commercial growers wait for the nuts to drop on their own, rather than use equipment to shake them from the tree.

Hazelnuts have a significant place among the types of dried nuts in terms of nutrition and health because of the special composition of fats (primarily oleic acid), protein, carbohydrates, vitamins (vitamin E), minerals, dietary fibres, phytosterol (beta-cytosterol) and antioxidant phenolics such as flavan-3-ols. The nutritional and sensory properties of hazelnuts make them a unique and ideal material for food products. Hazelnuts are a good source of energy with their 60.5% fat content.

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Heartnut (Japanese Walnut)

The Heartnut is a cultivar of Japanese Walnut distinguished by its fruit, which is heart-shaped in cross section, easier to crack, and able to yield an unbroken nut meat when cracked.  The Heartnut is a sweet nut without a bitter aftertaste often intrinsic with Black and Persian Walnuts.

It is a deciduous tree growing to 20 to 30 feet tall with light grey bark. The flowers are inconspicuous yellow-green catkins produced in spring at the same time as the new leaves appear. The fruit is a nut, produced in bunches of 4-10 together; the nut is surrounded by a green husk before maturity in mid autumn. The heartnut tree bears in 3 to 5 years.

The edible nuts have an oily texture. The husks are also used to make a yellowish dye.

The very bold, decorative leaves and the attractive catkins produced in spring make it an excellent ornamental tree for planting in parks and large gardens.

Unlike the closely related and very similar North American Butternut, Japanese Walnut is resistant to the canker disease caused by the fungus Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum. This has led to its being planted as a replacement for Butternuts in North America

The wood is light and takes polish well, but is of much lower quality than Persian Walnut wood. It is often used to make furniture.

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Hickory Nut

Trees in the genus Carya are commonly known as hickory, derived from the Powhatan language of Virginia. The genus includes 17 to 19 species of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and big nuts. Between five and six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam Province), 11 to 12 are from the United States, two to four are from Canada, and four are found in Mexico.

The nuts of some species are palatable, while others are bitter and only suitable for animal feed. Shagbark and shellbark hickory, along with pecan, are regarded by some as the finest nut trees.

Hickory wood is very hard, stiff, dense, and shock resistant. It is used for tool handles, bows, wheel spokes, carts, drumsticks, lacrosse stick handles, golf club shafts (sometimes still called hickory stick, even though made of steel or graphite), the bottom of skis, and walking sticks. Paddles are often made from hickory. Baseball bats were formerly made of hickory, but are now more commonly made of ash.

Hickory is also highly prized for wood-burning stoves, because of its high energy content. Hickory wood is also a preferred type for smoking cured meats. In the Southern United States, hickory is popular for cooking barbecue, as hickory grows abundantly in the region, and adds flavor to the meat. Hickory is sometimes used for wood flooring due to its durability and character.

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Pecan

The pecan tree is a large deciduous tree, growing to 66 to 130 feet in height. It typically has a spread of 39 to 75 feet with a trunk up to 6.6 feet in diameter. The flowers are wind-pollinated. Pecan trees may live and bear edible nuts for more than three hundred years.

A pecan, like the fruit of all other members of the hickory genus, is not truly a nut, but is technically a drupe, a fruit with a single stone or pit, surrounded by a husk. The husks are produced from the exocarp tissue of the flower while the part known as the nut develops from the endocarp and contains the seed. The nut itself is dark brown, oval to oblong. The outer husk starts out green and turns brown at maturity, at which time it splits off in four sections to release the thin-shelled nut.

The nuts of the pecan are edible, with a rich, buttery flavor. They can be eaten fresh or used in cooking, particularly in sweet desserts but also in some savory dishes. One of the most common desserts with the pecan as a central ingredient is the pecan pie, a traditional southern U.S. recipe. Pecans are also a major ingredient in praline candy.

Pecans are a good source of protein and unsaturated fats. Like walnuts (which pecans resemble), pecans are rich in omega-6 fatty acids, although pecans contain about half as much omega-6 as walnuts. A diet rich in nuts can lower the risk of gallstones in women. The antioxidants and plant sterols found in pecans reduce high cholesterol by reducing the "bad" LDL cholesterol levels.

In addition to the pecan nut, the wood is also used in making furniture, in wood flooring, as well as flavoring fuel for smoking meats.

Today, the U.S. produces between 80% and 95% of the world's pecans, with an annual crop of 150 to 200 thousand tons from more than 10 million trees.  The nut harvest for growers is typically around mid-October. Historically, the leading pecan-producing state in the U.S. has been Georgia, followed by Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma; they are also grown in Arizona, South Carolina, and Hawaii.

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Walnut

Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, about 30 to 130 feet tall. The 21 species in the genus range across the north temperate Old World from southeast Europe east to Japan, and more widely in the New World from southeast Canada west to California and south to Argentina.

Juglans regia, the Persian walnut, English walnut, or especially in Great Britain, Common walnut, is an Old World walnut tree species native to the region stretching from the Balkans eastward to the Himalayas and southwest China.

Juglans regia is a large deciduous tree. Mature trees may reach 50 feet in height and width, and live more than 200 years, developing massive trunks more than eight feet thick. It is a light-demanding species, requiring full sun to grow well. The bark is smooth, olive-brown when young and silvery-grey on older branches, and features scattered broad fissures with a rougher texture. The male flowers are in drooping catkins, and the female flowers terminal, in clusters of two to five, ripening in the autumn into a fruit with a green, semi-fleshy husk and a brown corrugated nut. The whole fruit, including the husk, falls in autumn; the seed is large, with a relatively thin shell, and edible, with a rich flavor.

Walnut heartwood is a heavy, hard, open-grained hardwood. Freshly cut live wood may be Dijon-mustard color, darkening to brown over 1 to 3 days. The dried lumber is a rich chocolate-brown to black. It is prized by fine woodworkers for its durability, luster and chatoyance (shimmer) and is used for high-end flooring, guitars, furniture, veneers, knobs, and handles.

The nuts are rich in oil, and are widely eaten both fresh and in cookery. Walnut oil is expensive and consequently is used sparingly, most often in salad dressings. Walnut oil has been used in oil paint, as an effective binding medium, known for its clear, glossy consistency and nontoxicity.

The black walnut is a large deciduous tree attaining heights of 98 to 130 feet. The bark is grey-black and deeply furrowed. The pith of the twigs contains air spaces. The male flowers are in drooping catkins, the female flowers terminal, in clusters of two to five, ripening during the autumn into a fruit (nut) with a brownish-green, semi-fleshy husk and a brown corrugated nut. The whole fruit, including the husk, falls in October; the seed is relatively small and very hard. The tree tends to crop more heavily in alternate years.

Black walnut nuts are shelled commercially in the United States. The nutmeats provide a robust, distinctive, natural flavor and crunch as a food ingredient. Popular uses include ice cream, bakery goods and confections. Consumers include black walnuts in traditional treats, such as cakes, cookies, fudge, and pies during the fall holiday season. The nut’s strong nutritional profile leads to uses in other foods such as salads, fish, pork, chicken, vegetables and pasta dishes.

Nutritionally similar to the milder-tasting English walnut, the black walnut kernel is high in unsaturated fat and protein.

Black walnut is highly prized for its dark-colored true heartwood. It is heavy and strong, yet easily split and worked. Walnut wood has historically been used for gunstocks, furniture, flooring, paddles, coffins, and a variety of other woodworking products.

Vineyard

We also decided to try our hand at a tiny vineyard, planting approved cuttings of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah grapes.

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties.  It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley.  Cabernet Sauvignon became internationally recognized through its prominence in Bordeaux wines where it is often blended with Merlot and Cabernet Franc.  From France, the grape spread across Europe and to the New World where it found new homes in places like California's Napa Valley, Australia's Coonawarra region, and Chile's Maipo Valley.  For most of the 20th century, it was the world's most widely planted premium red wine grape until it was surpassed by Merlot in the 1990s.

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Syrah or Shiraz is a dark-skinned grape grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce powerful red wines.  Whether sold as Syrah or Shiraz, these wines enjoy great popularity.

Syrah is used as a varietal and is also blended.  Following several years of strong planting, Syrah was estimated in 2004 to be the world's 7th most grown grape.

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Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc.
Your Source for Northwest Farm Fresh Foods Shipped Worldwide
4301 South Chapman Road
Greenacres, Washington 99016-8732 USA
Phone (509) 928-1800 | Fax (509) 922-9949
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Website: www.mountainvalleyviewfarm.com
Online Store: www.mountainvalleyviewfarmstore.com
Blog with us at www.mountainvalleyviewfarmblog.com

Mountain Valley View Farm Hours:

Monday – Saturday
8:00 a.m. – Noon;  1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)
Closed Noon – 1:00 p.m.

Other farm hours by advance appointment only.
Please call (509) 928-1800 to schedule an appointment.

Getaway Studio Dining Room
& Bed and Breakfast
Phone (509) 928-8900

Directions to Mountain Valley View Farm, Inc.
From I-90 East or West
Take the Sullivan Exit (291B) – South for about 3 miles
Turn left on Saltese (east), and continue straight for .5 mile
Turn right on South Chapman Road (south), and proceed .9 mile
The farm will be on the left-hand side of the road – 4301 South Chapman Road