The first stone fruit of the season is upon us, and we couldn’t be happier! Nothing hints at summer approaching quite like a ripe and juicy local piece of stone fruit, and every year you can rely on Dhillon Farm to be first on the scene at the Chico Certified Farmers’ Market!

Gurmeet Dhillon, owner of Dhillon Farm, has been growing stone fruit since 1994, and has been at the Chico Saturday Famers’ Market since 2000! Located in Marysville, Dhillon provides the Chico Saturday Farmers’ Market with a plethora of mouthwatering stone fruit! From plump and fuzzy to smooth and shiny, Dhillon Farm has you covered. 

Here from about the first week of May to the end of December, you can expect a full supply of stone fruit all summer long! Right now you can find yellow nectarines, white nectarines, donut peaches, yellow peaches, cherries, and apricots (with more varieties coming soon)!

Come down this Saturday to get your fill of summer stone fruit and explore everything Dhillon Farm has to offer!

Now That I Have Them…

What do I do with them? One of the beautiful things about stone fruit is that they are wonderful in just about any application! Obviously stone fruits are delicious when ripe and raw, but if you need ideas, start here:

• Roast, poach, saute, or grill them!  
• Bake into a pie, crumble, cobbler, or galette. 
• Toss into most any salad!
• Make a sauce for both sweet and savory dishes!
• Make a jam or jelly, or can them so you can still get a hint of stone fruit goodness when they’re out of season! 

Stone fruit can be delicate little buggers, so make sure to store them correctly!

• Never put them in the fridge before they’re ripe – they get wrinkly and weird, and won’t continue to ripen.
• Be gentle getting them home! They bruise easily.
• Keep fully ripe fruit in the fridge, but only for a few days. 
• Need to ripen a bit more? Store a room temp, stem side down.