Thanks to all of you who voted in my "favorite local fruit" poll. And the winner, with 55 percent of the vote?
STRAWBERRIES!
Photo from Jo, who rightly called me out on the poor quality of my earlier photo.
You guys had a lot of berry thoughts to share. Here's just a few:
Jo said she picked about 12 quarts total of the biggest and most delicious strawberries at Dover Township's Barefoot Farm; that's where the photo is from. She also says: "Fortunately, blueberries, which are excellent for the heart, become plentiful just as strawberries go out. They are my second most fav. And then there are cherries, peaches, plums, apples, cantaloupes. I vote 'em all in!"
Mark says he doesn't eat fruits (WHAT?) but adds: "I do remember a little orchard just north of Emigsville that we went to every fall to pick apples, watch them make apple butter and cider and of course buy some. ... I also remember them opening up the strawberry fields around this time for 'pick-your-own' strawberries." He was later able - through the power of the great and might Google, to find out that it was Forge Hill Orchards near Mount Wolf.
Melanie weighed in with a non-majority opinion: "I've never had peaches anywhere as good as the ones I've eaten in York County, so they've got my vote," she wrote. "But I almost voted for cherries, because when I was little (a looooonnng time ago!) there were a couple of cherry trees back of the old high school in Manchester, and my grandpa and I would go back there and he'd hold me up so I could pick them. I have no idea what kind of cherries they were, but they were deep, dark red and very tart and juicy. I can remember the taste to this day." I have to tell you, Melanie, those are the kinds of memories that make me LOVE being a Yorker.
Some of my Facebook fans weighed in, too.
Corey said he goes for ANYTHING from Brown's.
Joe, one of the YDR's freelancers, said "Starfire Peaches, which are grown near the grounds of Maize Quest in New Park (Southern York County!)" (That was new to me, Joe, so thanks for the recommendation!)
Cubby, who is also a columnist for our sister paper in Hanover, really liked the fresh fruit recipes. She has a request, though. "We need names of markets here around Hanover!" she said. (Oh, and she was with Melanie on the peaches.)
Can anyone help her out? Good markets near Hanover? Comment and let me know!
