As the years go by, our collection of different types of fruit trees grows and grows on the Stepladder property, which happens to be over 700 acres.
We are very fortunate to have an amazing and almost frost-free climate that allows us to grow an abundant amount of fruits year round, including sub-tropicals!
As of 2022, we have 300 different kinds of fruit - and counting! Our most predominant crop is the avocado, a California state and Stepladder staff favorite. We have 13 varieties and about 5,000 trees.
Our goal with the different types of fruit is to have different offerings year round, and obviously to eat them! While the avocados are the main business of the ranch, we found that during the off season we can sell things like passion fruit, citrus, cherimoyas, etc.
It's been exciting to see the different fruits grow each year as it takes a few years for a fruit tree to produce a substantial crop. They were planted about 5-7 years ago and are now really starting to have high fruit yields.
We sell most of the fruits at farmers markets, specifically in the Bay Area and Cambria.
We are also part of the California Rare Fruit Growers, SLO chapter https://crfg.org/. This allows us to network with a bunch of plant lovers such as ourselves and continue to collect different types of fruit!
Here's a list of our current collection of fruits on the property:
- Avocados: 13 varietals
- Berries: 14 varietals
- Citrus: 36 varietals
- Figs: 77 varietals
- Grapes: 8 varietals (and 8 vines)
- Kiwi: 1 varietals
- Mulberry: 1 varietals
- Nuts: 3 varietals
- Pomegranate: 5 varietals
- Pomme fruit (Pears, apples, quince): 47 varietals
- Jujube: 2 varietals
- Stone fruit (Plum, apricot, peach, nectarine): 38 varietals
- Subtropical (Cherimoya, sapote, dragon fruit, guava, mango, loquat, passion fruit, longan, feijoa, coffee, cactus, jaboticaba, monstera, banana): 42 varietals
Fruit & Cheese Boards
One of our favorite snacks includes Stepladder cheeses paired with fresh, seasonal fruits from the property. Add a glass of your favorite wine and you've got the perfect kick off to the weekend!
Traditionally, a charcuterie board contains a selection of cured meats and preserved foods with the accompanying cheeses and crackers or bread. Charcuterie boards (or cheese boards, grazing boards or whatever else you want to call it) have increased in popularity over the past few years - and we are not complaining!
Throughout the year we have tons of different fruits that are beautiful and tasty and should get some spotlight. At a recent BBQ we decided to bring something totally different! A fruit board!
Want to make your own? Visit us at our farmers markets in the bay area and get all sorts of fun fruits!
Recipe:
Go to your local farmers market and grab as many different kinds of fruit you can. Multiple different types of citrus, berrys, cherimoya, dragon fruit, passion fruit are some of our favorites.
Get creative with your cuts! We played with our board by cutting and slicing a variety of different citrus into lots of different shapes and sizes and layering in different patterns. Any Other fruit we had in season we grabbed and added it to our board.
Pictured below from left to right:
Grapefruit (bottom left), Cherimoya (top right), Cara Cara (middle front), Loquat by the bunch (middle), Cara Cara (middle), Finger limes (middle right), Morro blood orange (right front), guava (right back), tangerines (right), passion fruit scattered all over, variegated lemon whole (back middle right)
While we do love to include cured meats on our boards, our main focus is always showcasing Stepladder Creamery cheeses. We tend to think fresh fruits pair best with our cheese which is why they are always featured on our cheese boards and suggested pairings. One of our favorite ways to eat Goatgurt, our farmstead goat's milk yogurt, is delicious with passionfruit or fresh berries for some added sweetness.
