The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1895-09-13
In a California Fruit Valley.

"'Dead sea fruitv That's what l
call it!' exclaimed gentleman, Wno'
after attempting to eat one OF the
largest and most beautiful specimens
of california peaches ever seen in Full
ton Market, threw 1t away In disgust.
And he was right; for, while 1t was an
object to delight the eye, with lts great
size, perfect shape, delicate bloom and
superb coloring, its flavor was DECIDED
ly vegetable. So New Workers of eX-
perience in such things buy California
peaches to look at and to serve with
the dessert as the browning ornaments
of perfect dinner but lay In supply
of Delawares to eat; while In chicago
they say, "Oh, yes, California peaches
are pretty, but the st. 10. product
is good enough for us"
Having thus persuaded themselves
that all California peaches are tasteless
and insipid, jewellers In the East Won
der why the same article, put up In
cans should be so finely favored, and
generally superior to canned peaches
from elsewhere. But the proposition is
o very simple one. The peach for can
ming is not plucked until 1t Is ripe, with
all it's juicy richness and delicate flavor
fully developed, while that intended for
shipment to a distance is gathered
while still hard and devoid of every
thing save color and size. The Califor-
MIA peach in its native orchard, sun
warmed, and ripened until so filled with
rich juices that it is ready to drop
from the tree, is perfect fruit, as
pleasing to the taste as to the eye; but
only under such conditions can 1t at
tain perfection. When it is plucl5ed,
it's development is arrested, and after
that it will only soften. Thus there is
as much difference between a Callfor-
mia peach in California and the same
thing in New York as there is between
a pineapple, luscious and sugar-Sweet
in it's tropic field, and the pineapple of
Northern markets, acid, tibrous, and
bearing every evidence of having been
cut long before the date of its maturity.
The largest prune orchard in this
country. If not in the world is located
at Los Gatos (the CATS, on the western
edge of the Santa Clara valley, 1t con-
tans $50 acres of trees, 100 of which are
planted to the acre. over one hundred
men and a score of teams are constant
ly employed in this great orchard,
which has it's own waterworks and
electric-light plant. Its drying-ground
is twenty acres in extent, and 1t yields
net income of something like $4,000
year.
Near this Los Gatos orchard is a
curious factory, said to be the only one
of its kind in the world. 1t Is factory
for the making of grape-food, and is
devoted to the extracting and concen-
trating, but not fermenting, of grape
Juice During the season 1t consumes
fifty tons of grapes every day. and pro-
duces 100000 gallons of juice, concentra-
ted to one-fourth of its original bulk.
The ingenious process by which this Is
accomplished is simplicity itself. A
small but constant stream of fresh juice
flows into the upper end Of q copper
cylinder two feet in diameter and nine
teen feet long, which is inclined at
slight angle, and revolves slowly In
hot-water Jacket that keeps 1t heated
u 81
on the interior of this cylinder, the heat
evaporates all water from 1t, and the
vapor is drawn off as soon as formed
by great eXhaust-fans that make 300
revolutions per minute. The juice oc-
cupies Just sixty seconds in passing
through the cylinder and finally
trickles from its lower end in warm
syrupy stream, robbed of none of its
original elements or properties save
three times it's bulk of water.
The grapes used In such enormous
quantities in this interesting factory
both red and white, are wine grapes,
which, as the tourist observer soon dis
covers. are very different from Taisin
grapes, the former containing the more
| juice, and the latter the more saccha-
rine matter. One of the surprising
things about q raisin vineyard is the
small size of It's vines, which, being cut
back every year, are rarely more than
two or three feet high, and the great
size Of the lunches. These, when fully
| ripe, are cut and laid in shallow trays
between the rows of vines where,
without the addition OF any sugar, they
are allowed to dry in the sun until they
become ralsns, which is all there is to
| the process.
The most surprising thing of all is the
| discovery that all raisln grapes are
white grapes, until they are turned
! purple in drying, which is hard to real
ize but is nevertheless a fact.--Har-
| pers Weekly.