Green Bluff offers fruit and fun, too

Wine enthusiasts love to throw around words like “terroir,” but the word applies to more than grapes.

Terroir refers to the environment a crop grows in, the land from which it sprouts and the farming practices that bring it to maturity. It’s about character.

Green Bluff is a fine example.

The farming community at the foot of Mount Spokane has long been the area’s breadbasket. If you eat in the Greater Spokane area, you’ve tasted the area’s bounty. A trip to Green Bluff during the summer rewards the visitor with spots to pick your own berries and seasonal fruit.

Pumpkins for Halloween and trees for Christmas? Many families make both a tradition.

Eaten homemade jams, jellies or preserves? Odds are good the ingredients came from Green Bluff.

A tasting tour of Green Bluff is a fun, and often juicy, way to spend a late summer day. Anyone who has never bitten into a freshly-picked piece of fruit should definitely make the trip.

Check this out.

Green Bluff currently is in the midst of its annual Peach Festival, which continues through Labor Day.

Here’s a sample of what you can find:

Walter’s Fruit Ranch, for example, currently is picking Early Red Haven and Late Red Haven peaches as well as golden and Santa Rosa plums and early Golden, Tidyman Red and Paula Red apples. Coming soon: Elegant Lady, Red Star, Red Globe and Angelus peaches as well as Ginger Gold apples.

An assortment of peaches, pears and apples are available in the farm’s store, along with zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, beets and purple beans.

Hidden Acres Farm, Green Bluff’s only farm to run on biodiesel, offers a variety of fruit, including rhubarb, as well as an assortment of jams, jellies, apple butters and syrups made from them. They press their own cider and offer take-and-bake pies, local, unpasteurized honey and free range, organically fed duck, chicken and turkey eggs.

And they have a petting zoo.

Warren and Anne Wellens offer a variety of fruit in season as well as antiques.

Thorson’s Country Farm includes cut flowers to an array of produce that includes tomatoes, garlic, onions and herbs.

High Country Orchard has a mini golf course and offers a menu that includes sandwiches, paninis and espresso as well as local wine and beer.

Hansen’s Green Bluff Orchard currently offers peaches and apples, which can be eaten from the hand, in chunky applesauce, drunk in cider or taken home in a fresh-baked dessert.

Roenings on Green Bluff is a family orchard where the trees are pruned low for easy picking. Roening’s apples are the source of Twilight Cider Works hard apple ciders, which are pressed on Green Bluff at the historic apple processing plant and also available to sample in its tasting room on weekends.

Strawberry Hill Nutrition Farm specializes in nutrient dense food: vegetables, berries, herbs, salad greens, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, potatoes, carrots, kale, collards, rhubarb, squash and more.

Bodacious Berries, Fruit and Brews is the home of Big Barn Brewing, which is available in the taphouse.

238 Brewing Company is Mike Beckman’s brewery and winery, which features locally grown and sourced ingredients. It’s open for tastings Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Fleur de Provence Lavender Farm offers u-pick flowers and essential oils. No surprise, Fleur de Provence is a key ingredient in Hierophant Meadery’s signature honey wine – which is available for weekend tastings right down the road.

Beck’s Harvest House is at the heart of Green Bluff the year around. Depending on the time of year, you can pick your own fruit, go for a hayride around the orchards, pick out a giant pumpkin for Halloween or sample a pumpkin donut. They also offer a wide variety of locally produced wine.