St. Johns Farmers Market

Courtesy of Baird Family Orchards & Barbara Quinn

Baird Family Orchards

We are a family farm dedicated to growing the very sweetest and juiciest peaches the beautiful Pacific Northwest has to offer. We are located in Dundee, Oregon, and have been growing top quality fruit for over 30 years. If you’re looking to impress friends or colleagues with amazingly sweet and juicy peaches, or you just want to make your own little family happy, you can depend on us to put smiles on their faces and juice on their chins.

Our story begins with me, Don (old man) Baird, my wife Kathy, and two kids, Trevor and Jennifer. Our family began farming on a small 12-acre parcel in Corralitos, California, where we grew apples and avocados, learned to keep bees, and where I taught the kids to raise chickens. We brought our produce to the San Francisco farmers market and proudly sold our apples to Martinelli’s Apple Cider. A few years later, I moved our family back to my home state and found the perfect farm property in Dayton, Oregon.

I and my son Trevor used to lug boxes of apples and peaches up and down the stairs at the Portland Central Precinct, where we sold our fruit door-to-door to the Portland police and the court judges.  Then, when farmers markets began popping up around Portland, Baird Family Orchards was among the first to sign up. I, Kathy and the kids would fill the old truck with boxes of their delicious Suncrest peaches and apples and spend the day together at the Beaverton farmers market.

These days, the orchard includes many varieties of peach, cherry, nectarine, apricot, plum, pluot, and apple trees.  I and Kathy still attend the Beaverton farmers market, but Trevor and Jennifer, along with our friends and extended family, bring our fruit to many other markets – over 15 Oregon farmers markets in all.

Mrs. Baird’s Fresh Peach Pie

Ingredients:
* 1 (9 inch) pie shell, baked  (or use a graham cracker crust, if that’s your taste)
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 4 tablespoons cornstarch
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 2 cups fresh Baird Family Orchards peaches, pitted and mashed
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 4 cups fresh Baird Family Orchards peaches – skinned, pitted, and sliced

Instructions:
1. Combine sugar, water, cornstarch, butter or margarine, mashed peaches, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a saucepan.
2. Cook mixture over medium heat until it forms a clear and thick glaze. Stir in vanilla.
3. Fill pie shell with the glaze, then add the fresh sliced peaches on top.
4. Refrigerate until set.
(From http://bairdfamilyorchards.wordpress.com/about-us/)