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In This Week’s Box
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- Hass avocado, Valley Center, CA
- Fuerte avocado, Azusa, CA
- Kiwi, Auburn, CA
- Strawberries, Dinuba, CA
- Pink Lady apples, Cuyama, CA
- Navel oranges, Lindsay, CA
- Golden Nugget tangerines, Oceanside, CA
- Frog Hollow Apricot Conserve, Brentwood, CA
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From Farmer Al
Dear CSA Members,
The cherry outlook is good…but late. They’ll arrive maybe a week to even 10 days later than last year which was the usual start date of May 15.
There are good crops of each of our three main varieties. Brooks are earliest, followed by Rainier, then Bing. Stella, our last variety to harvest is still covered in bloom so it’s hard to see the fruit.
This year a new pest hovers like a specter over all cherries in California: a type of fruit fly, the spotted wing drosophilia. None of the experts (i.e. UC Extension) seem to quite know how to handle it. We’ll keep a close eye on this situation, but keep in mind that cherries are historically one of the riskiest fruit crops in the state of California.
The upside is our amazing quality. Brentwood has one of the best terroir in the world for cherries. Our Brooks typically Brix at 22-25 and the Rainier and Bing go even higher.
Stay tuned for more about cherries next week.
Regards to all,
From Kimi: Strawberries and Citrus
Hi all!
This week’s strawberries were picked especially for us to include in the boxes, but they’re highly perishable, so make sure to eat them quickly or put them in the fridge.
We had some last minute box changes this week. We’re at that point where the seasonality of California fruit doesn’t have a great deal of overlap. We’re seeing the last of late varieties as with the tangerines, and the first of early varieties as with the strawberries. Some of the farms we’ve been working with weren’t able to provide as much for the CSA this week, so we only had enough for one kiwi per box this week. The golden nuggets aren’t as juicy as we’d prefer either, but the the flavor is there so we went with them.
Farmer Ken Olsen, who we’ve been partnering with throughout the winter months is running out of navel oranges, which means the sizes can be inconsistent for us. We were unable to be quite as picky about looks, so a few more blemishes may be seen in this week’s box. While we like to include the prettiest fruit possible, it ultimately comes down to the taste test and it’s the inside that counts! As always, we hope you enjoy the flavors of this week’s box.
Cheers,
Kimi
p.s. I included a recipe in the paper newsletter this week, but it has its very own post here on the website. Check it out: Kiwi-Tomato salsa!
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Kimi Owens is Frog Hollow's Customer Care and Marketing Coordinator. She is a strong believer in local and global sustainability and is committed to improving the transparency and communication channels of Happy Child CSA. Questions or suggestions in regards to this website may be directed to her at kimi@froghollow.com or via phone at extension 201.
