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THIS WEEK’S FRUIT
Pink Lady Apples
A cross between the Golden Delicious and Lady Williams, the Pink Lady is a crisp and juicy apple with a tart finish. Pink skins and a creamy white colored flesh that resists browning makes, this an excellent apple for salads and slicing. Store on your counter out of direct light for 4-5 days. Refrigerate after to maintain crispness.
Warren Pears
This is Frog Hollow Farm’s signature pear and for good reason. Too difficult to grow for most farmers to consider it’s never caught on commercially but Farmer Al has never shied away from putting the time and effort into a fruit that tastes so good. It has a classic European texture, very soft and juicy with a silky sweetness that avoids the typical grittiness found in most pears. Pears are ripe when wrinkled and yielding slightly near the stem. Pears will store well in the fridge once they have reached your optimal ripeness.
Shinko Asian Pears
The Shinko is a large pear with its round shape slightly flattened. The skin is bronze with brown russeting and its juicy, creamy white flesh has a subtly rich flavor. One of the last pears to pick, it comes off the tree with a butterscotch note to its sweetness. Enjoy these from the counter within 5-7 days.
Fuyu Persimmon
Chieci Farm, Live Oak, CA
The Fuyu has a crisp texture and delicate sweet flavor. They have a beautiful orange to red hue when ripe. They can be eaten out of hand with skin on or peeled. Store on the counter for 3-5 days or refrigerate for longer enjoyment.
Hayward Kiwi
Chieci Farm, Live Oak, CA
Originally known as the Chinese gooseberry due to its Chinese orgins. Hawyward Wright, a New Zealand nurseryman propagated his plants by grafting and they eventually became the preferred cultivar of growers due to their sweet flavor and thin skin. Ready to eat when they yield to gentle pressure. Store these on the counter for 4-5 days. Refrigerate for up to two weeks.
A NOTE FROM FARMER AL
Dear CSA members,
I love this time of year, with its cool crisp evenings and warm breezy days, full of fall colors and black olives hanging heavy on their branches. There is some- thing about picking olives that makes everyone happy. As I walk amongst the crew I enjoy their chatting, laughing and joking, always vying with one another in so many ways, while easily moving up and down the 12 foot ladders raking the olives into their picking totes.
Here at FHF we still pick olives the old way….by hand. The men rake the fruit off of the willowy branches using their fingers to comb olives into their totes; they’ll be doing this for nine hours each day. This is hard on the fingers, so most of them wrap each finger in heavy silver duct tape.
Our crew of 12 men will harvest 3000 pounds per day, which is comparable to the rate of harvest accomplished by other farms that use “power-rakes”. These hydraulically powered rakes are mounted on long poles, so that one man, standing on the ground can harvest the whole tree without a ladder. The olives fall into the nets, which cover the ground below the trees. The nets are then gathered up by other men who empty the olives into bins. As it turns out, both systems cost about the same per pound to pick fruit. I like my system because it provides my men with work and it’s much more festive and fun.
This year the harvest is very early because of weather (all of our crops were early). It’s also the “alternate” year for our olives. Olives are like that….heavy crops are followed by much lighter crops. This is a “light” year. Also, the fruit is bigger and riper, so the oil will be a little different than last year. When we get the first oil back from the mill, Chef Becky will taste it and announce the flavor profile.
We hope you will like and enjoy it. We think that while each year the taste is a bit different from every other year, the quality always compares to the finest imported oils from around the world.
