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THIS WEEK’S FRUIT:
Rainier Cherries
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
Created in 1952 at Washington State University, Rainiers are a cross between the Bing and Van. Plump, delicious, and with ex- tremely sweet creamy flesh, they can be more fragile than the dark cherries.
Cot -n- Candy Apriums
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
A white fleshed aprium developed by renowned plant breeder Floyd Zaiger. Characteristic of white fleshed stone fruit, these apriums have a more subtle sweetness than orange varieties, but with notes of honeydew, they are sure to please. These delicate fruits bruise easily, so handle with care.
Golden Sweet Apricots
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
The Golden Sweet is a smaller apricot that makes up for whatever it lacks in size with its rich flavor. Though we may bake pastries featuring other varieties, the Golden Sweet is our variety of choice for our best-selling apricot conserve. An- other California born and bred variety, it has a brilliant golden orange skin with a soft blush.
Gold Dust Peaches
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
The Gold Dust is one of our favorites and the first truly outstanding peach of the season for eating out of hand. An heirloom variety, it is low in acid and smaller than most of our peaches. Its juicy, melting texture and sweetness makes it a favorite on the farm.
June Glo Nectarines
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
An early season, yellow fleshed nectarine that is semi-freestone and full of flavor. A great fruit by plant breeder Flyod Zaiger.
A NOTE FROM FARMER AL:
Dear CSA Members,
Brown rot, the scourge of every stone fruit grower. The Latin term is monilinia fucticola. It’s a fungus which inhabits the soil and all the branches of every tree. In other words, it’s everywhere in the orchard. It gets on the blossoms and kills them resulting in poor fruit set. The chemical industry has spent literally billions of dollars to try to control it with chemicals. Conventional growers use Benlate and Topsin M and other fungicides to control brown rot on stone fruit. The problem, as with most chemicals, resistance occurs and more and more chemicals are needed. Sound familiar?
Here on the farm, we use compost and compost tea to change the environment and reduce the impact. This strategy has been hugely successful, especially in Apricots which are the most susceptible of all stone fruit to this dreaded disease. Where we had 95% crop failures due to brown rot, we now have huge crops. Christophe’s fungi- eating- fungi approach has helped fruit set amazingly well, but there are still spores out there that can get on the fruit.
On fruit it starts out as a small brown spot (hence the term “brown rot”) about 1/8 to 1/4” in diameter. Over a period of a week it will consume the whole fruit and then dry the fruit up into and ancient Egyptian mummy. The mummy is full of billions of spores which become dormant until coming into contact with the next victim. These spores on mummified fruits are obvious. But the ones living in the soil and on the trees are invisible to the naked eye. When packing our fruit, we have no way to know which fruits may contain spores and which do not. The spores are dormant until activated by moisture (rain) and the right temperature (40°-60°), i.e your refrigerator! Once my fruit is completely ripe, I like to chill it down before I eat it. Keeping your fruit the fridge overnight should be fine, but we don’t recommend you keep your fruit in the fridge for an extended period of time.
We are hearing from some of you that you have received fruit that developed brown rot. As soon as you notice it on a piece of fruit simply cut it out and enjoy the rest of the fruit, it won’t affect the flavor of the remaining fruit.
The challenges and joys of farming organically are many!
Warm Regards,
Farmer Al
