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THIS WEEK’S FRUIT

Suncrest Peaches
A Slow Food Ark heritage variety, the Suncrest has all the old-fashioned
taste of days gone by. Its a truly memorable peach whose firm but juicy flesh
provides a real eat-over-the-sink experience. Gently tapered, the Suncrest has
hardly any blush to speak of on its rich yellow skin. A more fragile variety, the
Suncrest bruises easily when picked, but as many of our farmers market customers know, a picking bruise means the fruit is extra delicious.

Flavor King
The best pluot variety we grow! A dark-skinned pluot with red flesh, it has an
intense rich flavor combined with sweet, spicy tones that are reminiscent of
the Santa Rosa. A nice acid bite and firm texture that softens beautifully as the
fruit continues to ripen, the Flavor King is amazing out of hand and equally
good for baking.

Summer Flare Nectarines
Our Summer Flare trees produce some of the largest and juiciest nectarines we
see. Rich in flavor, they’re often solid red with hardly a streak of yellow in the
skin. A clingstone, the Summer Flare is an ideal variety to bite right into and
eat out of hand.

A Note From Farmer Al

Dear CSA Members,

“Tree ripe” is a term much misused and often abused! Large corporate farming companies will print this term on their label and retailers will often use it on their point-of-sale signage. There are government regulations which define the “tree- ripeness” of each variety of peach and nectarine by using a color code card which must be matched with the background color of the fruit when picked. The purpose of this law is to require a minimum level of ripeness as an industry standard, in order to ensure consumers a minimum level of eating quality. Sadly, this minimum level is just that…minimal in terms of sugar levels. Over the decades, the industry (ie farmers) has all migrated to this lowest common denominator.

As a young-ish beginning farmer, who did not grow up in the industry, I was naively unaware of these regulations. I thought the way to pick fruit was to wait until it tasted great. After I’d been picking fruit ripe, for several years, the regulators noticed my fruit on store shelves and came by to pay me a visit. It turns out, they had the legal authority to come inspect my packed fruit each day to regulate the quality (under-ripeness, over-ripeness, cosmetic defects, etc.) and they could shut me down if I refused entry to their program or did not comply with their standards. (And by the way, I had to pay a per box fee for them to do this!)

To make a long story short, I struggled with these arrogant government lackies for many years. Now, finally, they leave me alone (due to lack of funding to the program for inspectors and the fact that the volumes in which we ship are low enough to be exempt from these regulations) and I pick fruit that is truly ripe…riper than anyone else in the industry.

However, I pay another price now…that of over-ripeness. Over ripeness occurs because when you are going for that great quality of perfect ripeness, you have to accept the fact that if the vast majority of the fruit is picked at the perfect level, a significant percentage of fruit will be too ripe to be handled through retail channels.

This is where our processing kitchen comes in…that over ripe fruit makes sensational value-added products!

In our packing shed, our well-trained crew fine- tune their packing skills; they must distinguish between “retail grade”, not too ripe to travel, to be stocked on display racks, and to withstand the picking over by customers; “farmers market” grade, riper than retail grade; and kitchen grade.

You, our CSA customers, get the farmers market grade in your box. It may not be cosmetically perfect like retail grade, but, it is almost always riper and sweeter…a much better eating experience.

Organically yours,