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This Week’s Fruit

Zee Lady Peaches
Renowned horticulturist Floyd Zaiger is responsible for many of our favorite varieties, and the Zee Lady is another Zaiger gem. The Zee Lady is a good sized peach that’s a real beauty, with a vibrant red blush dusted over a warm golden skin. Another freestone, the Zee Lady’s juicy flesh is as great for baking as it is eating out of hand.

Fantasia Nectarines
Quickly becoming one of our best-known and most popular varieties, the Fantasia is a large, tapered heirloom variety. It’s deep golden flesh is amazingly sweet and smooth, and its marbled bright red skin makes for exceptionally beautiful presentation. Like many of our more unique and heirloom varieties, the Fantasia is a far more fragile fruit than most farms will even consider growing. Like the Suncrest peach that often ripens at the same time, the Fantasia is easily bruised when allowed to ripen properly on the branch, but we’re sure you’ll agree that the taste is well worth the risk.

Dapple Dandy Pluots
Playfully called the “dinosaur egg” pluot, the Dapple Dandy has marbled pink and green skin over delicate white flesh threaded with rose. Kids especially love this pluot for its distinctive coloration and the lack of tartness in the skin.

Flavor King Pluots
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.

Storage Recommendations
We recommend leaving three days worth of the stone fruit on your countertop and store the rest in the fridge to be enjoyed later in the week.

A Note From Becky

Dear CSA Members,

Two weeks ago we were singing praises of the once abandoned and now much celebrated, darling of the underdogs, the Suncrest Peach. It is large and beautifully shaped with corpulent flesh that is oh so juicy. It’s a little on the acidic side, but that makes it great for baking. It’s a little fuzzier than most peaches but, so what; biting into a perfectly ripe Suncrest peach is pure heaven. Now, two weeks into the Suncrest harvest we are grappling with its difficulties and we are reminded why they aren’t grown commercially anymore; there it has too many eccentricities that large commercial growers simply won’t deal with. We are also seeing that many stores don’t like to handle them either.

First of all, it is cosmetically challenged; its gold color doesn’t “pop” in the grocery stand. Its nappy appearance is another strike against it visually; all color is obscured underneath its wooly mantle that betrays its juicy flesh. No matter how many books are written about it, Suncrests just don’t fly off the shelves.

Secondly, is it doesn’t store well. After a few days in cold storage they begin to lose their magic. The flesh becomes mealy and the flavor just fades away and they begin to take on a “refrigerator” taste, not unlike butter that’s been stored uncovered in the fridge for too long. Ironically, we’ve found they keep better out of cold storage than in it. Last week, Al was brixing some Suncrests on the kitchen counter in the office. He cut quarter sized pieces off the side of 3 peaches, brixed the juice from those slices and left the remaining fruit on the counter for about 3 days. After a day, the peaches were still sitting there, the cuts having healed and dried over. We expected the fruit to spoil at those cuts and turn into a soupy mess. They remained intact for 3 days, cut open and at room temperature before we couldn’t stand it any longer and ate them. They were sweet and juicy and delicious.

Only smaller growers who can talk to their customers directly and educate them as to how to treat the airy Suncrest can grow them; like us, like you. You need to check them daily to see how they’re doing but, don’t let them linger too long, they must be eaten promptly or else you’ll lose them. Don’t refrigerate them at all if you can avoid it and only when they are good and ripe. And when you’re ready to eat them, gently rub the fuzz off with a damp towel.

The deliciousness of the Suncrest is fleeting, it’s amazing when it happens but it is elusive. You have it; then it’s gone like a flash of lightning or a good idea.
*** CSA Members – Packing day has arrived and we’ve decided that the Zee Lady peaches are ready. We hope you will enjoy them this week!