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This Week’s Fruit

O’Henry Peaches
The O’Henry has the flavor, size, and crimson blush that makes for a truly memorable peach. It’s elegantly pointed shape slices to an attractive heart shape for striking presentation. Our O’Henry harvest overlaps briefly–a few days to a week-with our harvest of the Cal Red leading to a matchup of two of our biggest varieties. Stay tuned for more information on our Battle of the Peaches!

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.

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.

Flavor Heart Pluots
The Flavor Heart gets its name from its distinctively tapered shape. Its meaty, pale yellow flesh is very low in acid and the sweetness and color contrasts strikingly with its dark purple almost black skin.

Storage Recommendations
During the summer season, we recommend keeping two – three days worth of fruit out on the counter top and storing the rest in the fridge to be enjoyed later in the week.

A Note From Farmer Al

Battle of the Peaches?

Dear CSA Members,

I planted my first Cal Red peaches in January 1978. The first O’Henry’s had been planted two years earlier and long before my first taste of Cal Reds, I loved the O’Henry’s. I thought they were the best fruit I’d ever tasted. I just could not believe that anything could ever surpass the flavor of the O’Henry so you can imagine my surprise when I tasted my first Cal Red. It was like discovering a buried treasure. And they were just that…a treasure right there on my own ground.

Back in those early years I sold all my peaches U-Pick and when u-pickers began to discover the Cal Reds, they went wild. After the first couple of years the demand was amazing; cars would come in caravans, literally droves of people descended on to the farm. Toting 5- gallon buckets out to the orchard, they would return hours later with hundreds of pounds of Cal Reds. It was wonderful to witness.

After we began taking our fruit to the Farmers’ Market, the reaction there was the same. I’ll always remember a happy incident at the Ferry plaza Farmers market, years ago. It was late August and the third week we’d come with Cal Reds. A young woman came rushing up to me, anxiously asking if we still had Cal Reds. I said we did and relieved,she preceded to load up her basket with Cal Reds, exclaiming, “Oh my God, all food should taste this good!”

In fairness, I must give the O’Henry’s their due. Years ago, I was delivering peaches to what was then one of the most celebrated restaurants in San Francisco, Postrio. Delivering to Postrio was always an adventure. After negotiating downtown traffic and double parking, the boxes were loaded onto an elevator located in the sidewalk that descended down into the Postrio kitchen and receiving area, a cramped, noisy and very busy place. It was worth it; the pastry chef at the time Janet loved our peaches and made some dazzling deserts with them. I’d been bringing her O’Henry’s and she raved about them. Confident that she would love the Cal Reds even more, I delivered her the first of the harvest and anticipated the exaltations from her when we would next speak. When she called to order again, I was floored when she cast off the Cal Reds saying they did not have enough acid, “too sweet” she said, and next time, would I please bring her O’Henry’s. To this day it is the only time I’ve ever heard anyone complain about my peaches being too sweet!

I am definitely on the side of the Cal Reds in this so-called “battle”. It really should be re-named “Celebration of the Peaches” since both these varieties make people want to sing and dance with joy!