Fruit and News: Week of June 17th 2013

This Week’s Fruit

Golden Sweet Apricots
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. A California born and bred variety, it has a brilliant golden orange skin with a soft blush.

Flavor Crest Peaches
Its a well-known peach whose attractiveness and bold sweetness makes it the third most widely planted fresh-market peach in California. Flavor Crests at Frog Hollow enjoy more time on the branch to fully develop their distinctive sweetness.

June Red Nectarines
A new variety with bright red skin and yellow flesh. The June Reds are sweet with a melting texture.

Santa Rosa Plums
Famed California horticulturist Luther Burbank bred this plum in his Santa Rosa plant research center. Red-skinned with a purple bloom, its amber flesh gets flushed with red. It’s plump perfection with tender flesh that’s extremely sweet and juicy. A bit of tartness in the skin balances out the sweetness.

Albion Strawberries
Yerena Farm, Watsonville, CA
The Albion is a newer variety strawberry developed at UC Davis. It is ever bearing and usually produces fruit June – October in the Bay Area. The sweet flavor and firm flesh makes the Albion an excellent dessert or preserving berry. Strawberry jam or pie anyone?

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.
The strawberries will remain firm, bright, and flavorful for several days if you refrigerate them when you bring them home.

A Note From Farmer Al

Dear CSA,

A Happy Fathers’ Day to all fathers out there! I hope you’re enjoying a delicious breakfast with lots of Frog Hollow Farm fruit! I am sitting outside enjoying a very peaceful quiet Sunday morning, no wind, warm but not too much, two hummingbirds hovering round a yellow rose bush, and lots of different bird sounds coming in from all around; a rooster from the farm next door and a cluster of guinea hens cackling a little nervously, no doubt reacting to some perceived threat.

There are a thousand shades of green all around me in ten thousand shapes and patterns. Green has a soothing psychological effect on us humans. The symbol of the natural world and of fertility, green also represents tranquility, good luck and health. There is no question in my mind that it has a calming effect and that it helps relieve stress as I sit here outside surrounded by dozens of different species of trees in all their greenness.

I am looking forward to the afternoon with friends; one of my oldest from high school and a new friend from the Ferry Plaza farmers’ market and with my family; my darling daughters and my lovely wife, and good wine to go with the Mediterranean mussels, or as John Rowley calls them to “peaches of the sea” and the oysters we’ll be feasting on today. Hmmm…must be time to go for a walk to work up an appetite.

I hope you all enjoy and “green” and delicious Fathers’ Day as well.

Cheers,

Signature of Farmer Al

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