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This Week’s Fruit:

Flavor Treat Pluot
One of our last stone-fruits of the season, the Flavor Treats are reddish-purple over tender, yellow flesh that’s extremely juicy.

Seckle Pears
A varietal that pre-dates the Bosc, the Seckel is much smaller in size and finds its origins near Philadelphia in the early 1800s. Also known as sugar pears, the Seckel is green with a dark-red blush or in some cases nearly all red. It’s extremely sweet with almost no acid and its fine flesh is very juicy.

Warren Pears
The Warren is to our pears as the Cal Red is to our peaches and the Flavor King to our pluots. This is Frog Hollow Farm’s signature pear and for good reason. It has a great origin story, discovered by Thomas Oscar Warren growing naturally outside a post office in Hattiesburg, MS. Too difficult to grow for most farmers to consider it’s never caught on commercially but Farmer Al has never shied away from putting the time and effort into a fruit that tastes so good. It has a classic European texture, very soft and juicy with a silky sweetness that avoids the typical grittiness found in most pears.

Hosui Asian Pears
The Hosui is popular in both Japan and in California. They have a rougher, thicker skin than other Asian pears with flesh that while still crunchy has a more melting mouthful, making the texture combination when eaten out of hand spectacular. Very juicy and sweet with a milder pear taste, their round shape and beautiful golden hue make them ideal for presentation with a distinctively Autumnal feel.

Flame Seedless Grapes
Firm, large, and sweet the Flame Seedless are one of the most popular varieties in North America. Enjoy these out of hand or try them in green salads, chicken salads, or fruit salads.

A Note from Farmer Al

Report from the Field

Dear CSA Members,

As the picking season gradually winds down, the field work picks up with lots to do to get ready for next year and beyond.

The “tree team” has finished pruning about half of the apricots, which are a total of 26 acres,roughly 20% of our total acreage. We have high hopes pinned on our 2014 apricot crop. After suffering devastating losses of our apricots two consecutive years, in 2010 and 2011, we’ve had two great years in 2012 and 2013. But I’ll never, ever, forget the horror of the 2012 disaster,witnessing our beautiful snowy white blossoms turn a ghastly brown-black overnight following a warm tropical rain. It was after that 2012 experience with “Brown Rot Blossom Blight” that I decided to put huge resources into our compost program. The goal is to change the ecology of the soil and the biosphere of the trees themselves with lots of compost and compost tea.

This year we are also adding 2-4 tons per acre of calcium which will open up the soil (for better aeration and better water penetration, creating better environment for both tree roots and the microbes which nurture them)!

So, while the “tree team” prunes, the “ground team” grinds up those pruning’s into the shredded woody material which provides the foundation for good fungally dominant compost. Last week we were lucky to find another nearby source of wood to grind up. Our neighbor Jim has eight acres of cherry trees he’s converting to organic, and he asked us if we would take all the prunings. This is a big bonanza for us. As we ramp up our compost production we’ll need an increasing and on-going supply of woody materials (carbon). Our next challenge will be acquiring a reliable nitrogen source.

We would love to get it from you, our CSA members. Your coffee grounds and kitchen waste would be one possible source. Logistics is the only obstacle….getting it back to the farm from your homes. We’ll work on a solution. Meanwhile, I invite you all to put your thinking caps on, get creative, and offer suggestions!