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THIS WEEK’S FRUIT
Golden Sweet Apricots
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
Following up two of our largest varieties is the Golden Sweet, 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. An- other California born and bred variety, it has a brilliant golden orange skin with a soft blush.
Gold Dust Peaches
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
The Gold Dust is one of our favorites and the first truly outstanding peach of the season for eating out of hand. An heirloom variety, it is low in acid and smaller than most of our peaches. Its juicy, melting texture and sweetness can hardly be beat
Jade White Nectarines
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
White-fleshed nectarines, the Jade’s subtle sweetness and low acidity makes them a great contrast to our early-season yellow nectarines.
June Glo Nectarines
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
An early season, yellow fleshed nectarine that is semi-freestone and full of flavor. Another great fruit by Flyod Zaiger.
Santa Rosa Plums
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
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 bal- ances out the sweetness.
A NOTE FROM FARMER AL
Summer?
Is summer finally here? Reports are that tomorrow it will be hot! Meanwhile, we’ve been enjoying the coolest month of May that I can ever remember. Working conditions have been cool, chilly even, when we start the day at 6:00am. It’s had a chilling effect on the fruit as well. After our earliest start ever (we picked Apache apricots in late April) we’re now actually behind last year by a week on the start pick dates of each variety.
The irony of all of this is that just as the weather heats up, we’re now facing curtailments of our precious irrigation water by the state of California. Our “pre-1914” status, which has protected our water rights in the previous droughts, isn’t enough to help us now. Our 100 year old grandfather privilege has been usurped by the millions of residents who’ve migrated to California in recent decades. Apparently, these folks are fine with food grown somewhere else, such as Mexico and Chile. Their bowls are still full of food from the local Safeway, etc, even though California farms are relegated to Dust Bowl status.
But Frog Hollow farm will survive. Last year we drilled a 400 ft. deep well, which isn’t a great source of water, but will at least give us enough to keep the trees alive if we have to use it. We won’t use it if we don’t have to because the ground water here contains unhealthy levels of boron and some high levels of other minerals.
The good-but-not-great news is that our irrigation district, BBID (Byron Bethany Irrigation District) has made deals with neighboring districts (who apparently have even stronger rights than BBID) to purchase some
of their water. But it’ll require construction of pipelines and installation of pumps, valves, etc at a very high cost. Our water, which has been relatively inexpensive, will now be about 20 times more costly.
Nevertheless, the pace of picking is intensifying no matter what. This week features a delightful diversity of fruits: Golddust peaches, Goldensweet apricots, June glo Nectarines, Jade Nectarines, and Santa Rosa Plums
