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THIS WEEK’S FRUIT

 Hass Avocado
Churchill-Brenneis Orchard, Ojai, CA
Creamy in texture, nutty in flavor, with a small to medium seed. The Hass skin is easy to peel and darkens from green to purplish-black as it ripens.

Fuji Apple
 Rider & Sons, Watsonville, CA
Fujis are a cross between Red Delicious and Ralls Janet, an heirloom apple dating back to Thomas Jefferson. They are one of the sweetest variety apples around making them a household favorite.

Navel Orange
Twin Girls Farm, CA
California Navel Oranges are considered to be the best Navels for eating out of hand. They have a thick skin that is easy to peel, are seedless and have a meaty and sweet flesh that makes them a perfect snack.

 Flame Grapefruit
Apricot Lane, Moorpark, CA
The Grapefruit is said to be a cross between the Jamaican sweet orange and the Indonesian pomelo, first documented in 1750. The skin of the Flame has a more yellow hue than the Ruby Grapefruit, but you’ll still find the same aromatic juicy flesh with a perfect sweet tart flavor inside.

Pixie Tangerine
Churchill-Brenneis Orchard, Ojai, CA
Pixie tangerines are a late season variety that begin ripening in March and April. Their tough skin gives way to fruit with a very robust flavor.

A NOTE FROM FARMER WILL

Hi CSA Members!

I hope all of you are well! Things on the farm are sunshine-y and bright! Our veggie production is ramping up smoothly and I can’t believe how big the fruit on some of the trees  is already. I’m relaxing on the porch after a solid morning of hoeing weeds around our kale and fennel and fixing irrigation lines (because I invariably cut irrigation lines when I hoe weeds). One of these days I’ll pull the drip tape away from the rows before I start going after weeds… but today was not that day. Anyway, the veggie field is looking pretty spiffy… the weeds are mostly under control and the ground is set for more and more planting. Virgilio’s crew and I planted beets, more leeks, more shallots and some red onions yesterday. Next week we’ll plant the lettuce that’s just been taken out of the greenhouse to harden off. Up after that will be swiss chard, and then corn, basil, cucumbers and summer squash… we are at the very beginning of what looks like will be a beautiful season.

We’ve been putting a lot of thought into a vegetable CSA share for this season, and we’ve decided that we are going to offer about a dozen mixed veggie boxes per week as Add-Ons  to test the water. We will have plenty of variety to offer by mid-May and enough to last all summer and into the winter – so be on the look out because it’ll be first come, first serve!

I’m learning that there are many different ways to farm. Ultimately, this whole farming thing  boils down to running a business. How a farmer decides to sell their product determines how they have to grow it.

If a farmer wants to grow produce for chefs or CSA members, then an entire field’s worth of a crop cannot be planted and harvested at the same time. It has to be spaced out according to when there is demand for that product. Chefs or CSA members or farmers market shoppers don’t want an enormous amount of produce all at once (usually). Calculating the time and space required to meet a certain yield estimate to meet a predicted demand is not so straightforward. And to have a variety of different products available at the same time over a long period of time means that planting and harvesting must be done in succession and at a given rate.

This is very challenging, and yet there are fantastic growers and companies out there that do this every day. I’m no expert yet, but I’m learning and know this is going to be a great season at Frog Hollow for vegetables!

Wishing you the best,

Will