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Fruit of the Week:
Cal Red Peaches
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
The beloved Cal Red is in a class by itself and is the “Oh my God” peach! A relatively new variety and a California native, the Cal Red was bred by University of California botanist Claron O. Hesse in the mid 1960s. Aptly named for the Golden State, the Cal Red is a beautiful golden peach marked with a gentle, sun-kissed blush. Our best-selling variety, Cal Red fans mark their calendars to eagerly await harvest each year.
Hosui Asian Pear
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
Hosuis are very sweet with a mild pear taste, their round shape and beautiful golden hue make them ideal for presentation! They have a rougher skin than the other Asian pear varieties we grow. They have a flesh that while still crunchy has a more melting mouthful, making the texture combination when eaten out of hand spectacular.
Emerald Beaut Plum
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
A freestone plum, the Emerald Beaut is a delicate green that turns golden with a hint of a blush. It has a firmer texture than the Santa Rosa with a crisp almost crunchy mouthfeel. One of our most hardy fruit, the Emerald Beaut just gets sweeter and sweeter without losing texture as it ages.
Red Flame Seedless Grapes
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
Enjoy these out of hand or try them in green salads, chicken salads, or fruit salads. Grapes can be enjoyed from the counter within a few days of receiving your box or refrigerated to enjoy them further into the week.
Flavor King Pluots
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
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. (see this week’s recipe!)
…all varieties are subject to change…
News of the Week:
Dear CSA Members,
Even the though the daytime temperatures are supposed
to soar again next week, the nights are getting cooler and it’s
signaling the end of our dried fruit production. Time is running
out …we must push to produce as many dried Cal Reds as we can
for the next 2 weeks, while the next heat wave keeps daytime
temperatures high that will offset the cool nights and morning dew
that’s starting to appear.
We are way behind on our dried fruit production this year.
We only have a few weeks left and we have only produced about
a third of what we’d hoped. We simply did not have the people
power this summer.
We began to feel the shortage when it was time thin the crop.
We were able to piece together a crew of women who were mostly
the wives of our field crew. They did a fabulous job and we could
get the peaches,pears and nectarines thinned (more on that in the
Farm Focus). When they were done thinning it was time to start
picking and packing cherries. By being able to offer work in early
Spring, we were able to secure them for the rest of the summer to
work in the packing shed.
The shortage of labor in the picking and orchard crews have
kept us scrambling all summer; pulling people from the packing
shed and loading area to the orchard to pick fruit before we’d lose
it. It’s been a constant juggling act, this week being the craziest
of all with the picking of Cal Reds and an unprecedentedly huge
Warren Pear crop. Because we couldn’t get them picked as fast as
we should have, we lost a good thousand pounds or so of pears to
a freak wind storm. They were ripe and ready to drop, and so they
did.
Still, we are lucky. But even with a solid crew of folks who
work for us all year round, and manywho return year after year,
we definitely are feeling the labor shortage. Of course, we know
why, the ongoing battle about our immigration policies is taking
its toll. We’ve all heard the horror stories of crops rotting in the
fields of California. With our season dwindling, we can breathe a
sigh of relief, butwith more people leaving for Mexico than arriving
from Mexico, our California labor force will dwindle further, causing
huge losses to farmers and increased prices to consumers. What
happens this winter and next spring remains to be seen. We will
most likely enroll in the H-2A program that will allow us to bring in
temporary agricultural workers next season.Tough times like these
make us grateful for our Frog Hollow community of employees,
customers and you, our CSA members.
Regards,
Chef Becky
