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This week’s fruit:
Rainier Cherries
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
A well-known variety, the Rainier is the only white cherry we grow. Plump, delicious and with an extremely sweet creamy flesh, they’re best eaten out of hand. Their distinctive flavor lends for a unique eating experience.
Crimson Lady Peaches
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
The Crimson Lady is the first peach variety off the tree at Frog Hollow. It has a firm texture that is more springy than meltingly juicy. It’s sweet with little acid making it a real favorite with the kids. The Crimson Ladies are one of our favorite peaches to dry. Look for them in another month in the add-ons section to taste how uniquely chewy and delicious they are in their dried form. Peaches will keep on coming from here on out until Fall.
Fuji Apples
Cuyama, New Cuyama, 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.
Next week we hope to be harvesting and packing our apricots. Stay tuned!
…all varieties are subject to change…
News of the Week:
I seldom mention it, but wildlife abounds here on Frog Hollow Farm. It’s a profound part of my daily enjoyment as I drive or walk (mostly driving my golf cart these days) through the farm to see how everything is doing. For me the day begins at dawn, or earlier (first light) with a cup of coffee out on a rise above the 20 acres of peaches we planted last year. Recently, I counted six barn owls cruising and swooping over the one year old trees, in search of prey. Hopefully, they’re finding gophers to feed their young… To build up and support the barn owl populations we built barn owl boxes for them to nest in. These nesting boxes are very sturdy wooden rectangles 2 feet long, 1 1.2 feet wide and 15 inches tall, mounted on a metal pole 18 feet above the ground and anchored in cement. We’ve got five of them scattered over the new 20 acre peach block along with one bat box. The owl boxes are definitely working! There’s also a pair of (male and female) Red Tail Hawks nesting in a trio of a giant eucalyptus trees. These trees are massive! Their trunks are about 6 feet in diameter. They’re well over 100 years old and probably that many feet tall. Today, Becky and I ran into our neighbor, Gary, who was out there looking at the nest with his binoculars. Gary is a falconer, and he’s hoping to capture these young red tails to train as his falcon. There are dozens of other species of birds. We often see ducks swimming in the irrigation canal. Storks, cranes and great blue herons. Friday, I saw a half-dozen crows ganging up on one of the red tail hawks. They rush the cruising hawk and dive bomb it, screeching and cawing, and harassing it until they drive it away from their territory. We also have coyote, weasels, foxes, and gopher snakes. Come to think of it, many critters are here because of the gophers. The Hawks and owls eat the gophers and so do the coyotes, weasels and snakes. We’re so glad we have them, helping us keep the gopher population under control.
Organically yours,
Farmer Al
