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This Week’s Fruit:
Shinko Asian Pear
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
The Shinko has a round shape which is slightly flattened.
The skin is bronze with brown russeting and its juicy,
creamy white flesh has a subtly rich flavor. One of the last
pears to pick, it comes off the tree with a butterscotch
note to its sweetness.
Pink Lady Apples
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
Pink Lady’s are a cross between the Golden Delicious and
Lady Williams. They are a crisp and juicy apple with a tart
finish. Pink skins and a creamy white colored flesh that
resists browning make this an excellent apple for salads
and slicing.
Warren European Pear
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
This is Frog Hollow Farm’s signature pear and for good
reason. Too difficult to grow for most farmers to consider
it’s nevercaught on commercially but Farmer Al has never
shied awayfrom putting the time and effort into a fruit
that tastes so good.It has a classic European texture, very
soft and juicy with asilky sweetness that avoids the typical
grittiness found in most pears.
Pomegranate
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
Native to the regions of Persia and the Western Himalayan
range, pomegranates have been cultivated for several
millennia. When sliced open a beautiful array of jewel-like
seeds are displayed. The aril is the colorful casing that
surrounds the edible seeds and has a sweet tart flavor.
Enjoy the arils alone or use them in salads, desserts, or
beverages.
Fuyu Persimmon
Frog Hollow Farm, Brentwood, CA
The Fuyu has a crisp texture with a rich honey sweet
flavor. They have a beautiful orange to red hue when ripe,
often with tiny brown speckles on the skin. They can be
eaten out of hand with skin on or peeled.
A Note From Farmer Al:
Dear CSA Members,
The workload continues….now it’s the olives! The
Indian summer heat is ripening the olives faster
than I would have expected so I’ve brought in some
contract workers to get the job done. They’re not
nearly as good at picking olives as my Tree Team
regulars are but they’re really nice people, all from
Brentwood, and hopefully, they’ll get better as the
days go by. Cooler weather this coming week will
also help.
We’ll be delivering our first load to McEvoy Ranch
early tomorrow morning. It’ll be about a 4 1/2 tons
of olives which should yield about 150 gallons of oil.
We’re completely out of last year’s oil so this new
oil will come just in time.
The other exciting news is that I’ve recently leased
20 acres in nearby Byron to plant almonds. This will
be a new crop for us but much needed. Almonds
are a very healthy food and everybody loves them.
So we’re preparing the ground now with oyster shell
limestone and deep-ripping the soil. Then we disc
the field about four times to create nice loose soil
to more easily plant the trees. Finally, before winter
rains come, we will install the irrigation system.
Timing is everything and it all has to happen before
it rains because once it starts raining in earnest like
it did last year on December 1st, you cannot get
back on the field to do all this vital pre-planting
preparation.
So the pressure is on….!
