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This week’s Fruit:
Minneloa Tangelos
Twin Girls Farm, Dinuba, CA
The Tangelo is a cross between a mandarin and grapefruit. Its
skin is easy to peel and its flesh is a deep orange, tender and
juicy with a rich and sweet tart flavor.
Murcot Mandarins
Twin Girls Farm, Dinuba, CA
Murcott Mandarins are a cross between a sweet orange and a
tangerine. They are known for their rich flavor and deeply hued
flesh and juice. Their small size and sweet juice makes them a
favorite with little ones.
Navel Oranges
Olsen Organics, Lindsay, 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 sweet flesh that makes them a
perfect snack.
Hass Avocado
Churchill-Brenneis Orchards, 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 pur-
plish-black as it ripens.
Fuji Apples
Cuyama Farm, 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.
Star Ruby Grapefruit
EcoFarm, Temecula, Ca
The Grapefruit is said to be a cross between the Jamaican
sweet orange and the Indonesian pomelo, first documented in
1750. Under its thick, red-blushed skin you’ll find an aromatic,
ruby red, juicy flesh with a perfect sweet tart flavor.
Note from Farmer Al:
Happy Easter. And such a beautiful one. Wildflow-
ers are blooming everywhere in the orchard paint-
ing splashes of color on the deep green grass. My
favorites are the California poppy, glowing golden in
the warm late afternoon sunlight.
And the “Ray Hawthorn” Ceanothus are spectacu-
lar this year. Fifteen feet tall and equally round they
are covered in lavender blue flowers so intense that
they mesmerize the imagination, even as their many
bee visitors beckon you to stop stay a while and
daydream.
All this beauty is almost enough to make me forget
the harsh treatment of nature, but then I drive up
and down the many rows of Goldensweet apricots,
and struggle in vain to find even one piece of fruit
on any tree. Reality returns as I realize that our crop
isn’t there and a deep disappointment sets in. And
to add insult to injury, the apricots are infected with
brown rot fungus again this year! So we’ll have to
meticulously prune it out or it will be even worse
next year.
I love apricots and I’m planting lots more of them
on new ground. And praying that climate change
will not prove that apricots are just never going to
be a good fruit to grow here.
Farmer Al
