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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 purplish-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 in1750. Under i ts thick, red-blushed skin you’ll find an aromatic, ruby red, juicy flesh with a perfect sweet tart flavor.
….all varieties are subject to change……
A Note from Farmer Al
Dear CSA Members,
People meet want to know how this April rain affects our crops. The answer is “it’s all good!”
1) Free Irrigation. At this stage of growth that’s a big deal. It frees up lots of manpower for weed control. Weed control, for us, is weed-whacking, which is very labor intensive, especially this year of rampant read growth in the wake of all these spring rains we’ve been getting.
2) Free Nitrogen. Rainwater picks up nitrogen as it passes through the atmosphere (which is composed of 75% nitrogen in various forms), which is absorbed directly into the leaves of the trees. I’ve always noticed a flush of dark green growth right after a rain.
3) Free Mildew Control. Powdery Mildew is a big problem on peaches, nectarines, and plums. It causes ugly cosmetic scarring on the skins of the fruit. Normally we have to spray some kind of sulfur (allowed by organic rules) to prevent it. The rain actually scrubs off the mildew spores from the skin of the fruits.
So yes, I’m very thankful for all this rain. It also gives me the opportunity to catch up on the never-ending burden of paperwork piling up on my desk.
All the best,
Farmer Al
