This Week’s Fruit

Pink Lady Apples & Fuji Apples Cayuma Orchards, New Cayuma, CA A cross between the Golden Delicious and Lady Williams, the Pink Lady is a crisp and juicy apple with a tart finish. A creamy white colored flesh that resists browning makes this an excellent apple for salads and slicing. Also a modern day favorite for eating out of hand. A cross between the Golden Delicious and Lady Williams, the Pink Lady is a crisp and juicy apple with a tart finish. A creamy white colored flesh that resists browning makes this an excellent apple for salads and slicing. Also a modern day favorite for eating out of hand. Fujis are a cross between Red Delicious and Ralls Janet, an heirloom apple dating back to Thomas Jeffrson. Fujis are loved by many for their crisp, sweet, and juicy character. Hayward Kiwi Chiechi Farms, Live Oak, CA Originally known as the Chinese gooseberry due to its Chinese orgins. Hawyward Wright, a New Zealand nurseryman propagated his plants by grafting and they eventually became the preferred cultivar of growers due to their sweet flavor and thin skin. Navel Oranges Olsen Organic Farms, 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 meaty and sweet flesh that makes them a perfect snack. Navels are also great for juicing and cooking. Meyer Lemons Native to China, Meyers are a cross between a lemon and either a mandarin or a true orange. Their round shape and smooth rind encases an often orange hued flesh that is sweeter and more subtle than your common lemon. Meyer lemons are wonderful for cooking, baking, and an assortment of beverages. Taccoro Blood Oranges A beautiful orange to deep red flesh is revealed when you slice open a Tarocco. The flesh of the blood orange is firmer and more dense than an orange and its flavor is a little more tart. These beauties sweeten and darken in color as the season progresses.

A Note from Farmer Al

Dear CSA Members, The farmers’ market continues to amaze and delight me as such a great gathering place. Every week, almost without fail, for the last 17 years, I can be found at my stall at the Saturday Farmers’ market in San Francisco. Not a week goes by that I don’t meet someone new or see someone from my distant and not-so-distant past. The farmers’ markets may be the new town square of today’s urban life…a place where a community comes together; people meet, new ideas are hatched, deals are made, romances sparked, collaborations formed. Two weeks ago, a woman who had contacted us a couple of years ago looking for advice in starting her own food business, came by our market stall to say hello and thank you. We talked and she brought some of her delicious tomato products. She came back the following week and the next day came to visit the farm. We showed her our tomato seedlings, our kitchen and now we may help her produce her products, a relationship that will be beneficial to both of us. Last week, a produce buyer for a store back east came by to introduce herself. She is the current boss of one of our farmers’ market crew members who moved back east and now works in the retail food business. They are interested in our products and may want to carry them in their store. This same day, a copywriter- turned- blogger friend who also now lives on the east coast, came by to say hello and he wants to write about our olive oil on his blog. Lael, our CSA coordinator was giving a farmers’ market tour for Edible Excursions when she brought a group to our stall. That serendipitous meeting resulted in her coming to work for us. Christophe, the micro-biologist and our “compost master”, shopped and still shops regularly at The Ferry Plaza market. Here, buying fruit and pastries was where he and I first met and our compost program was hatched. Our niece Miranda met her future husband Joe at the Farmers’ market when she was but 15 years old, Miranda started working for us at the Berkeley and Ferry Plaza markets every summer. As the years went by she got to know Joe Schirmer of Dirty Girl Farm. Their relationship incubated for many years before blossoming into romance then flowering into marriage and fruitful with two handsome little future farmers, Charlie and Calvin. Miranda’s brother Toddy also began his career helping us at farmers’ markets, fell in love with food and “ag” and eventually went on to work for Del Cabo Farms and is now one of their top sales people. Food always brings people together, and we hope we can create the same sense of community with you our CSA members as the Farmers’ Market has for us.