Fresh this week
The Snowchaser variety ranks in our top three fave blueberries, EASY. Two weeks ago, we got the very first harvest of these for the fan club. It cleaned Coastal Moon out and the plants needed a week to recover since they’re just starting to produce for the season. 🙂 This week, the flavor is insanely good! With a deeply rich blueberry flavor, it’s hard to imagine they only keep getting better! This year, the Snowchasers aren’t sizing up to be the quarter-sized berries they were last year and the yield is predicted to be a little lower. But should we be so lucky, we’ll see Snowchasers into mid-May. Grown organically by Coastal Moon in Watsonville.
To eat a pomelo in December and then experience a pomelo that’s been hanging on the tree until March is magic. The Chandlers are the last pomelos standing. The juices have been absorbed into each pulp vesicle, making the flesh so plump and the flavor so tasty. Growing up, we ate pomelos in March because they were sitting on the altar from the Lunar New Year celebrations. For my family, gifting fruit was the norm and cutting, peeling, and prepping fruit was the love language. And the laborious act of peeling a pomelo might have been the most significant. My grandma would score and peel back the thick-pithy peel, separating each segment, and remove the membrane to reveal the soft, pink flesh. Just a couple weeks ago, I savored a sweet moment of peeling a pomelo for her in return. Store on the counter. Grown organically by Murray Family Farm in Bakersfield.
Cathy from Spreadwing reached out to say that they wanted to do *one more* harvest of their Washington Navel oranges before calling it for citrus season. We realized that we shouldn’t declare the “end” of the season for any fruit we bring in because of situations like these – ha! We were mourning what we thought was the end of them two weeks ago, so we’re pretty excited about this surprise! The only downside (and upside) is these are the sweetest they’ll ever be all season long: completely fully-sugared with no acid. But it’s a cool way to celebrate the end of the Navel orange season! The “orange market” has moved to Valencia oranges now, a just-fine eating variety imo and better for juicing. So to get a freshly harvested Washington Navel grown in Northern California? We’re savoring every one of these. Store on the counter. Grown organically by Spreadwing Farm in Rumsey.
We’ve scheduled a third check-in on late-season citrus with these Minneola tangelos. Early season, they were bracing in their acidity. A month ago, the sugars had shown up as a counterweight to the tartness. And now, they’re something else entirely. With fully realized sugars, these tangelos taste nearly like a straight mandarin! Enjoy the flavor timelapse. 🙂Store on the counter. Grown organically by Murray Family Farm in Bakersfield.
We’ve been loving Jill’s Hayward kiwis this season. It’s really brightened up the winter variety alongside the citrus bounty! There’s not many kiwi growers of Jill’s size that sell direct to market. Even kiwi growers with similar acreage (less than 10 acres) will move their crop through a packing shed and have it sold under a bigger label. Many California kiwi operations are concentrated in the northern Sacramento Valley and Chico area. With Jill’s kiwi vines situated just a few miles inland from the coast, they get the gentler fall nights where flavor really has time to develop. Jill’s Haywards are harvested months after most growers harvest their kiwi crop, with flavors fully developed and texture at its prime. We love Jill’s kiwis, and it’s been a great crop this season! Store on the counter. Grown sustainably by Four Sisters Farm in Aromas.
We couldn’t resist putting these Hass avocados in the boxes this week. Perfectly ripened to peak creaminess, these Hass avocados are making us feel springtime in California. When we visited Rainbow Ranch in Ojai last month, we caught Farmer Chris’ herd of sheep hanging out in the avocado grove with branches loaded with fruit. Using an intensive mulching system and a herd of sheep to graze the orchard, the soil at Rainbow Ranch felt like the richest, most fertile earth underneath our feet. Chris’ avocado trees make up two acres on his beautiful Ojai property. Because we see avocados year-long at grocery stores, it’s easy to overlook how remarkable the California avocado season is. The fruit is incomparable. Grown organically by Rainbow Ranch in Ojai.
Encore appearances
We introduced cherimoyas at the beginning of February when they were just starting up at Good Land Organics. These Booth cherimoyas are farmer Jay Ruskey’s second most-common variety. There’s so much to appreciate about cherimoyas but perhaps the most incredible thing is the labor-intensive work of hand-pollinating each flower in order for it to bear a proper fruit-set. Visiting farmer Jay last week, he told us that cherimoyas bloom in July or August. But the window of opportunity is short. Cherimoyas are unusual in that the flowers exhibit protogyny. This means the flower starts its bloom with female parts and a few hours later transforms to male parts. This means Jay & the crew need to properly time the bloom to collect the pollen (male) and then apply on the receptive stigma (female) for successful pollination. This transformation fluctuates based on temperature and humidity, too. Wow! We’re so lucky to be eating this magical fruit. Cherimoya season is nearly coming to an end so we’re holding onto every bite of these swirling flavors of banana, papaya, and pineapple. Keep the cherimoya on your counter until it yields to gentle pressure (like an avocado) and it’ll be ready to eat. We like to cut it in half and use a spoon to scoop the flesh out, while dodging the black seeds. Store these on the counter but chill in the fridge before eating! Grown organically by Good Land Organics in Goleta.
