fruit notes
An apricot, in September!? I was just as surprised as you! Farmer Tree of Cloverleaf Farm called and suggested we try some of his Late Brittany apriums – that, this season, the flavor made them worth sharing. He says that, most years, they are ho-hum and nothing to get excited about. But this year, they’re pretty good! It’s an aprium but it has more apricot characteristics than plum. This fruit is an oddball, three months late to the party, but it tastes like a classic. When you learn that its apricot parent is the beloved (and classic!) Patterson apricot, it starts to come together. Early summer, when I was eating apricots and apriums left and right, feels like forever ago. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like there’s never a proper goodbye to apricots. Just as apricot season begins to wrap up, the parade of summer fruit begins, stealing the show. Tasting these Late Brittany apriums is like seeing an old friend, maybe one you didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to, who you welcome with open arms. Store on the counter. Grown organically by Cloverleaf Farm in Dixon.
The Indian Free peach is an heirloom peach, rich in flavor and highly aromatic. Its fuzzy skin gives way to a gorgeous flesh: raspberry red in some years, and cream streaked with crimson in others. It’s special because it’s a heat-loving latecomer, ripening only after the rest of the white peaches have come and gone. And it’s easily the highest-acid white peach around! With some time to further ripen on the counter and soften, it becomes juicy and extremely sweet. This heirloom varietal may have arrived via Southern France over 200 years ago, borrowing a name from a lookalike peach along the way. Or perhaps its parent was introduced by the Spanish over 400 years ago, and then nurtured by indigenous peoples for generations. It would have been the rare peach that could be propagated by seed, helping it spread from central Mexico to the lands of the Cherokee. Its origins are murky: a bit of mystery mixed with rumor and speculation. It’s a fitting ambiguity for such an unusual peach. Store these on the counter. Grown organically by Free Spirit Farm in Winters.
The countdown begins! Every week in September that we’re eating a melon from Sun Tracker Farm may be the last. Early in the spring, Carine and Robert begin to sow seeds in the greenhouse. They sow multiple successions, planting seeds weeks apart, so they will have melon plants at different stages of maturity and melons ripening steadily for months. Even with careful planning for a whole long melon season, weather sometimes – often – throws everything off. When the Capay Valley saw multiple heat waves in late July, multiple successions that were intended to ripen over several weeks ripened all at once. This meant LOTS of melons in early August, and a bit of a gap in the weeks that followed. Now in the waning days of summer, the steady warm weather means the plants are producing delicious melons. Carine and Robert continue to harvest them expertly, perfect and ripe for us to enjoy. The Orchid watermelons are great this week: honey-sweet, crisp, and refreshing. Store in the fridge. Grown organically by Sun Tracker Farm in Guinda.
For me, September means Elephant Heart plums. They arrive late to the scene with their deeply-dark dappled skin and bright red flesh. As with many plums, and the Elephant Heart plums in particular, they benefit from post-harvest ripening on the counter. The juiciness finds its way, the astringency fades a bit, and the flesh softens nicely. At their peak, they have a distinctive richness that’s just begging to be turned into a tart or an upside-down cake. Elephant Heart plums are one of Luther Burbank’s varieties released in the 1920s. A century later, it’s still sought-after at the end of summer. Store on the counter. Grown organically by Free Spirit Farm in Winters.
We’re nearing the end of peach season but there are still a few good-tasting varieties left to enjoy. This week, Kaweah yellow peaches from Hayley and Jesse at Double Wild Farm are incredibly tasty. They sport a beautiful red color across the skin, a freestone, and a wonderful balance of sugar and acid! The texture of the skin is also distinctively snappy. I enjoy most peaches sliced up but there’s something about the dense flesh, rich flavor, and tasty skin of the Kaweah peach that makes me want to eat it whole, out of hand. Store on the counter. Grown organically by Double Wild Farm in Oroville.
We haven’t had Chandler strawberries for most of July and August because the plants weren’t producing enough fruit for Jim to send us any. Swanton had just enough for the farm stand. Chandler strawberries are June-bearing which means they produce the bulk of their crop in the spring. At Swanton Berry Farm in Davenport, this usually happens at the end of May and first week of June. In July and August, the plants are still producing flowers and fruit but at a much slower rate. After the heat waves in early August, Jim told us that there were lots of flowers on the plants which meant berries were coming! We’re now seeing that small flush of berries – still limited but just enough to send us a little taste. Store in the fridge. Grown organically by Swanton Berry Farm in Davenport.
A few weeks ago, we visited John and Casey at Lagier Ranches in Escalon to see how they were coming along. We trekked out to the vineyard to taste and test the grapes. In addition to sensory evaluation – plain ol’ tasting, personal fave – measuring the grapes’ sugar levels helps give you a sense of how far out from harvest you are. John explained that you can typically expect the grapes to gain two degrees Brix – a measure of sugar concentration – each week. We picked a sample and crushed the berries, catching their juice in a paper cup. The digital refractometer wasn’t working, so John and I took turns with the analog tool, a device with a lens on one end and a glass plate that holds a drop of juice on the other. We looked like navigators gazing through a spyglass at the sugary horizon. Testing (and tasting) across multiple rows showed that the Bronx needed a couple more weeks to come into their own. Now they’re finally here, and they’re incredible. The thin skins are painted with pale greens and pinks – ethereal is the word I keep coming back to. It’s hard to believe they could taste as good as they look. But behind the skin is a juicy burst of flavor, wild sugars with just enough acidity to set it off, and a complexity matching the color’s nuance. With only 2-3 weeks in the season, the window is short. Enjoy :) Store in the fridge. Grown organically by Lagier Ranches in Escalon.
