Frog Hollow Farm

Summer Morning Coffee Cake

2009-07-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

Everyone should have this easy, delicious anytime cake in their kitchen repertoire. You can use any stone fruit with this. Right now, we love it with dainty white Opal peaches.

1 stick (4 oz / 8 tablespoons) butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 tsp ground cardamom, optional but it adds a nice herbal-lemony flavor
1/2 lb peaches, pluots, or nectarines, pitted and sliced into eighths
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with a pinch of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, or cardamom

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter with sugar and salt until fluffy and well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Beat in vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder, and cardamom (if using) together. Stir flour gently into butter mixture. Scrape batter into an 8” x 2” round pan, lightly greased if you plan on unmolding the cake, ungreased if you’re happy eating it right out of the pan. Embed the fruit slices, cut side down, into the surface of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with spiced sugar. Bake for 45- 50 minutes, until the top of the cake is a deep golden brown and the fruit has almost vanished beneath the surface. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Bruschetta with Peach Salsa and Melted Brie

2009-07-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a great appetizer idea using our peaches! Tweet or send us your pictures!

Place the cheese in the freezer for about 20 min for easier cutting. To make this appetizer in advance, you can prepare and refrigerate the salsa up to a day in advance. Toast bread and assemble just before serving.

2 cups chopped peeled peaches (about 4)
3/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper (about 1)
1/4 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Dash of ground red pepper
1 8 ounce French bread baguette, cut into 24 slices
4 ounces chilled Brie cheese, cut into 24 pieces

1. Preheat broiler
2. Combine first 7 ingredients; set aside
3. Arrange bread slices in an even layer on a baking sheet. Top each bread slice with 1 piece of cheese; broil 3 minutes or until cheese melts and bread is toasted. Remove pan from oven. Top each bread slice with about 1 1/2 tablespoons salsa; serve immediately.

Yield 12 servings (serving size: 2 bread slices)

Plum Good

2009-06-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

Right on time with the summer solstice, our slurpy-tangy Santa Rosa plums tell you that summer has truly arrived on the farm. The Santa Rosa, as you might have guessed from the name, is one of the true stars bred by famed California horticulturist Luther Burbank at his plant-breeding research center in Santa Rosa.

Red-skinned with a purple bloom and amber flesh flushed with red, the Santa Rosa is plump plum perfection: sweet with a bit of tartness in the skin, with good texture and lots of juice. These are one of our favorite and most reliable plums of summer - we hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Coming up soon will be our first nectarine of the season, the silky-sweet white beauty Jade. With smooth, fuzzless skin that's splashed magenta over white, Jade is a luscious and fragrant white nectarine that's dripping with sweetness. Slurp!

Mixed fruit dessert with Frog Hollow Farm fruit!

2009-06-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

Just received a great dessert idea from Frog Hollow Farm friend, Diana Fredrich. Here's another great way to use our Frog Hollow Farm fruit!

email from Diana:

I made a dessert on Sunday for a dinner party - and it was a great
hit. I wanted to share with you.

First - I made a vanilla pound cake.

But - I simply sliced up all the beautiful Frog Hollow fruit (and added some Livermore strawberries) into a glass serving bowl.

THEN - I poured about 1 cup of a very good chilled
French Pear Liqueur over the fruit and tossed it,
then chilled it.

I served the fruit over pieces of the pound cake then
topped with fresh whipped cream.

It tasted amazing -
AND - it looked spectacular !!

The next day - we also had the fruit / liqueur over
gourmet vanilla ice cream (delicious).

This sounds amazing and such a great use of local fruit! We'd love to see your pictures of this great use of our fruit and hear about other great ways to enjoy Frog Hollow Farm fruit! Email your photos and ideas to peaches@froghollow.com!

BABY GREENS SALAD WITH GOAT CHEESE & CHERRIES

2009-06-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

Looking for other ways to enjoy our amazing Bing cherries? Here's a great recipe from Frog Hollow Farm's Stephanie J. Rosenbaum.

Baby Greens Salad with Goat Cheese & Cherries

You can also add a tablespoon of chopped fresh herbs to the dressing--try tarragon, basil, chervil, lovage, or parsley.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

1 4-oz log of soft goat cheese (chevre), divided in 4 rounds

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs

5 cups mixed baby greens or salad mix

1 cup halved, pitted cherries

1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, shallot, wine vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Spread bread crumbs on a plate. Roll each round of goat cheese in crumbs until completely coated.

Place on a baking sheet. Bake until cheese is soft but not melted and crumbs are slightly crisp, about 8 minutes.

Toss salad greens and cherries with dressing, turning to coat evenly. Divide onto four plates. Top each plate with toasted almonds and a goat cheese round.

Recipe for Apricot Chicken

2009-06-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

With the recent warm weather, we've had a chance to enjoy our fantastic organic apricots - both the Orange Red and Robada varieties! If you like apricots as much as we do then you'll love this recipe, courtesy of Frog Hollow Farm's very own Becky Courchesne.

Apricot Chicken

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium yellow onions-chopped finely

2 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon dried chilies

¼ teaspoon garam masala

1 whole chicken, cut up 3 to 3 1/2 lbs

1 medium tomatoes –skinned and seeded, or 3 whole canned tomatoes

2 teaspoons salt

2c chicken stock or combination chicken stock and water

¼ teaspoon saffron

2 tablespoons hot milk

1 jar apricot conserve or 6-7 fresh apricots halved and pitted.

Rinse the chicken pieces in cold water then pat dry with a paper towel. Pound the garlic, ginger and dried chilies with 1 teaspoon of the salt into a paste. Sprinkle the saffron over the warm milk and set aside.

In a sauce pan with a tight fitting lid or Dutch oven saute the onions in the olive oil until translucent. Then add the ginger/chili/garlic paste and saute for 2-3 minutes more.

Add the chicken, garam masala, tomatoes and the remaining salt. Add the chicken stock and or water and simmer covered until the chicken is tender and the liquid has reduced to about ½ its original volume (about 45 minutes). Add the milk/saffron and the apricots or apricot conserve. Simmer slowly for 15-20 minutes.

Serve warm over basmati rice with chopped pistachios or almonds.

Yum!

ZenChef's Apricot - Almond Tarts

2009-06-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

Chef / blogger / and Frog Hollow Farm customer, Zen Chef, has posted a great Recipe featuring Frog Hollow Farm's Apricots. You'll love his post - check it out at http://www.zencancook.com/2009/06/apricot-almond-tarts/

ZenChef is a private chef in New York City. His blog, Zen Can Cook, is brilliant and his recipes sound and look amazing! You can follow him on twitter @ZenChef.

Thanks ZenChef!

Tour The Farm!

2009-05-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

We're often asked, but until now have rarely provided the opportunity... We are excited to announce the much anticipated and highly desired - Frog Hollow Farm Tour!

For a limited time, we will be giving a "behind the scenes" tour of Frog Hollow Farm! You'll have the opportunity to taste our mouth-watering fruit right off the trees; walk amongst the orchards and soak in the warm Brentwood sun, and see first-hand where our amazing savories, pastries & conserves are made. This is a great opportunity to really get a feel for what happens at the farm before the legendary fruit arrives at your table!

Each week, we will be selecting the first 20 customers to use the 10% coupon code SMO_09 when making a purchase at froghollow.com. We will be hosting the tours each Friday, 12pm-2pm throughout the summer!

Oh.... don't forget your cameras or camera-phones! The best photos posted to Twitter each week will earn the photographer an Organic-Cotton Frog Hollow Farm T-Shirt!

We look forward to seeing you at the Farm!

Aprium Coffee Cake

2009-05-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

1 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
10 tbsp butter (1 stick + 2 Tbsp), chilled
1 tbsp milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp milk
1 lb apriums, halved

Topping
1 tbsp crème fraîche, heavy cream, or sour cream
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg

Confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9'' cake pan, preferably springform.

In a food processor, quickly pulse the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together. Add butter and pulse until butter looks pebbly and chunky. Add sugar and pulse briefly. Add egg and milk, and pulse until mixture is just combined. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Top with halved apriums.

In a small bowl, beat crème fraîche, sugar and egg. Pour mixture evenly over the top of cake. Bake about 40 minutes, or until golden and the apricots are tender. Turn off the oven and leave cake in the oven for another 10 to15 minutes. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar just before serving.

Stone Furit, At Last!

2009-05-26T11:39:00.000-07:00

No more teasing—stone fruit is here! The weather has cooperated and we started picking our first stone fruits in mid-May. CSA members will find dainty sweet Brooks cherries, which aren’t as big and fleshy as Bings but are still a delicious eating cherry and a welcome harbinger of summer. We’ve also added a few of our first apriums. This hybrid fruit looks and tastes a lot like an apricot, but it’s actually a cross between an apricot and a plum. Its genetic makeup is roughly 70% apricot and 30% plum, just the opposite of the pluot.

Both the aprium and the pluot are the brainchildren of plant breeder Floyd Zaiger of Zaiger’s Genetics in Modesto. Zaiger produced the first aprium, which he dubbed “Honeyrich,” in 1989. Adding some plum into the mixture increased the fruit’s sweetness and juiciness, and the aprium has become a popular early summer fruit, especially in California. Recently, Frog Hollow Farm’s apriums were featured on the menu at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, as part of a chefs’ event called the AlmondInnovation Project. Chefs from across the country were charged with coming up with new almond recipes, and our apriums made a delicious part of several desserts created by Corry Barrett, pastry chef at Lola’s in Cleveland, Ohio.

These first fruits are so tasty, we don’t think they’ll last long enough for you to wonder about storage. But just in case, remember that cherries break down quickly at room temperature, so store in the refrigerator any cherries you’re not eating right away. They’ll last a couple of days, but are always best eaten sooner rather than later. Firm apriums will soften up at room temperature. Leave any particularly firm fruit out on the counter for a day or two until it’s as ripe and soft as you like. Then, eat it or store in the refrigerator. Like any stone fruit, their shelf life, even in the fridge, is brief. If you have extras, try making a quick and easy fruit-topped coffee cake perfect for breakfast, dessert, or a teatime pick-me-up.

On Board the Enterprise

2009-04-26T09:15:00.001-07:00

What's in your box? This week has something new: Enterprise apples. Why Enterprise? For those in the apple-breeding community, there's a secret tip-off: the letters pri tucked into the name Enterprise. PRI stands for the Purdue-Rutgers-Illinois apple breeding program, a horticultural research & development program started in 1945 between Purdue University, Rutgers University, and the University of Illinois-Urbana. To honor the work done at these schools, every new apple bred by the program is tagged by the letters "PRI" somewhere in the name. Other apples have included Prima, Priscilla, Williams Prize, and Pristine.

Enterprise is a particularly tasty late-season apple. It ripens late and goes boldly into cold storage after picking, turning even sweeter and developing more complex flavors after one to two months held just above freezing. First planted in 1982, it has an illustrious parentage combining Rome Beauty, Starking Delicious, McIntosh, and Golden Delicious. A lot of what makes Enterprise valuable, though, isn't visible to the average consumer.

Apples, like just about every commercially developed fruit, are susceptible to all kinds of fungal and bacterial diseases. These can be combated with potent chemical sprays and dusts during the course of the growing season, but a better route, especially for the organic grower, is to get to the root of the problem and breed disease-resistant varieties. Enterprise was bred to resist several common apple diseases, including powdery mildew, scab (which forms unslightly brown patches on the skin), and fireblight (which kills and blackens the tree's limbs). Organic growers are smart to plant these tougher, less susceptible types of trees, since starting out with a tougher tree means less trouble-shooting (and less chance of an orchard ravaged by disease) during the growing season. Tougher trees also mean less chemical interventions, even for non-organic growers. So when you bite into these beautiful apples, take a moment to thank those decades of tireless apple researchers!

Waldorf Salad
Created at New York City's famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1880s, Waldorf Salad is a sweet and crunchy addition to any summer picnic menu.

3 apples, cored and cubed
1 cup thinly sliced celery or cubed jicama
1/2 cup toasted walnuts or pecans, chopped
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes if dry
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream or plain yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar (if needed)
salt and pepper to taste
Romaine lettuce leaves, for serving.

Toss apples, celery, walnuts, and raisins together. In a separate bowl, mix together mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice and sugar (if using). Toss dressing with apple mixture, taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Serve over Romaine lettuce leaves. If making ahead, omit nuts and mix in just before serving.

Hit The Jackpot!

2009-04-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

It may sound like a casino, but this week’s Golden Nugget is actually a juicy, seedless tangerine wrapped in a distinctive lumpy-bumpy skin. In our climate, the Golden Nugget ripens in late January or February but can hold on the tree with no loss of quality through April and May—making it a great “bridge” fruit between winter’s oranges and grapefruits and the not-yet-ripe cherries and apricots of early summer.

Developed at the University of California at Riverside in the mid-70s, the Golden Nugget is a hybrid mandarin variety, resulting from a cross of two tangerines, Wilking and Kincy. The fruit is tart when first ripe, but mellows to sweetness as the fruit hangs on the tree before being picked in the spring. It’s often described as “Pixie-like” for its resemblance to the tiny but popular Pixie mandarin.

Along with your Golden Nuggets, you’ll find blood oranges, ruby grapefruit, kiwis, minneola tangelos, and avocados. As always, your kiwis and avocado will ripen best at room temperature. Once they yield to gentle pressure, store them in the refrigerator. Citrus keeps best (and tastes most refreshing) when stored in the refrigerator. Try using this week’s selection of citrus to make some refreshing juices for cooling off with during this week’s heat wave. Try pouring a mix of blood orange and tangelo juice over chipped ice with a splash of sparkling water.

--SJR

Rain and Oranges

2009-04-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

Be careful what you ask for! No sooner were we talking about the balmy weather and wishing for rain than a storm moved in, giving us a wet and muddy week--much to the delight of our big farm pooch, Noches, who's never happier than when he's got lots of orchard mud to track everywhere. Luckily, the winds weren't too bad and the trees look even healthier for their spring bath.

We hope you enjoyed the spring holiday weekend. At the farm, it's a quiet time, watching and waiting for the next few weeks as the first cherries begin ripening. We can't wait to start putting our own Frog Hollow Farm fruit into your boxes, but there's no hurrying Mother Nature. Look for the first boxes of cherries to arrive in about a month. Once the season starts, though, it will bring with it a steadily growing avalanche of fresh stone fruit, from cherries and apricots through peaches, plums, nectarines, and pluots.

Until, we'll be continuing on with a mix of juicy citrus, kiwi, avocados and the occasional sub-tropical treat like passion fruit or cherimoya from Southern California. This week's recipe is a fast, easy, and healthy fish-and-salsa dish, using a mix of citrus with cilantro and a bit of hot chile. You can also cut the fish into strips and serve it as a taco in warmed tortillas.

Red Snapper with Mexican Citrus Salsa

Adapted from Mark Bittman in the New York Times.
This vibrant citrus salsa makes a great pairing for simply cooked fish. Serve with sliced avocados alongside.

1 orange or tangelo
1 small grapefruit
1 lemon, preferably Meyer lemon
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 habanero or other chili, seeded and minced, or to taste
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons oil
4 red snapper fillets, 4 to 6 ounces each, preferably skin on

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut orange in half horizontally and cut out sections as you would a grapefruit, leaving the membranes behind; do this over a bowl to capture all its juice. Remove seeds and combine flesh and juice in bowl. Repeat with grapefruit and lemon. Stir in habanero and salt, adding cilantro just before serving.
Put oil in a nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium high heat. A minute later, add fish, skin side down; season top with salt. Cook until skin begins to crisp, 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to oven. Cook another 3 or 4 minutes, or until a thin-bladed knife meets little resistance when inserted into thickest part of fish. Serve fish with salsa, immediately.

Around the Farm

2009-04-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

We're enjoying this balmy weather out on the farm, although we would like we would like a little more rain before the dry season sets in. But this mild, warm, and sunny weather is great for the trees as their tiny fruits begin to grow. Excessive wind, rain, or hail can damage the delicate young fruits at this stage, scarring their skins or even knocking them off the branches altogether. So we're hoping this mild weather continues, helping us towards another bumper crop this summer.

The fruit we all love is just one part of what can be used from the tree. At our cafe in San Francisco's Ferry Building, we keep a stash of dried peach leaves on hand to add whenever we make iced tea. The leaves add a delicious subtle fruitiness, and keep well dried or in the freezer. We decorate with eye-catching displays of flowering branches brought in from the orchard.

Smash an apricot pit with a hammer and you'll find a small, tender kernel inside. This kernel is used to give the distinctive bitter-almond flavor to baking extracts and liqueurs like Amaretto. While you shouldn't eat these kernels whole, you can drop a couple of kernels into a batch of apricot jam to give just a hint of almond flavor. Later in the season, as the trees are pruned back, we might load up the barbecue with fragrant, clean-burning apple or cherry wood. (Applewood-smoked bacon is a particular favorite in the Bay Area, and with good reason, since the smoke produced by applewood enhances rather than overwhelms the pork.)

Now is a great time to get ready to preserve some of your summer bounty. Lay in a stock of fresh canning jars (available at many supermarkets and most hardware stores) or get a few big boxes of heavy-duty plastic freezer bags. Whatever you can't eat at its peak can be canned or frozen for later use, when the luscious peaches of July are just a memory.

-SJR

Orange & Passion Fruit Gelatin

2009-04-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

Made with fruit juice and unflavored gelatin, this jiggly dessert has all the slippery fun of Jell-O, but it's actually good for you, without any added sugar or artificial colorings.

2 passion fruit
3/4 cup Bonterra organic muscat wine or other lightly sweet white dessert wine (white grape juice can be substituted)
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange or tangelo juice
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin, such as Knox

Scoop the insides of the passion fruits into a small saucepan, and warm gently. Scoop into a strainer and push the pulp through in a bowl, leaving the seeds behind. Add muscat. Sprinkle on the gelatin. Let gelatin soften for several minutes.
Warm orange juice until just hot but not boiling. Pour into gelatin mixture and stir well until gelatin is dissolved. Pour into bowl and chill for four or five hours or overnight, until firm and set.

Adapted from Good Tempered Food by Tamasin Day-Lewis.

Passionate Fruits?

2009-03-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to its name, the passion fruit shows up on a lot of Valentine's Day menus. But what's passionate about the passion fruit? Well, we hate to disillusion all you romantics out there, but the name has nothing to do with its powers as an aphrodisiac. The fruit of this tropical vine was dubbed the passion fruit by Catholic friars arriving in its Brazilian homeland, who saw Christian symbolism in the shape and markings of the flowers.

As Elizabeth Schneider writers in her book, Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables, "The complex and remarkably beautiful flowers are the origin of this name, with different parts of the bloom representing the wounds, crucifixion nails, crown of thorns, and the Apostles." Some of the friars even saw the vine as justification for their missionary work; to them, it was clearly put there to bring the indigenous populations to Christianity.

That's a lot of symbolic freight for one plant to carry. Luckily, no matter how you look at the plant, the passion fruit itself is a delicious, sweet-tart treat that has been enjoyed all around the world for centuries.

The easiest way to eat your passion fruit is to cut off the top and scoop out the jelly-like golden pulp with a spoon. The small black seeds are edible and pleasantly crunchy, although they can be sieved out for a more elegant presentation. Let the fruit soften and get a little wrinkly before eating for the fullest flavor and aroma.

--SJR

Recipe-Chunky Guacamole

2009-03-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

Let your avocados ripen at room temperature until they have a little “give” when gently squeezed. Always cover any leftover cut avocado tightly, since they will oxidize and turn brown when exposed to air.

2 ripe avocados
juice of 1 lime (or to taste)
1/4 tsp salt
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, minced (optional)
1 scallion, chopped (or 1 tbsp minced red onion)
1/4 tsp cumin
3 or 4 sprigs cilantro, chopped
1 tomato, seeded and diced

Cut avocado in half and remove pit. Scoop out flesh and mash roughly. Sprinkle with salt, lime juice, minced hot pepper, scallion, and cumin. Stir together well. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more salt, lime juice, or cumin as needed. Just before serving, stir in most of the chopped cilantro and diced tomato. Sprinkle with a little more chopped cilantro and serve. Baby carrots, celery sticks, and red bell pepper strips make great healthy “dippers”!

CSA Newsletter: Food Not Lawns 3 22 09

2009-03-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

Food Not Lawns is the catchy title of a very useful book. In it, subtitled How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community, author Heather Coburn Flores makes a persuasive case for homeowners to turn their home turf into edible gardens. Whether you’ve got a front yard, a back yard, or even just a sunny strip along the side: one you get beyond the green lawn, the potential for really going green expands with every square foot of soil.

There are decorative edible flowers, like nasturtiums, that can grow between rows of vegetables. A trellis lush with climbing bean vines draws in bees and hummingbirds while forming a natural screen for privacy--much more delicious than a board fence or box hedge. (Scarlett runners produce prodigiously, first bright-red flowers, then succulent flat beans which can be eaten fresh or left to mature into bright pink-and-black shelling beans.)

Children find root vegetables irresistible--the mystery of what’s hidden under the soil, the surprise that something as ordinary as a carrot or a radish actually lives deep in the dirt, the thrill of pulling on a handful of leaves and yanking out a full-grown carrot or fat red beet.

Even the Obamas are taking Flores’ advice. Not the whole White House lawn, but one section (over by the girls’ swing set) is going to be turned into an organic garden. It will double as an edible schoolyard for local D.C. schoolchildren, who’s not only get to weed and water but will take their harvest into the White House kitchens and learn how to cook (and eat) their dirt-fresh bounty.

By doing this, the Obamas set a great example for families all across the country. Maybe you don’t have the space to grow all your own squash and potatoes. But you can probably grow several months of salads, courtesy of a pack of mixed salad-green seeds, a sprawling cherry tomato plant, perhaps a sugar-snap pea vine or two. Kids who’ve gotten dirty planting, watering, poking at and picking their own vegetables are much more likely to eat (and like) their veggies. Why not plant some seeds today and see what grows?

IN THE BOX

Avocados? Tomatoes? Isn’t this supposed to be a fruit CSA? By common definition, both avocados and tomatoes are, technically, fruit, even if you wouldn’t bake them in a pie. (Although we have seen--and tasted--both green-tomato and creamy avocado-chocolate pies!) Much like a peach or a cherry, the avocado’s single pit contains all its tree’s genetic information.

Given enough time and space, you could grow your own avocado tree from the avocado in your box this week--although it’s probably more feasible to grow a simple houseplant instead. After you’ve eaten your avocado, poke three or four toothpicks into the pit, equally spaced like spokes on a wheel. Use the toothpicks to suspend the pit (wide side down) over a glass of water, keeping the bottom submerged. Watch the roots grow from the pit; when you’ve got a sturdy-looking tangle, plant in a generous-sized pot with the tip of the pit sticking out of the soil.

These organic tomatoes got a jump on summer by growing in warm greenhouses rather than out in the chilly spring breezes.

So, what's in the box this week?

Avocado ~ Haas Eco-Farms, Temecula, CA

Grapefruit~ Star Ruby South Texas Organics, Mission, TX

Apple~ Fuji Deneven Apples, Santa Cruz, CA or Bruce Rider, Watsonville, CA

Orange ~ Navel Eco-Farms, Temecula, CA

Tangelo ~ Minneola Eco-Farms, Temecula, CA

Tomatoes Wilgenburg Greenhouses, Dinuba, CA

Kumquat Reading

2009-03-01T13:20:00.000-08:00

Hope you've been enjoying your kumquats this week! The San Francisco Chronicle recently featured these sweet-tart fruits in a short article filled with with some interesting history and facts, including intriguing ideas from local restaurants. Range uses them in a salad with smoked trout, while the Chez Panisse Cafe tops Page mandarin sherbet with candied kumquats. There's even a bakery in New York City called the Kumquat Cupcakery.

Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA

2009-02-23T17:01:00.000-08:00

Community. Function: noun. 1: a unified body of individuals. Supported. Function: transitive verb : to promote the interests or cause. Agriculture. Function: noun 1: the science, art, or practices of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing of the resulting product.

Many Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs are treated like fruit delivery services—a grocery store on wheels, if you will. In reality, a CSA is a manifestation of something much deeper in our cultures and civilizations. Yet it wasn’t not until the mid-1980s, long after the principle farming communities had moved to urban areas in hopes of better lives, that the first CSAs (as we know them) came into being. And they did so not out of a need to provide food—large multinational agribusinesses could do that well enough—but out of a desire by individuals to farm at a sane, sustainable level in order to nourish the Earth and provide food to like-minded people. During and prior to this period, many farmers went out of business and their lands developed—never to be used to grow food again. But some farmers fought back. And not with pitchforks and rakes, but by realizing they weren’t the only ones that cherished farms, farmers, and fresh organic food. So they farmed differently……

The Happy Child CSA—Frog Hollow Farm’s version—is one of the best ways we have to bring our legendary fruit to you. But, as I started out, our CSA is more, so much more, than a fruit delivery service. In addition to bringing you organic fruit year after year, we require a certain almost spiritual commitment beyond membership. That is, we may ask you to support us as farmers and as a farm in ways we can’t even imagine. Yet knowing that you’re there for us and we’re there for you is what a modern, CSA farm business is all about.

2009 promises to be a stellar season for us. The plums are in bloom, cherries + apricots not far behind, and so on. In a few months we’ll be harvesting our first fruit and reveling in the joys of what it means to be a farm in the 21st century. And with supporters like you, who can blame us.

And so it begins.....

2009-02-20T11:05:00.001-08:00

After several days of cold, rain, and wind, we're finally starting to see the beginnings of Spring here at Frog Hollow Farm. For a few weeks--slowed only by the cool, wet weather--we had been seeing fruit tree blossoms begin to develop. Today, we were actually out helping Mother Nature get a start on the 2009 crop year. How, you ask? Well, through what is known as supplemental pollination (SP). Come again, you say?

As most people are aware, almost all farmers rely on pollination of their crops to fertilize the flowers in order to make fruit (or vegetables). The method most growers use is natural pollen sources disseminated by honeybees and other pollinators (e.g., wasps, flys, insects, even some birds, wind, etc.) Honeybees were, and are, by far the most important. In fact, there are many crops that simply wouldn't exist without adequate pollination; and other that unfortunately are weakly compatible. That is, there may be plenty of pollen and plenty of pollinators, but the pollen just isn't the right type to "make fruit."

Pollen incompatibility plus the current crisis surrounding honeybees (i.e., colony collapse disorder), in addition to weather issues, has sent many growers in the direction of using supplemental pollination (and pollen) to set a crop. Years ago, growers of some crops (like apples) overcame the incompatibility issue by planting compatible varieties close to each other, or collecting "floral bouquets" as an additional source of pollen. Since most stone fruit is self-fertile, SP simply helps nature along, or wasn't needed at all. But for varieties that are not strongly self-fertile, SP not only assists Mother Nature, but is an absolute requirement for a crop.

So, in the Spring pollen collectors go out into orchards to cut anthers (i.e., where the pollen resides in the flower) and collect the pollen. The pollen is then sold to growers who use it...like Frog Hollow Farm. This pollen is generally good for more than 1 season and can be frozen used for several years. However, just like with natural pollination, growers must make sure they get compatible pollen from the collectors. Rule of Thumb: don't use pollen from the same variety you're trying to pollinate.

Here at Frog Hollow Farm, we actually mix the pollen with a silica type material in order to provide a surface for the pollen to stick to and a little weight to make sure it gets to the flowers surface. We put the pollen/silica mixture into a modified leaf blower and drive up and down the rows blows pollen into the trees. And that's where we were today.

It'll be a few months from now before the results of the activity are fully realized. But in just a few weeks (or days if we had a microscope) we'll be able to see the little fruit (fertilized flowers) begin to develop. There'll be more postings in this blog about the crop development, so come back often. For now, enjoy the pictures and video of the beginnings of the 2009 season.

Cherimoya--the Andean ice cream fruit

2009-02-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

A cherimoya (Annona cherimola) doesn’t look like luscious eating. Often shaped like a heart, it’s green, knobby, and pocked with scales like a pine cone. Yet hiding beneath the forbidding aspect of this pre-Columbian fruit is a seed-studded, creamy-custard pulp brimming with fragrant musky-sweet juice. (Some fans find the flavor similar to Juicyfruit® gum, or a mix of pineapple and guava.) Says Calimoya® founder Jay Ruskey, “The cherimoya will take you on a little vacation from the chill of winter.”

This fruit has a long growing history in South America. Its name comes from the ancient Quechua language of the Incas. Originating in the highlands of the Andes between Colombia and Bolivia, they require a very specific combination of southern hillside exposure, rich soil, and mild climate without great swings in temperature or harsh winds to thrive. Southern California, it turns out, is a great place for cherimoyas.

Having started in 1992, Ruskey now has 22 acres of cherimoya trees in the foothills of Santa Barbara. Choosing the right site is a challenge, but cultivation and post-harvest handling practices are equally important. California lacks the particular bees and wasps that pollinate the trees in its native habitats, so each flower must be hand-pollinated. (In Oaxaca, the flowers are used to flavor agua frescas.) The fruit itself must be hand-picked and carefully protected from bruising during picking and packing. Fruits can range in size from a petite 8 ounces apiece to 2 pounds or more. Cherimoyas are best ripened at room temperature. Let ripen for 1 to 3 days, as needed, until they are just beginning to soften. (Overripe, squishy-soft fruit can lose its custardy texture and get grainy.) Once ripe, refrigerate and serve chilled. Avoid jostling or bumping the fruits, as they’re easily bruised despite their tough-looking skin. The easiest way to eat them is to simply slice in half, pull out the central fiber, and scoop out the flesh with a spoon, removing the shiny black seeds as you go. You can also quarter, peel, and slice, popping out the seeds with the tip of a spoon. Toss with pears, melon, pineapple, bananas or grapes for a fruit salad, or puree into a dessert sauce or smoothie.

Written by Stephanie Rosenbaum for the Happy Child CSA newsletter (Feb 15 2009).

Apricot Chicken

2009-02-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

Stay tuned and remember you may also substitute Frog Hollow Farm dried apricots for fresh. Frog Hollow Farm apricots are just around the corner!

serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium yellow onions-chopped finely
2 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon dried chilies
¼ teaspoon garam masala*
1 whole chicken, cut up 3-31/2 lbs
2 medium tomatoes –skinned and seeded, or 3 whole canned tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt
2c chicken stock or combination chicken stock and water
¼ teaspoon saffron
2 tablespoons hot milk
1 jar apricot conserve or 6-7 fresh apricots halved and pitted. (You may also substitute Frog Hollow Farm dried apricots for fresh).

Rinse the chicken pieces in cold water then pat dry with a paper towel. Pound the garlic, ginger and dried chilies with 1 teaspoon of the salt into a paste. Sprinkle the saffron over the warm milk and set aside.
In a sauce pan with a tight fitting lid or Dutch oven saute the onions in the olive oil until translucent. Then add the ginger/chilie/garlic paste and saute for 2-3 minutes more.
Add the chicken, garam masala, tomatoes and the remaining salt. Add the chicken stock and or water and simmer covered until the chicken is tender and the liquid has reduced to about ½ its original volume (about 45 minutes). Add the milk/saffron and the apricots or apricot conserve. Simmer slowly for 15-20 minutes.

Serve warm over basmati rice with chopped pistachios or almonds

Roasted Warren Pears

2009-01-26T16:47:00.001-08:00

This is a wonderful simple dessert that can be put together at the last minute.

4 ripe Warren or Bosc pears

1-2 tablespoons organic sugar

½ cup mixed chopped dried fruits, such as cherries, peaches, raisins or persimmons (optional)

¾ cup fruity white wine or sauternes

1 vanilla bean cut in half horizontally and lengthwise

Lemon zest and juice of 2 lemons

Peel the pears and cut off bottom ½ inch so they sit flat and upright.

Place the pears in the pan with the dried fruit. Sprinkle with sugar, wine, lemon juice and zest. Scrape out the seeds from inside the vanilla bean and spread some of seed-paste on the pears.

Bake at 400ºF for 20-25 minutes, or until pierced easily with a knife.

Serve warm with ice cream. Make sure to get every last drop of syrup!

From the kitchen of Becky Courchesne

A Blast From The Past

2009-01-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

A Blast from the Frog Hollow Farm past...Enjoy!

Everyday is CSA Day!

2009-01-21T11:20:00.001-08:00

What's CSA, you ask? CSA is Community Supported Agriculture and is a not-so-new-but-gaining-in-popularity consumer movement that's changing how people buy their food, meet their farmer, and protect the Earth. Yesterday, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. In addition to all of the obvious changes that occurred yesterday, one of the biggest was a massive shift in how politics in this country will be conducted, not just for the next 4-8 years, but for eternity. There's no going back. Absolutely, there are going to be those that would rather wallow in the same kind of "business as usual" politics we've been (with little exception) forced to endure since President Eisenhower milled about the West Wing. That's a long time folks! But with the election and swearing in of Obama, we officially shift our political thinking not to the left or right, but forward. We need to make 2009 the year where we do the same with our food and farms.

Despite the issues with the economy that are forcing people to make short-term, often drastic, changes to their purchasing patterns, people still need to eat. And as our political winds blow sweet and refreshing, so are the winds of how people eat. Farmers Markets, CSAs, organic, local, biodynamic...whatever. People are willing more than ever to make changes elsewhere in their budget before they make changes in how they buy food. People are done and over with the bad food we've been forced to eat since, well, Eisenhower was president. The Industrial Age of Food is Over (almost anyway). And as Obama's administration brings this misguided ship we call the US hard about, so will the American people change our food systems. There'll be more food grown on a farm near you, by a farmer you know, and in a way that doesn't squander anymore environmental capital for our future generations than in anytime in the last 70 years or so.

Make a difference America! Join a CSA, find a Farmers Market, meet your farmer--reject industrial food at all costs. Beginning today! Your country's farmers need you!

PS we'd absolutely be tickled pink if you'd consider joining Frog Hollow Farm's Happy Child CSA. We have numerous CSA sites around the Bay area, plus we ship almost everywhere in the US. But even if you choose to not join our CSA, please join a CSA near you. For information on finding a CSA near you, please visit the Local Harvest web site.

Cookies, Granola, and Jams..Oh My!

2009-01-11T20:28:00.000-08:00

We know that many of our Happy Child CSA members have been Frog Hollow Farm supporters for years. Of course, you know all about the fresh organic fruit delivered to you each week throughout the season. What you may not know is that Frog Hollow Farm also produces a delectable menu of goodies right here on the farm. Until recently, these items have been only available on line, at select farmers markets, and at our shop in San Francisco’s Ferry Building—now we’d like to share them with you through the Happy Child CSA*.

Each week, beginning this week, we're including a sampling of Becky Courchesne’s kitchen creations in each CSA share box. We'll do this throughout the season for as long as we can. In each share box, you’ll find an order form that can be used to order larger quantities of these and other items for delivery with your next CSA share. (For those of you not already CSA members, please call or email us and we'll get you set up. Please visit our listing at Local Harvest for more detail and an explanation of where we currently have CSA host sites.) We’ll limit available items to the sample products and a few others that we think you’d like to try. In the near future, you’ll be able to order any additional CSA items on-line, but for now please use the enclosed form—and by all means call with any questions or to special order items (such as our incredible pastries).

Frog Hollow Farm is dedicated to being fresh and new in all areas of our farm. As a “partner” in Frog Hollow Farm’s success, we hope you’ll choose to order a full range of our products in addition to the “can’t live without” fresh fruit you get each week. The selections will change throughout the season (as many of the goodies are made with seasonal fruit)—though many will remain throughout. As we go along, hopefully you’ll tell us what you like, what you don’t, and maybe even give us new product or recipe ideas.

Feel free to call or email us at any time with questions about our products, or to just chat.

Organically Yours,

Farmer Al, Becky,

& the Frog Hollow Farm Team

_______________________________

eMail: csa@froghollow.com

Ph: 925 634 2845 x203

FAX: 925 516 2332

* What's a CSA? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. At Frog Hollow Farm our Happy Child CSA is a program that anyone can join and receive a box of our organic farm fresh fruit weekly year-round, or just during peak season. CSA is a way for our customers to support us and in vest in the future of local farming.

Mediterranean Climate

2008-12-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

Here in California, we live in what is commonly called a Mediterranean climate. It is also known as the dry summer subtropical climate, but Mediterranean is shorter and more evocative. What this all means is that we have dry, warm summers and cool, wet winters. Our hillsides turn golden brown in the summer and lush green in the winter. Wendy MaHarry refers to the summer hills "like lions lying down" and that is a perfect description.

Now, however, we are getting into the wet season and the hills are turning green. The cattle grazing on the hillsides look muddy but fat and everything seems to be flourishing. How odd, then, that the majority of our trees have no leaves or fruit. We have some citrus trees that are dark green with eye-popping colors of orbs hanging on and our silvery olive trees still have their lovely soft leaves. But our stone fruit trees are brown-- stick-like --dormant. This morning coming to the farm, there were wisps of ground fog between the dormant trees, creating an eerie look.

Now, however, the sun is out and it is cool. No sign of rain....or spooks.

Oil painting"Clouds Over Diablo" byEunice Kritscher featured atWalnut Creek's Valley Art Gallery

Compassion and Sustainability

2008-12-22T14:23:00.000-08:00

Sustainability is a tricky thing.

In agriculture, it is often easier to be environmentally sound than it is to be either economically viable or socially just. Someone, somewhere inevitably gets the short end of the sustainability stick.

Today, at the end of a tumultuous year with family-centered holidays fast approaching, I want to talk about sustainability and compassion. Compassion is what it takes to make an endeavor fully sustainable.

Economic disparity leads to dissatisfaction. The gap between the rich and poor continues to grow globally and locally. This lack of fairness is not sustainable because it is not just. Want leads to instability and dissent. Free markets do not ensure social justice: it seems the wealth just never trickles down quite far enough. As individuals we need to accept the responsibility for creating social justice in our small ways. Through compassion, we can move toward becoming a more sustainable society. We all need to try to understand the plight of farmers who are struggling to be economically viable and farm workers who deserve social justice.

When I hear a relatively wealthy person complain about the high cost of spinach, for example, I ask them how long it would take them to plant, nurture, grow, harvest, pack and transport that spinach. The inputs are huge for a pound of spinach and the rewards to the farmer are small. The rewards to the farm worker who actually does most of the back breaking labor are even smaller.

So, how much is a pound of spinach worth? Is it worth ensuring that we will have farmers growing spinach in the future? If so, then we need to purchase our food with the compassion that comes from knowing who is growing it for us. We need to be willing to seek food grown with the concept of social justice embedded with each seed. The choice will help to make our food system sustainable.

In the Bleak Midwinter

2008-12-15T21:22:00.000-08:00

In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago. -- Christina Rossetti

I love this poem! It is often sung at this time of year as the days lengthen and our world responds to the rhythms of the solar system. Brrrr!

We're tilting farther from the sun with each day. Can you feel it? This tilting results in short days and long winter nights. The winter solstice itself is the day we are tilted the farthest from the sun in the northern hemisphere, our shortest day. This year, the solstice occurs on December 22nd. In England, this day is referred to as midwinter. As in the Christina Rossetti poem above, it is often bleak, windy and cold.

Significantly, it is also one of two "turning points" of the year. The day has historically symbolized the promise of the return of the sun and the lengthening of days. It is celebrated with lights and greenery.

While living in England for several years, I realized the importance of this reassurance. It seemed sometimes that the sun would never return. When darkness fell at 3 in the afternoon amid cloudy drizzle, it was easy to forget the long sunny midsummer nights and the glorious promise of spring, ablaze with flowers. I'd trim the holly hedge between my garden and the neighbor's and bring in bouquets and branches covered in red berries. Celebrating with lights blazing and living greenery brought into the house really lifted my heart.

The ancient Romans used holly to honor the god of agriculture. At this time of year, they would carry branches in processions, give holly wreaths as gifts of good will and decorate their homes with cuttings. Why celebrate the god of agriculture during the cold and dark? Because, they viewed this shortest day as the pivotal point in the year when days start lengthening and the promise of next year's planting and harvest should be celebrated. When viewed from this perspective, maybe midwinter isn't quite so bleak.

Chill Hours and Darkness

2008-12-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

I was thinking of chill hours and darkness on my way into the farm this morning. As I passed the frosty hillsides embracing Marsh Creek, I wondered if the trees on the hillsides need chill hours like our stone fruits do. I notice the elderberries blooming at the same time every year and think about the amazing mechanisms engineered into plants to assure their survival.

Chill hours and darkness affect humans and plants in some ways very similarly. When it gets cold and dark, I want to hole up in my warm house and reduce my activity. Plants respond in much the same way. They withdraw the sugars from the tips of their branches and get prepared for a state of extended dormancy. As darkness increases, hormones in plants signal "sleepy time!" This leads to a drop in photosynthetic activity. Leaves fall and sugars and proteins concentrate in cell protoplasm creating a sort of anti-freeze within the plant.

Chill hours actually work on the other end of the seasonal cycle, triggering bloom time. If a tree doesn't receive the chill hours it needs to break dormancy, it may bloom haphazardly, resulting in the possibility of its missing prime pollination time and having low fruit set. I don't know much about it, but I do know that when the cold weather comes, stone and pome fruit farmers revel in the cold, thinking of the good it does their trees. We all count the hours of chill knowing that they make for better production and healthier trees.

Bagna Cauda Pasta Recipe

2008-12-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

In honor of the arrival of the 2008 Frog Hollow Farm Extra-Virgin Organic Olive Oil, here's a delicious spin on bagna cauda, the Italian garlic-and-anchovy dip from Piedmont. Since this calls for a lot of oil, you might want to use your Frog Hollow olive oil for the bagna cauda, and an everyday olive oil for frying the eggs just before serving.

This recipe comes from A Twist of the Wrist by Nancy Silverton. Thanks to Luisa Weiss of Wednesday Chef for bringing it to our attention.

Egg Pappardelle With Bagna Cauda, Wilted Radicchio and an Olive-Oil-Fried Egg
Serves 4

For the pappardelle and bagna cauda:
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
15 anchovy fillets
8 large garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
12 radicchio leaves, torn into small pieces
Grated zest and juice of half a lemon
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 to 12 ounces egg pappardelle

For finishing the dish:
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 large eggs
Parmesan cheese
1 heaping tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. To make the bagna cauda, place a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, anchovies and garlic and cook, breaking up the anchovies with a fork and stirring constantly, until the anchovies dissolve and the garlic is soft and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat, stir in the parsley, radicchio and lemon zest and juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Prepare the pasta by bringing a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add enough kosher salt until the water tastes salty and return to a boil. Add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente.

3. To finish the dish, heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat until the oil is almost smoking, about 2 minutes. Break 1 egg into a small bowl and pour into the skillet. When it just begins to set around the edges, break the second egg into the bowl and pour into the skillet. (By waiting a moment before adding the next egg, the eggs won’t stick together.) Repeat with the remaining 2 eggs. Cook until the edges are golden, the whites are set and the yolks are still runny.

4. Use tongs to lift the pasta out of the water and transfer it quickly, while it’s dripping with water, to the skillet with the bagna cauda. Place the skillet over high heat. Toss the pasta to combine the ingredients and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more.

5. Using tongs, divide the pasta among 4 plates, twisting it into mounds. Grate a generous layer of cheese over each. Place an egg over the cheese. Sprinkle the parsley over the pasta and serve with more grated cheese and pepper.

Winter Pears: History and Hope

2008-12-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

I was just reading a story about pear mania in the Fruit Hunters. Just like the Dutch craze for tulips, there was a New World equivalent with regard to pears. There were pear parties in the mid-1800's and rampant speculation in what we would now call pear futures. According to the authors, juicy pears became all the rage in Massachusetts in the years between 1825-1875. Members of high society hosted pear tasting parties and investors threw capital into speculative orchards, most of them unsuccessful. According to P.T. Quinn (1869, Pear Culture for Profit), "There has been more money lost than made, for I could enumerate five persons who have utterly failed to every one who has made pear culture profitable." Would-be millionaires entered into fierce competition for the newest pear varieties and the idea of getting rich planting and growing pears led "legions of American amateurs to experiment with their own varieties." (The Fruit Hunters, Adam Leith Gollner and Adam Gollner, p.255)

I leave the tale of pear mania behind with some hope for today. Life went on, pears grew as did hope. The ruin of investors in pears was not quite a crisis by our present standards. As Tom Stevens of the Daily Telegraph said in his article October 8, 2008, the word "crisis" comes from the Greek for "turning point." (Hope will only emerge when we're utterly submerged in bad news, 10/8/08) In the ancient language of flowers, pears symbolize comfort and affection. I find a lot of comfort in the winter, eating delicious, juicy pears, seeing them in crates with all their lovely colors. Knowing that I am eating the best fruits of a long history of pear breeding.

When pears are given as gifts, the sender is asking for a sign of hope. Hope is something that we adults often have a short supply of. When things are going badly, we tend to lose hope. Maybe at this time of financial worry and this season of generosity we all need to give the gift of pears and hope.

Garbage to Gold

2008-12-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

Our CSA newsletter gets down and dirty this week, looking to see what happens to your fruit after you're done with the good parts. The inspiration for this essay came from one of Farmer Al's customers at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market, who pointed out that all the food scraps collected at the Ferry Building were composted at Jepson Prairie Organics in Vacaville.

As it turns out, one of Frog Hollow's biggest compost suppliers is Jepson Prairie. Every week, according to their website, some 5000 tons of food scraps from Bay Area homes and businesses are trucked out to their site in Vacaville for composting. As a subsidiary of Norcal Waste Systems, Jepson gets all the orange peels, old lettuce, leftover spaghetti and half-eaten burritos that the Bay Area tosses into its green-waste recycling bins. This admittedly stinky but valuable sludge gets minced on-site, since the smaller the pieces, the faster they decompose.

This makes up what home composters know as "greens"--the soft, leafy, juicy stuff that's high in nitrogen and breaks down quickly. What a good compost pile needs is a balance of "browns", too--drier, harder materials, like straw, wood chips, and dry leaves, that are high in carbon and slower to break down. So, Jepson Prairie mixes in yard & tree trimmings from Vacaville and Dixon to get the proper ratio of brown (carbonaceous) and green (nitrogenous) materials.

Then, the mix goes into self-contained plastic pods known as "Ag Bags," which are threaded with aeration pipes. The mixture starts breaking down and in the process heats up to temperatures sufficient to kill pathogens, undesirable bacteria, and weed seeds. After 2 months in the "Ag Bags," the mixture goes outside, piled in long, tall windrows. These windrows are mechanically turned numerous times during the next 30 days to keep oxygen moving throughout the pile. After 30 days, the black-brown, crumbly, and nearly odorless mixture is screened to sift out any oversized pieces. Once it's been sifted into a uniform mix, it's ready to go out to the farm.

Just like the city that feeds it, much of the value of Jepson Prairie's compost comes from the diversity of its sources--everything from coffee grounds and pomegranate rinds to pad Thai and persimmon peels.

So, toss an apple core into your green recycling bin and it can end up right back in the orchard, in the form of lush, microbe-rich compost that enriches the soil and feeds the trees.

And speaking of green garbage at the Ferry Building, Gov. Schwarznegger just gave the marketplace a 2008 Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award. Check it out in the Chronicle's City Insider column, which mentions the building's composting program as a way of "closing the loop" between urban-edge farmers and city consumers.

In case you were wondering, no, you can't buy Jepson Prairie's compost for your backyard. As a wholesale operation, they sell only to farms, nurseries, wineries, and other businesses with commercial resale licenses, not to private individuals. If you'd like to learn more about backyard composting, check out these classes from San Francisco's Garden for the Environment.

Winter Even Comes to California

2008-12-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

The past 2 days at the farm have been shrouded in fog: the kind of fog often called "tule" fog in the Great Valley. It seems to be localized so that within 15 minutes drive, or less, it is sunny and clear and cool like Indian summer. But here, we are hunkered down working in the orchard, kitchen and offices.

It's a welcome respite to go into the kitchen at this time of year. The smells are heavenly. There is activity beyond imagination with pears being poached and canned, pastries being created, cookies and granola being baked and a multitude of packages being put into beautiful boxes for the holidays and sent to all corners of the country. It's wonderful for me to imagine faces of recipients when they open their little boxes of Brentwood sunshine in the midst of a snowy day.

I love the way the cookies look that are baked in our kitchen. These are definitely not mass produced, machine- made cookies. Only their taste exceeds their wonderful aroma. One cold day last week, Jose brought me a freshly baked peanut butter and jam sandwich cookie: warm from the oven with the jam oozy and delicious. I'd been dying to try one, since they sounded so yummy. I was not disappointed.

Life on the farm is great, even on cold foggy days!

Fall Fruit Galette Recipe

2008-11-25T16:27:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday was a beautiful, warm autumn day at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market--the sort of day when you feel blessed to be living in the Bay Area and hard-pressed to imagine living anywhere else. The market was bustling with people filling their baskets with fresh produce for the upcoming holiday: ruby pomegranates and sunset-orange persimmons, shiny acorn-brown chestnuts and big leafy fans of red Russian kale.

Strolling up to the market, we overheard many snippets of conversation, all focusing on one thing: pie!

Yes, it was Pie Day at the market, and pies--apple, pecan, pumpkin, and more--seemed to be on everyone's mind. The good folks at CUESA, who administer the market, had set up a really nice and informative pie-making display, with everything you'd want to know about fillings, crusts, baking implements and more, including useful little maps showing what stands were selling fresh, local pie ingredients from lard and cultured butter to eggs, nuts, fruit, and sugar-pie pumpkins. At the Frog Hollow Farm stand, we had quinces and 3 kinds of pears for sale: Taylor's Gold, Bosc, and some deliciously slurpy Warrens.

Back at the demonstration kitchen, volunteers were passing out samples of pumpkin tart and a Fall Fruit Galette made at the Frog Hollow Farm Cafe, full of big, tender apple chunks on a flaky crust. If you didn't get a chance to taste it, you can still make your own. Here is Becky's recipe, as handed out by CUESA. Happy baking!

Fall Fruit Galette
Rebecca Courchesne, Frog Hollow Farm
Note that the crust recipe makes twice as much dough as you'll need.

Galette Dough
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
6 oz. butter (12 tablespoons, or 1 1/2 sticks)
1/2 cup ice water, or as needed

1. Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a resealable plastic bag. Cut butter into 1/2" chunks, and place in a separate bag. Transfer both bags to the freezer for 30 minutes.

2. In a food processor, briefly pulse flour mixture to combine. Add butter chunks and pulse until butter is incorporated but some chunks still remain. Add water while pulsing. You should be able to barely hold the dough together in your hand.

3. Form the dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic and let one rest in the refrigerator for 45 minutes; freeze the other for later use.

Fruit Filling
3 pears, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup fresh cranberries or huckleberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (use the larger amount if using cranberries)
3 tbsp flour

1. Combine fruits and vanilla.

2. Stir sugar and flour together and gently toss with fruit.

To make galette
1. Preheat oven to 400F, or 375F if using a convection oven.

2. Roll dough into an 11" disc. Spoon fruit filling onto tart disc (don't overfill your pastry, or your crust will become soggy). Fold edges of the tart over onto the fruit. Brush edges with melted butter or water and sprinkle with 2 tbsp of sugar.

3. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until edges are light brown and fruit juices are bubbling. Serve tart warm out of the oven with vanilla ice cream.

Olives and Their Golden Oil

2008-11-17T10:25:00.000-08:00

Homer called it "liquid gold." and that name seems apt.

This week we will start the olive harvest here at the farm. Farmer Al told me this morning that the yield looks great and the fruit quality high. We are expecting to bottle a record amount of the beautiful golden oil.

It's amazing to me that from the little black olives hanging heavily on our trees right now that we will receive such a healthful and versatile oil. And so much of it! I mean, really, the fruit is so small. Olive tree yields depend on the number of trees per acre, proper irrigation, fruit set, pruning and age of trees. But, fruit yield and oil yield do not directly correlate. It seems like the most telling statistic is the leaf-to-fruit ratio. With a high leaf to fruit ratio, the trees produce more oil. Anyway, the bottom line is that a higher fruit yield does not guarantee a higher oil yield. We'll have to wait and see.

The health benefits of olive oil are documented pretty well, however. According to the Mayo Clinic, consuming olive oil reduces your risk for heart disease. Cool! And according to recent research, olive oil also reduces your risk for stomach ulcers. For more on the health benefits go to this link.

Throughout history, olives and their precious oil have been revered and we at Frog Hollow are carrying on in that tradition.

The Problem with Pears

2008-11-11T04:52:00.000-08:00

We all know what they are, yet pears are as old as anything in our collective cultures and remain a very unappreciated fruit--except by a dedicated few. As I begin a journey to where my pomological eye will be turned back again to stone fruit, and for the first time towards pears, I have begun to truly appreciate the unappreciated pear. More importantly, I have started to ask, Why? So why is it that the pear is such a misunderstood fruit? Is it geography? Culture? Religion? Or do they just taste bad? In my next few blogs, I will explore several pear quality-related topics in hopes of coming to some conclusion to my query of, What is the Problem with Pears?

Let me first clear the table by stating that pears are one of the, if not the, most satisfying fruits on the planet. It is true, they are more difficult to deal with in terms of storage, ripening, and determining when that pear is ready to eat. Too soft and they taste like mush; too hard and they have no aroma or mouth-feel; just right and you are in heaven.

The pear has been around for a long, long time; some even believe it was the pear, and not the apple, that was the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Horticulturally speaking, the pear is just about as difficult (or easy) to grow as any other tree fruit. And were it not for its susceptibility to fireblight (a bacterial disease) its production, domestically at least, would still be pretty strong. But what was the journey the pear traveled to get to where it is today?

The first written evidence of pears, was in Homer's Odyssey in the 6th century BCE: "Therein grow trees, tall and luxuriant, pears and pomegranates and apple-trees with their bright fruit, and sweet figs, and luxuriant olives. Of these the fruit perishes not nor fails in winter or in summer, but lasts throughout the year."

From Wikipedia: The genus is thought to have originated in present-day western China in the foothills of the Tian Shan, a mountain range of Central Asia, and to have spread to the north and south along mountain chains, evolving into a diverse group of over 20 widely recognized primary species. The enormous number of varieties of the cultivated European pear are without doubt derived from one or two wild subspecies, widely distributed throughout Europe, and sometimes forming part of the natural vegetation of the forests. In England, where an ancient pear tree gave its name to Pirio (Perry Barr, a district of Birmingham) in Domesday, the pear is sometimes considered wild; there is always the doubt that it may not really be so, but the produce of some seed of a cultivated tree deposited by birds or otherwise, which has germinated as a wild-form spine-bearing tree. Court accounts of Henry III of England record pears shipped from Rochelle and presented to the King by the Sheriffs of London. The French names of pears grown in English medieval gardens suggests that their reputation, at the least, was French; a favored variety in the accounts was named for Saint Rule or Regul', bishop of Senlis.

The records of pear culture (the growing of..) go back nearly 3000 years, including a famous book written by Chia Shi-Yi in the 6th century that chronicles pear culture for the previous 1500 years. For the past 3000+ years, pears have been considered a delicacy for the wealthy along with the peach and the apricot. And yet today, even though they hold a prominent place in global cultures and have been considered a culinary treasure, their production worldwide has dropped off, as well as their consumption in favor of the numerous other fruits.

I believe, however, that the pear is making a comeback (or will, in any case) as our eating habits become more European in the new tradition of the Slow Food movement. As our eating habits shift more to smaller portions of higher quality, provincial, and artisanal foods, we will once again rediscover the beauty of the pear. As we discover, rediscover, and appreciate the icons of culinary cultures, pears will once again appear in fruit baskets everywhere.

Here at Frog Hollow Farm, we grow both European and Asian pears. Our most provincial and best tasting is the Warren pear--truly a culinarian's delight. We also grow Golden Russet, Taylor's Gold, and numerous Asian types collectively known as nashi. As Homer wrote in the Odyssey, "These were the splendid gifts of the gods in the palace of Alcinous," so they shall be once again.

Happy Children and the Holidays

2008-11-10T08:07:00.000-08:00

One of my goals at Frog Hollow Farm (and in my daily life) is to connect people with their local farmers. Working on the farm, I have a great opportunity to do just that while having my finger on the pulse, so to speak. I think it's just as important to know your farmer as it is to know your doctor or your child's teacher. After all, we eat every day! I want to know how the food I'm putting in my mouth and in the mouths of my family got to my table. I have been a member of a CSA for 8 years and I love the excitement of seeing what's in my box each week as well as the comfort of knowing that a farmer I know grew, picked and packed that food with care.

Frog Hollow Farm has some great ways for eaters to connect with us directly. One way is our Happy Child CSA, another is our mail order business and a third is through local farmers' markets. As the holidays approach, I'd like to suggest some great ways to use these to achieve multiple goals: support local, organic family farmers, buy outstanding gifts and give your friends and family something they can feel good about.

This year for the first time, Happy Child CSA is now offering gift certificates. If you know someone who would like to try a CSA, this is a great opportunity. In addition to getting a weekly box of "legendary fruit" CSA members receive other benefits. Frog Hollow products can be had at a great discount. Our CSA coordinator, Karen, goes out of her way to meet the needs of all members. For more about CSA see: USDA-Community Supported Agriculture or Local Harvest CSA is great for the farm. We value the fact that members are willing to invest up front to support our ongoing operations. We are on the front lines of the battle to conserve farm land in the Bay Area and we love to know that we have neighbors who want us to succeed. The "dividends" you receive as an active investor and supporter are weekly boxes of the most delicious organic fruit from us and our neighbors.

This year for the holidays we have contacted some great artisans to compliment our fruit and fruit products. Josh and Carolyn at Rustic Bakery in Marin County are baking some amazing whole grain sourdough lavosh to compliment our Asian pear chutney. When paired with San Joaquin Gold cheese from the Fiscalini Cheese Company these are a wonderful autumn treat. The Fiscalini family make farmstead cheeses we were sold on from the first bite. We are also offering their extra mature bandage-wrapped cheddar with our creamy and juicy Warren pears. This is an unbeatable combo! All these great foods will soon be available on our website along with some new pastries and our holiday gift packs. We hope that when you buy the combinations we have created you will appreciate the artisans we have invited to join us and seek them out.

Farmers' markets are the most direct of all direct marketing options. When I'm at a market, I love to see the shoppers' faces when they bite into that perfect fruit or taste summer in a little spoon of conserve. Here in California we go year round. Right now, we are selling Bosc pears, Warren pears and some Taylor's Gold pears. When May comes, everyone is excited to see cherries and apricots but now is the time for fruits that keep. These pears will nourish my family right through the winter. I like to poach them and keep them on a visible shelf in beautiful glass jars. Along with my jars of tomatoes, pickled peppers and olives, they remind me of our bounty. Isn't that what this time of year is about?

Persimmons & Pears

2008-11-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

Wondering what to do with this week's pears and persimmons? Check out KQED's Bay Area Bites this week for some delicious info and recipes using the Fuyu persimmon, including a savory persimmon, fennel, and almond couscous and a luscious-looking pear, persimmon, and walnut strudel.

The San Francisco Chronicle also has a handy round-up of tasty pear recipes. And a great-looking walnut and pear tart recipe can be found on Chow.

Welcome!

2008-11-05T04:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the inaugural blog for Frog Hollow Farm's Happy Child CSA. To get things off on the right foot, we know many of you already buy Frog Hollow Farm Fruit at farmers' markets. But our Happy Child CSA differs from the farmers' market in that you can get locally grown and produced farm products delivered year-round to your home (or local drop off point) even in the dead of winter. OK, you can't get our peaches in January, but we've teamed up with many local farmers to also bring you avocados, citrus, and much much more. How does it work?

We deliver weekly boxes or 1/2 boxes to a pick-up spot in your neighborhood. Usually, the amount of fruit in a delivery will supplement a family of four's requirement for a week.
There are never any obligations. You pick your schedule: weekly or every-other-week. Going on vacation? No problem, we will put your delivery on hold until you return.
Weekly newsletters--now including this blog--inform you of farm news, recipes, varietal notes, storage and handling recommendations and more.
Visits to your neighborhood by Farmer Al and other members of the Frog Hollow family. Invitations to visit the farm for in-depth farm tours by Farmer Al, potlucks, "tastings," guest speakers, and Harvest Celebrations featuring great chefs from around the Bay!
Year round supplies of fruit that we may not grow ourselves but get from other local, organic growers we know...e.g., Great, incredibly sweet Valencia oranges, or navels, or rare antique apple varieties, kiwi, cherimoyas, sapotes, avocados & the list goes on...
We make payment easy too! We take checks, Visa, MC, American Express. For your convenience, you can arrange an automatic payment through us. Order Here.
Please join the entire Frog Hollow Farm family- a vibrant community of farmers, farm workers, and people like you who eat the fruits of our labor - to form a powerful force creating a new vision for food and farming here in California and beyond...

In Good Health,

The Folks at Frog Hollow Farm