It's a Root Down Chicken week. Here it comes!! The peak of our summer season and such plentitude we're not sure what to do with it all. Strawberries seem to be slowing down a bit, but we've just picked our first pears (Ubileen) and will be picking the first Apples (Pristine) starting next week. We also found a couple ripe canteloupes. We introduced the first tomatoes and peppers in the boxes last week along with green beans. More to come.. We've decided to pull bunching greens (kale and collards) from the availability list as there's so few left. They'll come back into season for us end of September/October.
Product Highlight: Ubileen Pears
Hailing from either Bulgaria or Yugoslavia depending on where you read, this extremely early pear tops the chart in taste tests. It has a buttery texture, is sweet, juicy, with just the right amount of tartness. The trick is picking it and eating it at the right time. For the first 3 or 4 years we had them we never tasted them. We would look at them and think.. ok time to pick tomorrow, and come back and they'd all be gone. It was so drastic we were convinced our employees were eating them, but no.. just all the farm critters. Then we picked them too early and ended up with blah fruit that never ripened properly. Then the next year we picked too late and they all turned brown inside. Sigh.. It is notoriously difficult to get right. They won’t hold more than a few days in the fridge, so please DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE FRIDGE. Leave on your counter and eat in 4-6 days. They will not become soft to the touch, so just forget that habit of checking to see if there's a little give ;) But... they should be ripe by Monday or Tuesday next week if you leave them out on your counter. I've let a number of beautiful pears go bad by waiting and waiting till they just rotted in the middle without ever getting soft to the touch. (They ripen from the inside out). May the gods of delicious fruit be with you and let us know how things turn out. We're crossing our finger and are knocking on wood that this year we got it right. There's a reason these aren't a common commercial variety.
Meet the Team: Each week we are trying to introduce you to more of the 30 odd people who help make all that food that ends up in your box happen. This week meet Elif.
Elif (22) graduated from UCSC in 2021 after transferring in from community college to study and eventually help manage the farm’s student team at the UCSC Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. Their studies were focused in sustainable agriculture & soil science, but their favorite part of university was getting to see what they learned in class come to life on the farm. Elif does a bulk of their work at Fifth Crow in the pack out, but also works at the Palo Alto farmer’s market and loves to chat with customers about cooking and their favorite bean varieties. They are particularly interested in heirloom dry beans, flowers, orchards, and finding ways to help others access and enjoy the best food they can!
