All the news that's fit to eat
Sonoma County Apple Veteran Dave Hale By Heidi Lewis In Fall, you can’t miss the explosion of roadside color that is Hale’s Apple Farm as you drive along Route 116 just north of Sebastopol, CA. The riot of piles of brilliant gourds can cause the unwary traveler to swerve. Best pull over for a better look. Orange and [...]
By Jeff Main for Good Humus Produce, courtesy of Capay Valley Farm Shop Waiting for Rain. It’s been a long six months since we felt rain on our faces. The last rain was in April, mid-spring really, and now it is mid-Autumn, with a long, long summer just passed. That is a long stretch without [...]
by Chris Mittelstaedt, Founder & CEO, The FruitGuys The FruitGuys supports California’s Prop 37, the “Right to Know” GMO (genetically modified organism) labeling initiative. This issue is important to Americans everywhere, not just in California. YES ON 37—WHY? We believe in transparency. Labeling GMO products and allowing consumers and companies to choose whether or not [...]
How about a U-Pick CSA? By Heidi Lewis There is such a thing as too much love. Lucy and Torrey Olson’s Gabriel Farm in Sebastopol, CA (Sonoma County) was one of the few U-Pick apple farms in the San Francisco Bay Area. People loved to come pick Fuji apples, persimmons, and blackberries at their lovely [...]
Farm Steward By Karla Milosevich In 2011, The FruitGuys’ Farm Steward program financed a $3,000 no-interest loan to Baia Nicchia Farm and Nursery in Sunol, CA. Baia Nicchia is a family farm, run by Fred Hempel and Jill Shepard, that grows heirloom tomatoes, specialty squash, peppers, and herbs. FruitGuys volunteers also helped plant tomato seedlings last May. [...]
California Passage of Prop 37 Would Inform Consumers By Charlene Oldham Food labels can be a consumer conundrum for health-conscious shoppers trying to steer clear of sugar, saturated fat, and foods packed with preservatives. If you buy your groceries in California, you may soon have one more label to interpret. Should California’s Proposition 37 pass [...]
Walker Family Stuck Through Boom and Bust By Pia Hinckle Lee Walker has been farming with his family in their Graton, CA, apple orchard his whole life, except for a tour in the army and a few years playing pro baseball. Lee has kept growing Gravenstein apples through both the thick and the thin-skinned times [...]
Courtesy of Coco of Coco Ranch, by Heidi Lewis “Coco’s Little Sweet Pear” is a family-heirloom tomato grown at Coco Ranch in Solano County, California. This unique tomato was bred by Greg House for his own family’s use and is now being shared. He developed this variety especially for the sunny Solano County climate and his organic growing methods. [...]
EAST Summer Camp at the Farm for Kids 10am-5pm, July and August Terhune Orchards, Princeton, NJ Opening Day Cooperative Farmers Market of Scranton July 13th, noon Scranton, PA Jam Making & Tasting July 15th, 11am Rhinebeck, NY CENTRAL Michigan Lavender Festival July 13-15, 10am-5pm Armada, MI National Cherry Festival Traverse City, MI Thru July 14th Jazzin’ [...]
Karen Morss Traded Silicon and Lemons By Heidi Lewis Karen Morss is called the Lemon Lady. She started her suburban Emerald Hills, CA (San Mateo County), organic citrus farm, Lemon Ladies Orchard, in 2004. She has done her part breaking glass ceilings in boardrooms and the wild blue yonder with careers as a software entrepreneur [...]
By Chris Mittelstaedt Change has come slowly but steadily to the foods we’ve eaten over the last 70 years. While there has been no acute onset to clearly demonstrate the difference between the food of today and yesterday, if you take a look at local agriculture, you can see the fingerprint of change in all partsof the [...]
By Karla Milosevich & Rebecca North Rodents, such as gophers and voles, eat the roots of the fruit trees which can damage or kill the trees, so rodent control is a big issue for farmers. Owls are predators that can control rodent populations in orchards naturally without the use of pesticides and chemicals. So how [...]
The FruitGuys in the Dirt: A Farm Steward Story By Amanda Pineault On Saturday, March 12, 2011 a small contingent of FruitGuys joined Cub Scouts from Santa Rosa and participants from the Volunteer Center for Sonoma County at Gabriel Farm in Sebastopol, CA (Sonoma County). The theme for the day was pollinators! Before we could [...]
By Heidi Lewis On these stormy days when sunlight flickers behind the clouds, creating contrast of noir shadows and daggers of harsh light, it’s a perfect time to review some classic black and white films. How about dinner and a movie? A little seething Peter Lorre to go with the soup? Some hard-boiled Bogart and [...]
Planning farm visits into California’s Central Valley can be fun. The farmers we work with always remind me of the directions. “Chris, when you come out here, make sure that you take Road 204 but only until it intersects with Avenue 296, then hang a right until you get to Road 212. That one is [...]
I try to stay out of agricultural politics. I’d rather support farmers by buying their wonderful produce without having to testify on their behalf. Sometimes, however, circumstances land on your shoulder like a little butterfly—or in this case, a light brown apple moth (LBAM). For the past two years, I’ve been active in opposing California’s [...]
The Light Brown Apple Moth is an indigenous pest considered harmless to crops in New Zealand, Hawaii, Australia, and the UK, all countries that are free to export fruits and vegetables to U.S. markets while California farms currently face quarantines if it is found, a practice panelists at a recent forum called unfair to small [...]
The artichoke of delicate heart erect in its battle-dress, builds its minimal cupola; keeps stark in its scallop of scales. – Pablo Neruda, “Ode to an Artichoke” Translated by Jodey Bateman The artichoke is a flower – a flower you can eat. It is technically a thistle in the sunflower family. Seemingly uninviting with its prickles, it’s [...]
Here in California we enjoy a long avocado season, thanks to the Mediterranean climate of the southern coast. However, we also have a region susceptible to the ravages of our California weather. Each year it seems the avocado crop can be in peril of damage from drought, freezes or fire. The avocados tough hide gives credence to its moniker as [...]
Ingredients for this recipe were included in The FruitGuys TakeHome box. Order yours today! www.fruitguys.com
Here’s a recipe for a prize-winning homemade apple pie! And to show you the steps, Founder and CEO of The Fruit Guys, Chris Mittelstaedt, visited ABC7 View From the Bay: Sebastopol Area Chamber of Commerce Apple Pie Baking Contest 2008 Grand Champion Kayleigh Stump’s Apple Pie Recipe INGREDIENTS Crust: 2 cups unbleached flour 1/2 cup almond [...]
Ingredients for this recipe were included in The FruitGuys TakeHome box. Order yours today! www.fruitguys.com
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