Match point: Summer April 23, 2007

Did I ever tell you the story about the spring I thought I was Bjorn Borg? The entire top drawer of my dresser was filled with deep-pile sweatbands. As it warmed up from winter into spring I’d trade the blue-white wrist bands with other kids on the block like I was an arbitrage wizard in the Bjorn Borg wrist band currency market. I carried a tennis racquet under my arm and when I was asked a question I tried to affect a Swedish accent. When I would play wall-ball at school it was always: “Advantage McEnroe” and I had just one chance to come back from behind to save the honor of my home country of Sweden. Afterward, in my mind, it was Maypole dancing and Swedish meatballs for everyone.

This time of year is sort of like match point in tennis – it’s been a long five sets (weeks) of spring and we’re all just tired of it and ready for someone to win. The winner of this seasonal transition will be all of us as we progress into next week. Today (Saturday, April 21st, 2007) is the first day I’ve seen fresh California peaches. It’s also the first day I’ve seen cherries. Both of those things are a good sign. Although we will pass on the cherries for now (they were too small and too soft), you will find April Snow peaches this week in the Conventional crates (not the Staples Mix). These peaches are grown in Bakersfield and are best eaten when ripe – soft to the touch. We will pack them so that they are firm to avoid bruising, so you may need to give them a few days before they reach their best-eating quality. These peaches are small (the first crop is always that way) and are very “light” in taste. It will be a few weeks before sugars start coming up to higher levels for a sweeter fruit. Say a fond farewell to blood oranges, as they are now at the end of the season. I tasted a nice crop of small Minneola Tangelos that still have retained their juiciness, a wonderful fruit. You’ll get a double dose of tangelos to replace the blood oranges. The strawberry situation is still hit-and-miss due to the weather. Any rain makes picking and packing berries very difficult, as I noted in last week’s newsletter. But we will include them whenever the weather permits.

Enjoy and be fruitful! – Chris Mittelstaedt chiefbanana@fruitguys.com