First citrus harvest on the farm
Winter is the time when all the veggies slow down with the cold and shorter days but for citrus it loves this weather that helps the fruit ripen faster.
This year we started leasing a citrus orchard and yesterday we harvested Page Mandarins and Melogold grapefruit which we will have at market starting today.
The citrus orchard is just outside of Winters and it is a couple of acres mainly of a few varieties.
Page mandarins are a cross between a Clementine mandarin and a Minneola tangelo that was first created in 1942.
They are a small mandarin that has some resemblence to a sweet orange with their rich and sweet flavor. They are very juicy and a small fruit that is easily to peel and quickly eat the whole thing before you know it.
Melogold grapefruits are a hybrid of an acidless pummelo and a Marsh grapefruit. They have a mellow flavor with low acidity and a delightful mixture of sweetness and tartness.
These are the first two of six varieties of citrus there are in that orchard that can be harvested. We planted a good number of trees this fall, some of which are the varieties there already are and most of new varieties. We won’t harvest from the new trees for another three years.
On the property that we are leasing the olive trees there is also some citrus there. There aren’t the most common citrus there but there are some Yuzu and Bergamot among other citrus.
A restaurant is using the Yuzu to make a candied Yuzu peel as you don’t usually eat the fruit like an orange, you can use the juice to make cocktails.
We will bring some to the December 21 market which is Winter Solstice and in Japanese culture it is customary to have a bath with Yuzu on that day.
Bergamot is most commonly known for its oils that are used in Early Grey tea, perfumes and soaps but can also be used in marmalade and the zest can be added to cake.
On the veggie side of things the carrots on going great right now with such a delicious flavor thanks to the cooler weather we have been having. When it gets colder the starches in the carrots turn to sugar, especially in the Nantes carrot varieties we grow.
We planted a later than normal planting of carrots this year and those ones are much smaller than the ones we are harvesting right now. We just weeded them to help them grow a little bit quicker although everything takes a longer amount of time to grow with the temperature and sunlight there is at this time of the year.
There is a decent amount of rain in the coming days which all the veggies will enjoy and allow us to not need to irrigate them as they have drank almost all the water from the last rain at this point.
In addition to the veggies we’ve got lots of great holiday gifts with the citrus and the olive oil. If you can’t make it to an upcoming market and would like some olive oil send us an email and we could try to arrange something.
We will be at both the Wednesday and Saturday Davis Farmers Markets the next two weeks before Christmas. After Christmas the Saturday market will be the only market we do for the next couple of months and we will be there every weekend with veggies, citrus and olive oil.
