How Buying Smaller Fruit Could Save California’s Drought-Stricken Family Farms

[KamaAina]

http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/2015/06/29/how-buying-smaller-fruit-could-save-californias-drought-stricken-family-farms/

Second-generation organic peach grower David “Mas” Masumoto describes the difference between a farming disaster and a crisis this way: A disaster is when he harvests nothing, while a crisis is when he’s not making any money. Four years into California’s worst drought in history, and like many West Coast farmers, he’s in crisis mode.

To conserve, Masumoto gave his peach trees between 20 and 30 percent less water, yielding a fruit Mas calls “very small” but “great tasting”—the Gold Dust Peach. Now, the fruit isn’t selling. Even at Berkeley Bowl, a popular supermarket in food-progressive Berkeley, shoppers just aren’t reaching for the smaller peach.

“What’s worse: composting the peaches back into the soil or knowing they are sitting in a store and no one wants to buy them?” laments his daughter, Nikiko Masumoto, 29. “This is happening right now. It’s heartbreaking.”

This is especially bad news for the 60-acre, 47-year-old family farm, because the Masumotos see the smaller fruit as the product of a long-term philosophical shift rather than just a short-term way to ride out the drought.

Peach cobbler, anyone?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Make something with them.

Nobody will know what 'size' your peaches were when you sell them jars of mango-peach salsa or ginger peach jam.

[daleanime]

3. Hummmnnn.....

mango-peach salsa.

[enlightenment]

2. I'd buy them.

In a heartbeat. What difference does size make? It's the taste that matters and having looked at the pictures, those peaches don't look small at all. I was thinking apricot size; those look like normal peaches.

The only peaches we get in Southern Nevada are these rock hard, scentless things that never ripen. They look ripe (thanks to gas 'ripening'), feel green, and if left to ripen will rot from the inside out without ever achieving anything close to ripeness. Same with nectarines. Plums aren't too bad; apricots - if you can find them - okay . . . but peaches? Nope. People here delude themselves into thinking the rocks they buy in the store are good, but I've lived in peach country and those things are peaches in name only.

[Warpy]

6. Middlemen are size obsessed

and premium prices are paid for enormous fruits, while "undersized" are rejected.

I'd rather see the smaller stuff in the stores. Those huge strawberries and peaches often taste like cardboard.

[enlightenment]

8. Yep.

Best strawberries I ever ate was during a trip to Wales. It was spring, they were locally grown (very popular concept in the UK), and tiny - the largest was about the size of my thumb.
So sweet and juicy that I could have eaten the entire punt in one sitting (were it not for the other people in the house, I probably would have done, too!)

[pinto]

11. About a decade ago CA commercial growers switched varieties to a larger strawberry, for the look.

A new berry came on the market - large, uniformly bright red, able to withstand shipping well. Unfortunately, half the flavor of the variety it replaced. Sorry, can't recall the name of either variety, but gradually growers, one after another, made the switch.

The only positive - it was a benefit to pickers. They get paid by the flat, generally, for their back breaking work. The larger berry fills a flat more quickly than the smaller variety.

[antiquie]

12. Around here, they get dipped in chocolate.

Almost flavorless, otherwise.

[pinto]

13. Yeah. I was sorry to see the earlier variety (Chandler?) go.

It was sweet, juicy, great out of hand eating.

[pinto]

14. Market Watch: Return of the Chandler strawberries (LA Times, 2013)

Market Watch: Return of the Chandler strawberries
Harry's Berries will be bringing the Chandler variety back. It's prized for its sweet, heritage taste.
March 23, 2012|By David Karp | Special to the Los Angeles Times

"Oh, strawberries don't taste as they used to," wrote John Steinbeck in "East of Eden." Never mind that the chapter was set a century ago; many foodies believe that industrial varieties and practices have degraded the flavor of modern strawberries. This spring we have an opportunity to test that hypothesis, as Harry's Berries has resumed growing the Chandler variety, a longtime favorite at farmers markets for its tender, juicy flesh and classic strawberry flavor.

"It reminds me of what strawberries used to taste like when I was a kid," says Kris Gean, 32, scion of the Harry's Berries dynasty.

Chandler, bred by Victor Voth and Royce Bringhurst of the University of California, was introduced in 1983 and dominated production in Southern California in the late '80s and early '90s. Many of the varieties grown just before were cottony inside and tasteless, but Chandler had excellent internal color and flavor, and was ideal for processing.

Its most distinctive characteristic — its tender, juicy texture — was both its glory and its eventual commercial downfall. Most California strawberries have been bred to be firm for shipability and shelf life, but Chandler has a softer texture. When Chandler is ripe, it's great for eating fresh and supreme in preparations like strawberry shortcake, which are a mockery when made with juiceless berries. But soft, leaking berries are disastrous for commercial growers, who get docked if their shipments don't meet standards at distant markets.

As a result, Chandler all but disappeared from commercial plantings by 1997, replaced by Camarosa, a firmer variety that was generally acknowledged to have less good flavor; Ventana, patented in 2003, was another step down. Benicia, the most recent UC short-day variety, released to growers last year, seems to have somewhat better flavor than its recent predecessors.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/23/food/la-fo-marketwatch-online-20120323

[antiquie]

15. Interesting, here's a February article.

I wish I had paid more attention to varietal names in the past.
Strawberries are still grown within a couple of miles from where we are;
they don't have any berries of any kind at Knott's now -- except in jars with HFCS.

Growers rely on proprietary varieties

[pinto]

16. Thanks for the link. I live in a strawberry area. UC Davis must have reams of strawberry data.

They remain in the top tier ag crops locally, irrc, among grapes, cattle, broccoli, snow peas, lettuces. Sugar beets may still be a big crop just south of us (a huge cash crop during WWI sold to the government for troops in Europe).

[pinto]

4. Gold Dust Peach -

Gold Dust

Earliest top quality peach. Yellow semi-freestone with exceptional flavor. Mid to late June in Central Calif. All-purpose, superb for eating fresh. 550 hours. Self-fruitful.

http://www.hodgesnursery.com/Peaches.html

[KamaAina]

5. If only I lived near Berkeley Bowl

daredtowork does, but I'm not sure organic fruit is in her budget. Her neighbor, maybe?

[pinto]

7. I buy those palm size saucer peaches when they come in. Great taste, great snack.

[NBachers]

9. I intentionally look for the smaller fruit. They just work out better with the way I eat.

[petronius]

10. Good point. I usually look for small-medium sized fruit as well, especially in apples,

pears, oranges - the taste is often better and some of those giant fruits are more than I want to eat. The peaches pictured in the article look great.

Hopefully this works out for him long-term, if he's an early-adapter to the drier conditions of the future...