Frog Hollow Peaches

[gknl]

My local independent grocery store (The Village Market in Oakland) sells fruit from XXX farm in Brentwood. Can't remember the name, but I've seen delivery trucks with their names dropping off fruit at the market. Whoever it is, that Brentwood fruit sure is good-but it costs $2-3/lb. by the time it gets over the hill.

Everything's more expensive there! It makes Whole Foods seem almost reasonable.

It sure is a nice shop though.

[gknl]

This is my first post, so bear with me if I screw it up, please.

I still haven't made it down to the berkeley farmers market, which market is best down there? Congrats on your first post, welcome to eGullet.

The best one is the one you can go to, of course.

Welcome to egullet too. Go Bears!

[badthings]

Saturday is the biggest, but the Tues. afternoon one has some great farms, like Full Belly, who don't come on Sat. No meat though, which is why I should go to SF.

I think I got so exited from posting that I pulled something in my neck -- seriously. I better stop typing now.

[melkor]

Saturday is the biggest, but the Tues. afternoon one has some great farms, like Full Belly, who don't come on Sat. No meat though, which is why I should go to SF.

I'll try and make it down to the tuesday market, what time and where is it? All the meat at the ferry building market is frozen from what I've seen, kinda sucks.

[marie-louise]

... some great farms, like Full Belly...

I LOVE Full Belly Farms; I've been getting a CSA box from them for years. Every week,we get an enormous box of the most perfect fruits and vegetables you can imagine, for $13.50 a week. (At the moment I am so busy at work I'm paying them another $5. to deliver it to my house.) You can pick your box up at that Tuesday Farmer's Market, or any number of other places.

Yes, somewhere in the Bay Area there probably is a store that charges more than the Village Market, but I haven't come across it yet. However, it's right down the street, and it has almost everything I want, so I empty my wallet there on a regular basis. The owner is this nice old guy, he's there all the time, so it softens the blow a little.

[kitwilliams]

Yes, somewhere in the Bay Area there probably is a store that charges more than the Village Market, but I haven't come across it yet. However, it's right down the street, and it has almost everything I want, so I empty my wallet there on a regular basis. The owner is this nice old guy, he's there all the time, so it softens the blow a little.

Ahhh, Village Market. I used to live on Broadway Terrace and Village was my local. But doesn't Star Grocery on Claremont charge nearly as much as Village? And they regularly get Frog Hollow.

(why did my quotes get screwed up? it couldn't have been something I did!

Edited July 24, 2003 by kitwilliams (log)

[Hest88]

Star Grocery can be pretty pricey, but for such a teeny store they sure have a great selection!

They have less of an excuse, though. Anyone who lives on Broadway Terrace has a considerable hilly hike to a market, while Safeway, Ver Brugge, and that corner grocers is just a few easy blocks away from Star.

Of course, anyone living both in Broadway Terrace and especially the Claremont area can probably afford to overpay a tad. ;)

[marie-louise]

Of course, anyone living both in Broadway Terrace and especially the Claremont area can probably afford to overpay a tad. ;)

Well, yeah, but I bought my house a while ago. It still looked like a war zone up there from the fire. Typical California real estate saga-I couldn't afford to buy my own house again if I had to buy it today.

Star Market is pretty nice, and it is handy to have that Semifreddi's right down the street.

[kitwilliams]

Of course, anyone living both in Broadway Terrace and especially the Claremont area can probably afford to overpay a tad. ;)

Then there are those of us who lived in the apartment at the foot of Broadway Terrace, just above the 76 Station on Broadway and spent our few pennies that we didn't spend on rent feeding our tummies and souls with produce from Village and Star (I lived there pre-Frog Hollow). And the occasional Black & Tan made with Swiss Milk Chocolate and Toasted Almond ice creams at Fenton's.

[Gary Soup]

You guys are getting WAY off topic, I'd say, but what the heck. My daughter spent a lot of growing-up years in the neighborhood you're discussing, first on Thomas Ave. and later on Pleasant Valley Court. She spent her pennies at the Star Market for candy, but not produce. Those were the days when the Shrine of Good Food was around Cedar & Hopkins in Beserkeley, particularly the Monterey Market and Westbrae Foods. (Of course any trip to them was ancillary to shopping at the Co-op at Shattuck & Vine.

[gknl]

When I lived in lower Rockridge, on Belgrave, back in the mid-late 60s, the Village Market wasn't anything special and there was a hamburger stand next door called "Smart's" that had bad french fries. There was a variety store across Broadway called "Top Val-u" or something like that and I got in trouble when I was 5 for going there by myself to buy baseball cards. Ah, nostalgia!

[badthings]

Wow, joining egullet messed up my neck so bad that I just got out of bed yesterday. which meant that I had to send my girlfriend to the Sat. farmer's market, where she was very disturbed that the delicious (but now enormous, and yes, rather bruised) Suncrests I ordered her to buy cost over $20. (We got a lot in order to make ice cream). The beautiful thing about the Berkeley market is that everyone's peaches are organic and cost $3/lb., so you can rule out price when making comparisons -- and I stand by my original estimation of Frog Hollow as usually the best. The bruising depends on the size (bigger ones don't fit into their dividers as well), and variety. Which is why, I suspect, Suncrests are "endangered" or at least on the Slow Food ark. As I noted before, FH has many varieties, and none of the earlier ones were as prone to bruising, this year. I'll try to go tomorrow and report on their condition.

Melkor, the Tues. Market is: 2 p.m. - 7 p.m., Derby Street and ML King, Jr. Way

Is it true that the Ferry Plaza people kicked out Niman Ranch because they were too successful? That's annoying.

[tanabutler]

Most of the Brentwood peach farmers do not go to Farmer's Markets.  They sell at stands on their farms, allow people to pick, and sell to distributors (who often resell at Farmer's Markets or fruit stands). 

Typically, I have been paying 25-50 cents a pound for scrumptious u-pick peaches.

My local independent grocery store (The Village Market in Oakland) sells fruit from XXX farm in Brentwood. Can't remember the name, but I've seen delivery trucks with their names dropping off fruit at the market.

Could it be either Tairwa' (Knoll) Farm or Eatwell?

Both are in Brentwood. I know the Knolls have fantastic figs, and I think they have peaches, too. Eatwell definitely has peaches.

Farmer Al from Frog Hollow comes to the Santa Cruz Farmer's Market on Wednesday. I've bought his peach conserves on the passionate recommendation of a foodie friend in SF and they are outstanding.

About the peaches themselves: I am a Georgia girl. I haven't had a fabulous peach since I left in 1976, and I'm not making that up. However (about to eat my words here), I tasted one of the Frog Hollow peaches and it was the best peach I've had since I left home. I wish I were exaggerating, and I wish he didn't charge so much.

Yes, peaches only last a day or two. They pick them and lay them in the carton as gently as possible, and you need to appreciate them and eat them as soon as you can. My mama always said that you have to eat a good peach standing over the kitchen sink.

A little footnote to peach things: Frog Hollow Farm is going to be the site for an Outstanding in the Field farm dinner in a couple of weeks, and the special guest is Alice Waters. (I'm the web designer for Outstanding in the Field, a complete newbie to the fabulousness that is eGullet, and am drooling my way through thread after thread today—my first day of posting, though I joined up in June.)

This is a wonderful forum. I'm so glad I found you.

Edited August 4, 2003 by tanabutler (log)

[russ parsons]

for those who are interested, my piece on the search for perfect peaches ran today. peach story

[tanabutler]

Peach gelato, coming up! (Thanks, Russ, for the great piece and the recipes. I'm about to go spend my allowance on peaches at the farmer's market.)

[kitwilliams]

for those who are interested, my piece on the search for perfect peaches ran today. peach story

I'm still salivating over it....

I've had some terrific peaches this year. But still looking for the one that comes closest to my peach nirvana which would have been in 1985 while living on Broadway Terrace in Oakland, the peach purchased at Village Market. The perfect firmness of flesh but easy give of that nicely fuzzed skin, sucking up of the juice to avoid the waste of it dripping down your chin and the indescribable flavor -- I don't have the words for it.

But you said it interestingly and most beautifully, russ!

[alanamoana]

IrishCream, the Brentwood peaches at my local grocery store are Fitzgerald or Fitzpatrick. What do you think of that farm's fruit?

i used to buy peaches from "fitzpatrick" farms at the ferry plaza market in s.f.

i would have to say that they are pretty good. i was buying them for a restaurant, but fitz was great about talking to all his customers, making you taste the peaches and then educating you on what to buy. that's the great thing about the ferry plaza. don't be shy about talking to the farmers or purveyors (you can get good information on these forums, but it doesn't beat talking to the person who grows the peaches).

fitz always sold me what i asked for. almost ripe, high acid, sweeter, whatever. he took the time to find out what i needed and i always talked to him.

[tanabutler]

Russ Parsons, I hold you personally responsible for the ten pounds of Zee Lady peaches (well, slightly less than that now) that are sitting on my dining room table, all comfy and cozy in their little box.

Did I say little? Ten pounds of peaches is a LOT of peaches. It's a big bloody box of peaches.

You can come here right now and get busy with the knife. I can wipe my own chin, though.

(Farmer Al was absolutely delighted when I told him about your peach story—what a nice smile he's got.]

Who wants in?

[Hest88]

Oh, I'm slurping up the drool...

[tanabutler]

I told them they should have little peach bibs at the farm dinner, like lobster bibs.

Careful you don't short out your keyboard, Hest88. (Where in the Bay area are you?)

[Hest88]

Tana, I live in North Oakland, but work in downtown SF.

[badthings]

Russ, excellent article. I think it is important to stress that flavor is not the same thing as Brix. I would really like to see some kind of comprehensive varietal analysis of stone fruit. It's difficult to compare because they are in season at different times.

I am about to go home to the final FH "Summer Lady" from Saturday's market. In contrast to last week's Suncrests, they were nearly rock-hard (despite a brix <13), hence unbruised, but also inedible by the slurping-over-the-sink method I prefer. By Tuseday they were firm but slurpable, and last night was otherworldy. I'm just praying the last one hasn't disintegrated.

Tana, that outstanding in the field thing is a great idea. Though I have to say, I just saw an invite for the Alice Waters/FH dinner, and it's not, shall we say, priced for the masses. I know, it's charity. But still.

[tanabutler]

Hi, BadThings (it feels funny to type that to someone being friendly to me) --

I know the dinners aren't cheap. I took a good friend to the last one—the whole time she was saying how much it cost. "How can they charge so much?!" By the time she sat down to the first course, and saw the set-up, the large staff, the linens and china and everything, she said to my husband, "I don't know how they do it for so little!"

No one is getting rich. For me, it's a labor of love. And it really is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

And on the subject of Frog Hollow peaches, those I brought home are in varying states of being ripe. I slurped up a couple of the ones that were perfect—I love Russ's "melting ice cream" phrase, because crisp peaches, mealy peaches, and cottony peaches are not what I want to eat. Others are firmer, some nearly hard, but I am thinking to make cobbler with those too firm to eat right now. And maybe tonight would be a good night for the grilled peaches I've been reading about elsethread.

I bought both marscapone and crème fraîche to attempt the peach gelato, so I could compare. It's hot as blazes here in Santa Cruz, even for summer. It might be too hot to cook.

[russ parsons]

it is worth pointing out that if you've got some rock-hard peaches that you just don't want to have laying around the house, those are the best kind to make jams and jellies with. they are higher in pectin (the enzymes associated with ripening haven't begun to break it down, etc. etc.). though the idea of making jam with the fruit i had from frog hollow is pretty much obscene (i know it when i see it).

to emphasize from badthings post: sugar and flavor are not the same, but i did find they were linked at the extremes. great peaches all had high sugars and horrible peaches all had low. unfortunately, it's the stuff in the middle we have to deal with most of the time.

[tanabutler]

It's too perishing hot to cook jams and jellies—and the Frog Hollow peach conserves are only $5 (a little goes a long, long way in the oral pleasure department).

I think maybe I can muster a cobbler in the morning if it's cooler.

Russ, you must be even hotter than we are here. But you're probably used to it.

Off to find a fan.