Cynthia Salaysay

Nectarines In Season Now

Poems to peaches are common enough. Google “ode to a peach” and there are plenty of hits. But odes to nectarines, their smoother-skinned cousins? They’re fewer and farther between. But they are just as deserving of elevated praise, especially ones from organic orchards like Blossom Bluff, a family farm in Parlier.

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Seasonal Berries

In May, the fragrance of strawberries drifts through local farmers markets. Follow the scent, and you may find yourself at the Swanton Berry Farm stand. Swanton is one of a number of excellent organic strawberry farms serving the East Bay, but this grower stands out with its distinctive blue boxes overflowing with Chandler strawberries, which are very much the strawberries of our dreams—red all the way through and juicy.

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