Something delicious is growing in Placer County every month of the year. The summer months are abundant with stone fruit, melons, and garden vegetables. Fall harvest means winter squashes, persimmons, apples, and pears. Winter is the season for citrus, broccoli, and cabbage, and spring brings us tender lettuce, peas, strawberries and greens.
This May on Twin Brooks Farm, onions and garlic are growing quickly in the warmth of spring. Our Placer Sweet Onions will be ready by late May, followed by Red Burger Onions and Garlic, then Torpedo Onions, and finally Walla Walla Onions by mid-June. The small Cipollini Onions are last, maturing by mid-July. Onions are “photothermoperiodic”, meaning that both the temperature and day-length must be right for the particular variety to form bulbs. Our rainy winter caused the onions to be planted late which may result in smaller than usual onions.
It’s our first year growing strawberries and we’re amazed by the production of these plants! Our deli is blending berries for Strawberry Lemonade, Karen is making strawberry jam to sell at the store and the farmers’ market, and we’re all eating our share.
The potatoes have been hilled. We pull soil up to almost cover the plant as it grows. Potatoes form along the buried stems and the deeper they are hilled the more potatoes develop. Watch for Yukon Gold, Red Lasoda, German Butterball, Rose Finn Apple Fingerlings, and Purple Potatoes coming in June.
Rows and rows of crispy carrots are ready to pull and lots of tender lettuces make for tasty salads every day.
In the hoop-house our farm manager, Travis, is harvesting “parthenocarpic” (able to set fruit without pollenization) zucchini and early cucumbers. Several other types of squash and cucumbers are blooming in the field, as are melons, beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, and flowers for bouquets.
We live in the perfect climate for eating local all year long, so enjoy something from Placer County with every meal.