Category Archives: Cooking/Gardening/Nutrition

A Photo Tour of Burgeson Family Farm

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trees loaded wm

On Burgeson Family Farm, our Satsuma mandarins are our primary crop, but we have planted a variety of specialty citrus and other fruit on our two acres in Newcastle, California. 

Big changes are coming to our farm over the next few weeks, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I am taking a trip down memory lane by sharing these photos of some of the fun things we have grown on this fertile piece of the planet over the years.

About 10 years ago we started planting avocados. We are growing the Mexicola, Stewart and Pinkerton avocados and are having some great results with these more frost tolerant varieties.avocado tree

The white powder on the tree is called Kaolin Clay. It is a fine organic clay powder we mix with water and spray on some of our trees such as apples and avocados. It protects the fruit and leaves from sunburn and also discourages insects. It washes off the fruit after we harvest.avocado

 

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Mexicola Avocado.

Mexicola avocados have a very thin skin and buttery flesh. The skin is actually edible!

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During harvest season we often will host and open house where we offer citrus tastings.

If you have never tried some of these specialty citrus fruits, seek them out when they are in season and have a taste.

We are famous for our sweet, seedless, easy to peel Satsuma mandarins.satsuma-cut1 wm

Satsuma Mandarins

Have you ever tasted Algerian clementines? They are incredibly sweet. They do have seeds, unlike our Satsumas.

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Algerian Clementines

Our first citrus crop in the fall is usually the Persian (Bearss) Limes. They have no seeds and have more juice than most store bought limes. They start out green and eventually turn yellow but can be used when they are yellow or green. The yellow ones are more juicy and sweet, the green ones are more tart and aromatic.

bearss-lime wm

Persian (Bearss) limes

Key limes are small, and have seeds, and are more tart than the Persian limes. Most importantly they are grown right here on our farm, not imported from Mexico. We use no pesticides or herbicides in growing any of our produce. Key limes can be used in any recipe calling for limes. We use them in cocktails.

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California Key Limes

Oro Blanco grapefruit are like a Pomelo, with very thick skin and sweet, juicy flesh. We peel them and eat them like an orange, and will often remove the membrane from each segment as it is so easy to remove. When you eat a peeled Oro Blanco segment, you will agree it is the sweetest grapefruit you have ever tasted. Because they are so juicy, they are fabulous for fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and have a very high yield. Of course you can also cut them in half and eat them with a grapefruit spoon but expect them to have more juice than a typical grapefruit.

oro-blance-trimmed wmOro Blanco Grapefruit

Sanguinella  blood oranges have a sweet tart flavor, with a hint of raspberry. They are popular for using in savory dishes and salad, they make beautiful juice for cocktails and delicious marmalade. Blood oranges are also fun to eat sliced in wedges. Try tucking some wedges in a child’s lunchbox for fun. Kids love the name and the color!

blood-orange-final wmSanguinella Blood Orange

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We also grow Tarocco blood oranges.These are interesting in that they color up and sweeten  in storage after harvest so we usually keep them for several weeks after harvest before selling or eating them.

Cara Cara oranges have pink flesh and otherwise are similar to a Navel orange.

cara cara orange

Cara Cara Orange

Washington Navel and Valencia oranges are your more common varieties, and they seem to be especially sweet when grown on our Sierra foothills property. Washington Navels are eaten as a fresh orange. The juice will turn bitter soon after pressing. Valencia oranges can be used as fresh fruit or for juice as they are the traditional Florida juice orange.

Valencia Orange

Valencia orange

Meyer Lemons are the most frost tolerant of all lemons. They are very sweet, aromatic, and juicy, with soft skins, and as the season progresses they get bigger, with thicker skin. Meyer Lemons are actually a cross between a mandarin and a lemon

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Meyer Lemon

Our Meyer Lemon tree typically gets between 500 and 1000 pounds of fruit per year!

We have 2 types of apple trees, Granny Smith and Winesap. The Granny Smith apples get very sweet and delicious if you leave them on the tree until late fall. Winesap apples develop more flavor and sweetness when you store them for a week or two after you harvest them.

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Winesap apples

Adrian has planted a lot of pomegranate trees over the years.

photoshopped-pomegranate-11 We especially like the special Parfianka variety shown below. They have softer seeds than the “Wonderful” pomegranate you typically see in the stores and the seeds are easier to remove from the skins.

Parfianka pomegranate

Parfianka Pomegranates

We love to make juice from pomegranates by removing the seeds, then pressing them with this little tabletop press.

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We grow a large crop of garlic every year, then set some aside to plant for the following year. Some varieties last longer after harvest, giving us home grown garlic year round.

home grown garlic cr

There are several types of garlic shown here. The big red ones are Spanish Roja. They grow very large in our well drained soil.

Winter squash is another crop that can be grown over the summer and stored to be eaten for much of the winter.

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Butternut Squash

We have found that Sweetmeat squash, which are larger, last a bit longer in storage than the Butternut.

Quince are an old fashioned winter fruit. We have one dwarf tree and it is prolific.

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Smyrna Quince

Quince must be cooked to be eaten and will turn a lovely pink color as they cook.

Fall is olive harvest season.

olive-harvest-w copy.

We typically use some of the olives for preserving and the majority of them to make oil which we use throughout the year. 

Fuyu persimmons are also harvested In the fall. 

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Fuyu Persimmon 

Fuyu Persimmons can be eaten when crispy, like an apple, or when soft. Unlike Hachiya persimmons, they are never bitter.

In the summer we usually plant a vegetable garden. We especially have success with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash.

end-of-season-harvest

Tomatoes are great to can, freeze or dry for the winter so a big crop is no problem.

Figs are another great summer crop and some of the heirloom varieties we are growing are giant! 

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Black Mission Figs

We like to dry the figs to eat for snacks during the winter.

We are not animal farmers, but when our son was young we did have chickens. He loved to play with them

evan chickens copyrignht

 

This is the time of year when all of these trees start blooming in preparation for another harvest season on the farm. The farm is abuzz with the humming of thousands of bees at work.

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limes-with-flowers

The scent of so many citrus trees in bloom is intoxicating!

Before we know it, we will have made another trip around the sun, and the trees will be loaded and waiting for harvest once again.

 

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Thanks for visiting. We hope you enjoyed this little tour of Burgeson Family Farm

© 2021 Dayna Green-Burgeson RD, CDE. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction of any content in the article without the written permission of the author is prohibited.

http://www.burgesonfamilyfarm.com

The first citrus of the season: Limes

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key-and-bearss-limes

The first citrus of the season to ripen in our Sierra Foothill Location are limes. These will be followed by Satsuma Mandarins, then Meyer lemons, Oro Blanco Pomelos and finally Blood and Navel Oranges as we progress into the winter. We grow both Persian limes, also called Bartender’s Limes, which are the large juicy seedless limes you usually see in the grocery store, and Key limes, which are tart, small, tinged with yellow and have many tiny seeds. 

Most supermarket limes are grown in Mexico, harvested when they are barely ripe, shipped to the US, and often stored for weeks before purchase. They tend to be low in juice content due to these harvest conditions.

In contrast, our limes are grown right here in the Sierra Foothills of California, using no pesticides or herbicides, and they ripen to perfection in the autumn sun. As limes ripen they color up from dark green, to a lighter green, and then finally yellow. We pick them at the light green stage, sometimes with a touch of yellow, and they are very juicy and flavorful.  Once you have tried these limes, you will never take a lime for granted again.

Opening a box filled with our limes is like aromatherapy.

Mojo marinade made with our fresh limes will upgrade your grilled chicken thighs and pork loin. Try this recipe.

Check out these delicious recipes on our website for our juicy limes: creamy citrus pops, key lime pie.

Our absolute favorite cocktail made with fresh lime juice is called the New Spain.

Demand for our limes was great this year and we are now sold out for the year. 

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Creamy citrus pops

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Citrus season on Burgeson Family Farm always starts with the lime harvest. Before the very hot summers have faded to the crisp days of autumn we treat ourselves to cool lime-centric drinks on the porch in the evening: gin and tonic, greyhound and margarita cocktails and sparkling water on ice with generous wedges of lime plucked from the tree just minutes before. When I walk by the trees, laden with fruit, it is almost impossible for me to resist grabbing a lime, scratching the aromatic rind and inhaling the intoxicating aroma.

limes-with-flowers

Limes on the trees at Burgeson Family Farm. Note the bees are at work pollinating a new crop which will be ready in the spring. It is uncommon for us to have 2 crops in one year but it looks like it will happen this year.

This is the pop recipe that “started it all”, the pop obsession in our family. Lime pops are so cool, creamy and tart; it takes only 3 ingredients and minutes to make the mix, and to me they are more satisfying and delicious than a key lime pie.  This recipe will work with any limes, either the small little Key limes with their intense acidity and aroma and multitude of tiny seeds, or the big juicy seedless Bearss limes, or even store bought supermarket Mexican limes. We have also made this recipe with lemons which make a kind of frozen lemon meringue pie pop.key-and-bearss-limes

 

Key limes on the left and Bearss limes on the right

(Many people think that only key limes are yellow but all limes will turn more yellow when they are very ripe. Note the Bearrs limes are actually more yellow than the Key limes.)

If there is a farmer in your area growing limes, I urge you to  buy some at least once to make this, or your cocktails, with them.  Most of the limes in the grocery stores are shipped from Mexico, and they are far from freshly picked. The oils in the zest of a freshly picked lime add so much to the flavor of this recipe. You may want to keep one on hand to “scratch and sniff” for a pick me up.

3 Ingredient Creamy Lime Pop Recipe

For this recipe you need only 3 ingredients:

Limes (4-5 large ones or about 10-14 small ones)

1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces) (I use organic)

1 ½ cups of non-fat Greek yogurt (I use organic, usually either Straus, Clover or Wallaby because I have actually seen their farms and “happy cows” as I travel about Northern California)

(Note, if you want a creamier, more decadent pop, you can replace some, or all of the Greek yogurt with softly whipped cream. Now you really have an ice cream bar!)

Finely zest the rind from the limes. I love this little tool, a microplane grater, for making a very fine zest:microplane-grater-rind

You should have 2 Tablespoons of zest. Note the beautiful fine zest this tool makes.

a-fine-lime-zest

Squeeze the juice from enough limes to make ½ cup.  This handy citrus juicer makes that task a breeze.

juicing-limes

Put the juice and zest in a bowl. Stir in the condensed milk.  Add the Nonfat Greek yogurt and/or whipped cream and mix well. I use a hand whisk. You can also whip it in a blender which will make the mixture fluffy and the pops will be more light and creamy once frozen.

whisking-ingredients

(I like to mix it in a measuring cup with a pour spout for easy pouring into the molds).

Note: These are high in protein and low in fat (see the analysis below). If you would like the recipe to be even higher in protein and lower in sugar and fat, you can add more of the Greek yogurt. That can be done according to your taste, as it will make them tart.  They also will be a bit less creamy.

Pour the mixture into the popsicle molds. This recipe will make 10 popsicles of about 1/2 cup each.

filling-pop-molds

If you don’t have molds you can use small paper cups, but I urge you to consider buying some popsicle molds. They are the most used piece of kitchen equipment we have purchased in a long time.

Put the popsicle sticks in the molds.

insert-sticks

Don’t shove the sticks all the way to the bottom. That will leave a short stick for eating. The mixture should be thick enough to suspend the sticks at the right depth. If not, freeze for awhile and then insert the sticks about halfway into the molds.

Now put the molds in a flat spot in your freezer and patiently wait for at least 4-6 hours for them to freeze completely all the way through. The sticks must be completely frozen in the middle of the pop.

To remove the popsicles from the molds put some very hot water in a glass. (I heat the water in the glass for a minute or two in the microwave). Dip the pop in the hot water for 10-20 seconds or so, until it slightly releases from the sides of the mold. Now squeeze the mold a bit to loosen the pop, hold the pop with the handle facing down and slide it out of the mold. If it does not come out easily, do not pull too hard on the stick or it might come out of the pop. Instead, heat it in the water again until it releases easily.

You can refreeze the pops on a tray until they are very hard, so they don’t stick together, then store them in a container or plastic bag in the freezer. They theoretically will last a long time, but practically speaking, it is doubtful they will be around all that long. They are that good.

pops

Creamy Lime Pops

Nutrition Analysis per Pop (Makes 10):

152 calories, 6 grams protein, 24 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams fat, 2 grams saturated fat,

© 2015. Dayna Green-Burgeson RD, CDE. All Rights Reserved.

Pomegranates: How to get to the seeds; how to make juice

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Pomegranates are such a beautiful, nutritious fruit that it is a shame that so few people get the chance to enjoy them. Many are intimidated by the process of removing the seeds, and obtaining juice from the seeds is even more overwhelming. But the delicious reward for your endeavours is unequaled, and it really can be a relatively clean and painless process if done correctly.

Often the pomegranates you buy in the store have been picked before they are fully ripe. The best pomegranates are the ones that are picked when they are so ripe they have started to crack. Obviously at this point they do not store well but this is when the color is the darkest and they are the most sweet. We try to pick our pomegranates right before they crack. Unfortunately when I picked today we had waited so long many of them looked like this.

perfectly-ripe-pomegranate-1

I won’t be able to sell this pomegranate but it will make great juice and it will be easy to open!

We use most of the pomegranates we grow to make juice. We love to
mix the juice with tonic water, or spirits such as vodka or tequila to make
cocktails. It also can be boiled down to make pomegranate syrup to use in
cooking.

We tried using citrus presses and other easy methods to make
the juice, but we have found that the skin and pulp impart bitter flavors to the juice
so we have gone back to using a somewhat laborious method which involves
first removing the seeds from the pomegranate, then getting juice from the
seeds.

Here is how to get the seeds from the pomegranate:

First remove the skin from the top and bottom of the
pomegranate. Cut around the circumference but only through the skin, not
deep enough to cut the seeds. This will prevent the task from becoming a big juicy mess!

pomegranate-slice-top-1

Cut around the circumference of the pomegranate both top and bottom but do not cut through the seeds, only through the skin.

Now peel off the skin. Notice the seeds are whole.This is because they were not cut with the knife.

peeling-top-off-1

Peeling off the top and bottom to reveal the lovely seeds inside.

There can be some pomegranate spray, so I usually do this step and the steps afterwards holding the pomegranate under a bowl full of water.  The water contains almost every bit of spray. If I do this while watching TV rather than outside or in the kitchen, I cover the sofa with an old sheet as an extra precaution.

Now cut from top to bottom in about 5 or 6 locations around the perimeter of the pomegranate. Again, these are shallow cuts that only cut the skin, not the seeds.

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Now  break the pomegranate apart along the natural segments, and remove the seeds from each segment. This is less messy if it is done under water.

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Note the natural segments of seeds that have separated from the skin and membrane.  Gently scrap away those seeds from the membrane and let them drop into the water.

The white pulp will float to the top and the seeds will sink to
the bottom of the water. Now skim the pulp off the top of the water,
and strain the seeds, and they are ready to go.

skimming-the-water

If you dry the seeds on a cloth and then store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator, with folded paper towels on the top of the seeds, they can last for weeks. You can sprinkle them on salad, on your yogurt and oatmeal or just grab handfuls for snacks.

If you want to take it to the next level, you can make juice.

Here is a huge soup pot filled with pomegranate seeds ready for making juice.
Adrian often does this job while he is watching TV. He covers the sofa with a sheet because he prefers to not use the water, so it can become a somewhat messy job. Check out that sheet. Sometimes it looks like a massacre has occurred in our living room!the-pomegranate-seeds-1

The juice can be made with either raw or cooked pomegranates. We have found it is somewhat sweeter if we cook them. If you are planning to make juice and do not have a juice press, you should heat them to get the maximum yield. Put a small amount of water in the bottom of the pot, smash them down slightly with a potato masher to release more liquid, put on the cover, and slowly heat the pomegranates, stirring occasionally, until they have come to a simmer and have broken down but have not boiled, and the juice has been released. Then let them cool.

These are the pomegranates after heating and cooling. They are now ready to be pressed.

pomegranates-after-heating-1

Cooked pomegranate seeds ready to be made into juice.

The seeds are then placed into a juice bag which we purchased, along with our little tabletop press, at The Beverage People, which is in Santa Rosa. We have also seen small tabletop presses for sale at O’hara Brew House Supply in Auburn. Ours is an Italian Fruit Press and is made by Ferrari. You can also use a large piece of muslin if you are planning to squeeze the juice by hand.

the-pressing-1 (1)

Pouring seeds and juice into tabletop press

Before we had this tabletop press, we used a large old wine press we had, and before that we just used muslin or a cloth bag and squeezed by hand. The little tabletop press is by far the best way to go when you have a lot of pomegranates and are planning to make juice every year.

If you are doing this by hand, just place the pomegranate seeds in a fine mesh strainer and let the juice run out freely. Then put the seeds in a muslin bag or in the middle of a large muslin piece and twist the top until the juice is squeezed out of the bag. Continue to twist and squeeze the bag or fabric until you can get as much juice out as possible. You can get about 3/4 of the juice out without using a press. We got about 1 cup of juice per pound of seeds squeezing by hand. This is the seeds from 2 large pomegranates.

We put the bag of pomegranate seeds in the press, gradually
screw it down to create pressure on the seeds and the juice runs out of the
spout into our collection device.press-3

This may be the best pomegranate juice you have ever tasted!

From there we pour it into bottles and freeze or can it to use year round.

Nutrition Note: pomegranates are high in phyto-nutrients
associated with a reduction in disease. Much of the strongest research has suggested that eating pomegranates or drinking the juice can reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. The research on reducing the risk of prostate cancer has been especially promising.

We have pomegranates for sale on the farm now. Please contact us using this link to place an order.

© 2015. Dayna Green-Burgeson RD, CDE. All Rights Reserved.

www.burgesonfamilyfarm.com

Key Lime Pie

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The first citrus crop to ripen on our farm are limes. The harvest starts in early Fall.

We grow both key limes and Bearss limes on our farm here in Newcastle, California. Both are tart, juicy and delicious and can be used in this recipe. The Key limes are small, with many seeds, and are a bit more tart than the Bearss limes, which are seedless, large and juicy. Both limes will turn more yellow as the season progresses.

key lime with signature_edited-1

This recipe is for a delicious, easy frozen key lime pie.  It is so refreshing after a rich  meal and it is so simple to prepare.

Easy Frozen Key Lime Pie 

Use any recipe you like, or purchase a premade graham cracker crust:

Mix until blended:

1 Tablespoon grated lime rind

1/2 cup of lime juice

1 can of sweetened condensed milk.

Fold in:

1 cup of whipped cream (or for a lower fat version you can use Greek yogurt to replace some, or all of the cream)

Pour this into the pie shell and freeze until solid (at least 3 hours).

You can also top with more whipped cream and shredded lime rind to pretty this sweet treat up.

Do you wonder how you can purchase our Key Limes? Contact our farm to arrange to pick them up.

 

Satsumas and beer

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Yesterday after a hard days work picking and packing mandarins we made a delivery to a local brewery, Out of Bounds Brewery in Rocklin. The head brewer ordered some of our Satsuma mandarins to add to a special batch of beer he will be brewing.  We sat down for a tasting of the 12 beers available. We are homebrewers and pretty critical of beer so it is rare that we like all of the beers made by a brewery, but this was an exception. The beers were fantastic! We are excitedly awaiting the first beer made from our Satsuma Mandarins which will be available sometime in January. We will post the minute it is available!

Tough year on the farm.

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It is November 13, 2017, and usually by now I have sent emails out to our usual customers with instructions for pre-ordering shipped Satsuma mandarin boxes or bags of mandarins from our farm. This year, no one has received that email, and the phone calls are coming in. What is up with us here on the farm?

In October, our sister farm, Leisen’s Bridgeway Farms, was consumed by the fires in Santa Rosa. My sister Janet Leisen and her husband Corrie lost everything in the fires. The barn, the rental house, the home, most of the trees, the tractor, the walk in for storing produce, the vintage car, the irrigation equipment…everything. My niece, her husband and their two young children who lived nearby also lost their home and everything on their property. We have been preoccupied with helping them and other residents of Santa Rosa however we can. The time has flown by and our normal fall routine was interrupted.

The community in my home town of Santa Rosa, and my family, are in for a long process of rebuilding from the ashes. After the media has moved on to the next news cycle, they will still be struggling and will need all the help that they can get. If you feel concern and would like to help, cash donations are the most useful at this time. The infrastructure for donated item distribution has been overwhelmed so I have noticed first hand the inability of fire victims to be able to obtain, store and utilize donated items.

There is a go fund me account to support Leisen’s Bridgeway farms.

https://www.gofundme.com/leisenfamilyfirefund

There is also a general fund providing support to all the fire victims in the Northern California Fires.

https://www.redwoodcu.org/northbayfirerelief

The other bad news is that with recent changes in weather last year and this year again, we have had extreme heat in the early spring.  As farmers we believe in man made climate change as we are personally seeing the effects. This heat has led to extensive “fruit drop” where our mandarins drop most of the baby fruit on the ground early in the season.

dried mandarins

Early season heat spells caused the small mandarin fruit to shrivel on the tree.

dried mandarins 3That fruit then dropped to the ground, causing significant loss of our crop for the year.

As a result, we have the smallest mandarin crop in years. We will not be taking orders online for shipped gift boxes at all this year.

We plan to sell mandarins in bags from our farm once we start harvest in a few weeks. We may have a few boxes available at that time to ship to our established customers depending upon harvest conditions.

If you would like to be updated on the progression of the harvest, and supply, and to be notified when harvest begins, please send an email to us and we will put you on the email notification list.

Thank you for your support of our small farm.

Dayna Burgeson

 

 

 

 

 

Farmers/Environmentalists/Land Stewards

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As farmers we are reminded daily that we are dependent upon the health of our planet for everything. The environmental agenda has taken a backseat in politics recently and as a result we are very concerned about the long term prognosis of the human species on this very small planet. We all must take individual and collective action to help protect the only earth we have in any way we can. As a family we are trying to do our part. When one does not like the way things are, volunteer in whatever way you can to make a difference. It is empowering and you will receive more than you give. We are so proud as a family to have received the Placer Land Trust’s Land Steward award this year. And we love this little youtube video they made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqFwwCiD6KY

Thanks to our customers

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We are so lucky to have a great family of customers who come back to our farm year after year for their freshly picked Satsuma Mandarins. Every year we get special new  customers to add to this growing family.

 

We have received so many kind emails and comments about our Satsumas, and compiled them here to remind us why we do what we do.

Your oranges are amazing!…JG

Our friend shared some of her shipment of Mandarins with us..they are the most incredible I have ever tasted!…TC

They are beyond yummy, as usual…GM

We just love your lovely mandarins….AE

I have bought Satsuma from 2 other farms but yours are simply the best!!!…KM

Got them, opened them, love them …PD

Oh my goodness!  These are by far the best Mandarins we’ve ever eaten!  Glenn picked them up last night at the bee meeting and we’ve been consuming them ever since. Thanks again for producing such a wonderful and pesticide free product.  YUMMMMMMYYYYY!!!!!!!…GM

I received them on Thursday and they are gone today.  My little girls absolutely loved
them, as well as a few guests we had over this weekend for a tamale
dinner. …VM

We are enjoying them very much…RF

I can hardly wait for your mandarins…SM

I received a box of Satsuma mandarins as a gift this week and they
are wonderful…KW

We received a box of your mandarins last year as a gift from a family member (and we’re about to receive one again this year!).  They were so delicious that we are interested in sending some as a gift as well…TG

The oranges have arrived safely and all have responded with very positive
comments.  Thanks for completing these orders for me…MR

my Dad LOVES them!!…LR

Hi Dayna, I am thrilled to get your mandarins this year.  I still wish you
are just down the street…JG

I am looking forward to those great
mandarins from your farm… J.P

You guys really have the best mandarins in the area…JG

Last year my mom sent me satsumas and a few lemons from your orchard, they were fantastic!…YA

Thank you very much for the update. My little girls are already asking when we get that bag of those delicious little oranges. :0) ..VM

Can’t wait to get my share of these Satsuma’s: we had them when we were visiting our friends and grandchildren in California over the holidays and we were hooked.  My husband who generally does not like citrus foods that much, kept eating them too…EV

The ones I tasted were sweet as could be and far superior to the ones in the grocery stores!…SO

The box with the mandarins and lemons arrived with todays parcel mail. The fruit is in perfect condition and is as flavorful as only your mandarins are.  The best I ever had Thank you…AMW

The Mandarins arrived and they are delicious…JF

Our good friends gave us a box of your indescribably yummy mandarins.  She was a little vague about how we could order some for ourselves.  I think she wants them all for herself.  I’m writing to ask that if possible you please include us as likely customers for you future harvests.  Then we could astound and frustrate our friends with mysteriously fabulous fruit just like they do…KM

Got ’em today, as did at least one of my siblings. They’re REALLY good. I’m sure you’re working hard down there, but it’s worth it! …PN

Thank you, received in great shape. They are most delicious and lovely…..DW

I hope you don’t mind me saying this but yours are the crack of mandarins…NK

Your mandarins are so wonderful it’s totally worth waiting until they’re ready….AE

Can hardly wait!  Please find two orders attached below for your incredibly wonderful Satsumas. Just so you know,  my husband doesn’t really like to eat citrus fruit EXCEPT for your Satsuma oranges!!! EV
 

Winter Citrus Tour at Burgeson Family Farm

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trees loaded wm

On Burgeson Family Farm, our hundred plus Satsuma mandarin trees are our primary crop, but over the years we have planted a variety of specialty citrus and other fruit on our two acres in Newcastle, California.

Below is a tour of some of the citrus fruit that we have for sale when it is in season. Customers contact us to order fruit picked to order to pick up at our farm, or at times have our fruit shipped to them through the US Postal Service. Our season starts in the fall, with the limes being the first to ripen. Our Satsuma mandarin harvest starts around Thanksgiving.

 

taste1 watermark

If you have never tried some of these specialty citrus fruits, seek them out when they are in season and have a taste.

We are famous for our sweet, seedless, easy to peel Satsuma mandarins.satsuma-cut1 wm

Satsuma Mandarins

When they are available, we sell Satsumas in 10 pound bags, 5 pound bags and we also ship boxes.

satsuma bag wm

Have you ever tasted Algerian clementines? They are incredibly sweet. They do have seeds, unlike our Satsumas.

clementine copyright final

Algerian Clementines

Our first citrus crop in the fall is usually the Persian (Bearss) Limes. They have no seeds and are incredibly juicy. They start out green and eventually turn yellow but can be used when they are yellow or green. The yellow ones are more juicy and sweet, the green ones are more tart and aromatic.

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Persian (Bearss) limes

We also have Key Limes. They are small, and have seeds, but they are very juicy and most importantly they are grown right here on our farm, not imported from Mexico. We use no pesticides or herbicides in growing any of our produce. Key limes can be used in any recipe calling for limes. We use them in cocktails.

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California Key Limes

We also have Oro Blanco Grapefruit. These are like a Pomelo, with very thick skin and sweet, juicy flesh. We peel them and eat them like an orange, and will often remove the membrane from each segment as it is so easy to remove. When you eat a peeled Oro Blanco segment, you will agree it is the sweetest grapefruit you have ever tasted. Because they are so juicy, they are fabulous for fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and have a very high yield. Of course you can also cut them in half and eat them with a grapefruit spoon but expect them to have more juice than a typical grapefruit.

oro-blance-trimmed wmOro Blanco Grapefruit

Sanguinella  blood oranges have a sweet tart flavor, with a hint of raspberry. They are popular for using in savory dishes and salad, they make beautiful juice for cocktails and delicious marmalade. Blood oranges are also fun to eat sliced in wedges. Try tucking some wedges in a child’s lunchbox for fun. Kids love the name and the color!

blood-orange-final wmSanguinella Blood Orange

We also grow Meyer Lemons. They are the most frost tolerant of all lemons. They are very sweet, aromatic, and juicy, with soft skins, and as the season progresses they get bigger, with thicker skin. Meyer Lemons are actually a cross between a mandarin and a lemon

meyer-lemon wmA large Meyer Lemon

Thanks for visiting and please contact us if you are interested in ordering any of the fruit in season for pick up from our farm.

© 2015. Dayna Green-Burgeson RD, CDE. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction of any content in the article without the written persmission of the author is prohibited.

http://www.burgesonfamilyfarm.com

 

Satsumas are not “Cuties” (TM)

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On our farm, we grow Owari Satsuma mandarin oranges. Owari satsuma are a genetically seedless type of mandarin orange, developed in Japan hundreds of years ago. Because they are genetically seedless, our farm is bee friendly and we have thousands of bees covering our trees when they are blossoming. The sound of the buzz of the bees, and the intense floral aroma of the trees in bloom is mesmerizing. Satsuma mandarins  have an intense sweet tart flavor, and are especially delicious when grown in foothill climates such as that in Placer County, California. Less than 10 percent of all the tangerine/mandarins grown in California are of the Satsuma type.

Cuties (TM) are a type of clementine (another type of mandarin) and are a brand name product. The name was originally owned by Paramount citrus, but recently after much litigation, Sun Pacific Brands split from Paramount citrus and purchased the rights to the name Cuties. Paramount now is marketing clementines under the Halo brand name. These are large, multi-million dollar corporations and they grow their citrus in California’s central valley, in areas previously used to grow seedless naval oranges. They also seem to have a lot of legal battles between themselves and others as discussed in this Wall Street Journal Article. They originally planted clementines that were not genetically seedless, and then used their assets to hire legal counsel to sue beekeepers for bees trespassing and causing their products to have seeds. This is a link to a copy of the letter written to one beekeeper. They now net their trees to keep bees away and also have started planting new varieties developed by UC that are genetically seedless. The majority of mandarins/tangerines grown in California are these clementine type of mandarins.

So, a satsuma is a type of mandarin, a clementine is a type of mandarin, but please, please do not call our Satsuma “cuties”….

 

© 2015. Dayna Green-Burgeson RD, CDE. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction of any content in the article without the written persmission of the author is prohibited.

http://www.burgesonfamilyfarm.com

New Years Cheer: Satsuma Juice and Cocktails

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When we sort through our Satsumas before boxing and bagging them we pull out all of the “uglies” that we do not think are of sufficient quality to sell. Some of them have damaged skin, others are just too large and fibrous, some have hard green spots on the skin.

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“Ugly mandarins”

These mandarins are still very sweet and juicy however, so they make great mandarin juice. We just cut them in half and juice them using a citrus juicer. You can even squeeze them by hand, they are so soft and juicy.

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Delicious fresh Satsuma Mandarin juice

We have come up with some delicious cocktail recipes using the mandarin juice.

Sierra Sunset Cocktail

In addition to using the fresh squeezed mandarin juice, this recipe uses pomegranate juice, sweet sparkling wine such as Proseco, and Grand Marnier. The recipe for our home-made pomegranate juice is here:

https://burgesonfamilyfarm.com/2018/10/05/pomegranates-how-to-get-to-the-seeds-how-to-make-juice-2/

Fill a glass with crushed ice. Fill the glass with slightly less than 1/3 pomegranate juice, then add 1/3 sweet sparkling wine and 1/3 mandarin juice. Finally pour 1 Tablespoon of Grand Marnier over the top.

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“Sierra Sunset Cocktail”

For a non alcoholic version, fill the glass with 1/3 pomegranate juice, 1/3 tonic water, and 1/3 mandarin juice.

Mandarin Vodka Tonic

Fill a glass with crushed ice. Mix 1/2 cup mandarin juice, 1/2 cup tonic water and 1 shot of vodka and pour over the ice.

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“Mandarin Vodka Tonic”

You can also make a delicious Satsuma Mandarin Margarita.

Satsuma Mandarin Margarita

Mix together :

3 shots fresh squeezed Satsuma mandarin juice

1 shot white 100% agave tequila (such as Patron silver)

½ shot Cointreau

½ shot fresh squeezed lime juice

Pour this over ice in a glass and serve immediately.

mandarin-margarita-close-upw

© 2013. Dayna Green-Burgeson RD, CDE. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction of any content in the article without the written permission of the author is prohibited.

http://www.burgesonfamilyfarm.com

Burgeson Family Farm is in the news.

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We just finished an interview with CBS news in Sacramento and will be on their 10 o’clock news show tonight. They wanted to know all about our satsumas and the challenge of the cold weather. They will be shooting live from the farm tonight at 10. Check it out!

Here is the link to their story

Last night was not as frigid as the last few nights and it looks like the coldest nights of this weather system are over for now.

Killer Tomato Sauce

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I have been making tomato sauce from the garden for over 30 years, but only recently did I come upon this method and I think it is the best. Why? Well it is easy for one thing. Just pop it in an oven, sit down to read a book or play with your kids or whatever, and get up every 15 minutes or so to stir it. The other reason is that the slow oven cooking caramelizes the sugars that are naturally present in the tomatoes giving a sweetness and intensity that you just cannot get with a stove-top tomato sauce. You will soon notice on this blog that I use a large roasting pan often to make my favorite easy meals. If you do not have one yet, I highly recommend a dark, steel roasting pan. To tell you the truth, I have had mine so long I do not know who the manufacturer is as the label is worn away  but it is indispensable in my kitchen.

I started with this harvest of tomatoes. The rain was really coming down so we needed to salvage them before it was too late.  A lot of them are cracked and a few are also not as ripe as I would like. The beautiful convoluted ones are called Costoluto Genovese.

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Adrian is removing the core of the tomato with a knife. This is a Cherokee Purple tomato, they often have a bit of green around the top.

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I put them in boiling water for a minute or so to blanch and help with removing the skin. I  took them out of the water with one of my favorite kitchen tools which is this Asian style handled strainer.

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After they cooled a bit we removed the skin and broke the tomatoes into rough pieces with our hands. Adrian is doing this over a bowl. We usually catch all the juices and scrape out most of the seeds into a bowl and discard them. I think the seeds make the sauce bitter. We put the chunks of tomatoes in another bowl ready for making the sauce. This can be done ahead of time and they can be refrigerated.

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I chopped some onions in very large chunks. I also peeled some whole garlic. It is not necessary to chop the garlic at all.

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Oops, time to run out to the garden with a flashlight to grab some herbs. At least I caught a glimpse of the sunset….

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I grabbed some of this fresh thyme and also some oregano. I kept the stems whole, no need to chop them.

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I  put some extra virgin olive oil into the pan. Then all these big chunks of tomatoes, onions and whole cloves of garlic, along with the stalks of herbs, are thrown into the pan. Sometimes I have added chunks of red bell peppers or eggplant also. I put the pan into the very hot oven…400-450 degrees is good.

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After 15 minutes, I opened the oven and gave it a stir. As you can see the vegetables have released a lot of liquid. I continued to open the oven every 15 minutes or so, giving it a stir, and then closed the oven. Eventually the liquid evaporated and it started browning around the edges.One more stir, then I gave it another 10-15 minutes or so and it was done. This step should take 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

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It should look like this.

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Here I am pulling the stems of the herbs out of the sauce. The actual herbs will have dissolved into the sauce and flavored it. How easy is that?

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I put it in a bowl and hit it with a hand blender until it is my desired level of smoothness. Notice the whole garlic clove in there. It will puree easily. The stick hand blender is another one of my indispensable kitchen tools. But you could cool it and put it in a food processor or a regular blender.

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This is it, the final sauce. It is delicious on pasta or as a base for soups. It also can be used on pizza…

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I froze some to use later. Believe it or not that huge pile of tomatoes cooked down to about 2 quarts of delicious concentrated extract of tomato…

Nutrition Tip: Tomatoes, especially tomatoes that are cooked and eaten with some oil, like these, supply lycopene which is a phytochemical known to be a powerful antioxidant. Research suggests that diets high in lycopene may reduce the risk of certain cancers, especially prostate cancer. One thing I know for sure is it tastes great so eat up!

© 2011. Dayna Green-Burgeson RD, CDE. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction of any content in the article without the written persmission of the author is prohibited.

http://www.burgesonfamilyfarm.com