Around here, June is a special time. It’s that time of year when the weather heats up, the sun shines longer and we relax in the backyard at the end of the day reminiscing about our days of old. Oh yeah, and it’s Apricot harvest time! If you’ve been a reader of our newsletter for a while, chances are you remember how proud we are of our Apricots. They love growing here in the Central Valley ‘cause the soil is just right, the days are warm (sometimes downright hot) and they get water that flows from the Sierra Nevada Mountains just east of us. And we all know that this season we had a good drenching, so our orchards got many generous servings of water, making those trees especially happy. Right now, workers are getting ready to harvest our treasured Certified Organic Apricots that are grown in an orchard that’s been in the Martino family since 1943. Yes friends, the days of old.
Thanks to the kindness of Mother Nature and the work of our experienced specialists we’re looking at an outstanding harvest this year. Early in the season, our specialist thinned the little fruitlets off the trees by hand, which resulted in nice, sizeable and sweet fruits. And now’s the time for our harvesting specialists to get out in our Certified Organic Apricots orchard to select the best fruits to be picked. This is done in stages to allow only the most optimally ripe fruits to be chosen. No machinery is involved in this process except for the old tractor that carries these sun-kissed fruit off to our nearby drying facility. That old tractor has been around for many harvests and has served us well.
Speaking of old stuff and old times, we were recently reminiscing about how long we’ve been farming, how fortunate we are to run a family-operated business and how we are still passionate about what we do. We are very fortunate indeed. And we were also just talking about way back in the 1970s when Angie, then a 7-year old newcomer from the Midwest, first tasted California-grown Apricots and was amazed. She and her family hadn’t had anything like it due to the cold Midwest winters, the iffy growing conditions there and the availability of a variety of fruits in their stores at that time. During her family’s first June here, they went fruit stand hopping to gather up over-ripe and blemished Apricots. They’d then take them home, dry ‘em and then send them to their Midwestern relatives. It was that first June in Modesto that Angie and her family ventured out to the Martino family’s fruit stand. And it was then that she first met Victor, an 8-year old boy who was helping his dad and mom at the Apricot orchard. Who’d have known that they would later get married, have kids of their own and start Bella Viva Orchards? While it was so many years ago, in many ways it seems like just yesterday. Angie still loves those Apricots and still loves running this business with her husband and recalls that it IS and WAS such a beautiful life.
Apricots on the TreeSo this year, as you think of the harvest of Certified Organic Apricots from the Martino family’s legacy orchard and the story of how Angie met Victor, allow yourself to reminisce about your own days of old. While you’re at it, may we recommend that you open up a nice bag of Bella Viva Orchards’ Certified Organic Apricots and head for your own back yard for some summertime relaxation.
We’re making it even easier for you to get to that happy place, ‘cause from now through the end of June we’re offering our Certified Organic California Apricots, usually $19.99 per pound (an excellent value for all that TLC they receive), as this month’s web special for just $12.99 per pound. To help you relax, we’re doing the math for you: That’s an almost unheard of 35 percent off per pound! So stock up, kick back and enjoy your own walk down memory lane! Happy summer, everyone!
