The Sweet Spot: Stone Fruit Tour in the San Joaquin Valley

CUESA takes you on an insider's tour of CandyCot Fruit Company and BellaViva Orchards.

Join CUESA for a tour of unprecedented sweetness. Our first stop will be Bella Viva Orchards in Denair, where Victor Martino's family has been farming since the 1940s. It's cherry season, and the Martinos, known for both their dried and fresh fruit, will walk us through the entire cherry-drying process. The farm dries fruit at the peak of ripeness, retaining flavor that can be enjoyed throughout the year. We'll then get to tour the organic orchard, where Bella Viva's famed peaches and other stone fruit are grown. Attendees will eat lunch at the farm and stop by the farm store for dried goodies.

Next we'll head over to CandyCot Fruit Company for a visit with John Driver. John selected his apricots over many visits to Central Asia, where apricots are intensely flavored and sweet. While these sweet varieties are typically difficult to grow in the United States, John's CandyCots do well in the California climate and, at an average of 26 degrees on the Brix scale of sweetness, are twice as sweet as some of their grocery store counterparts. Attendees will get to tour the orchards and learn about CandyCot apricots as the farm gets ready for harvest.

The tour costs $25 (Thanks to GreenLeaf and Coach 21 for their generous sponsorship) and includes lunch made with farmers market ingredients. We'll leave from and return to the Ferry Building in a comfortable bus.

This tour is organized by CUESA, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, as part of our mission to cultivate a sustainable food system. CUESA organizes 5-6 farm tours each year to Ferry Plaza Farmers Market farms and artisan food businesses in order to give eaters a first-hand look at where their food comes from and how it is produced. We're putting together farm tours for July and August. For more information or to sign up for our weekly email newsletter, visit http://www.cuesa.org.