January Up Here Is Actually the Good Part

There's a version of January in Southern California that's gray and forgettable. That's not what we have at 1,800 feet.

The mornings are cold enough that you can see your breath in the grove. The valley spreads out below the property and sits under a marine layer until mid-morning. Then the sky clears, and what you get is citrus season at full tilt — fruit heavy on the branches, color saturated, flavor concentrated by the cool nights. January is when this farm earns its elevation.

Here's roughly what goes into the January bag, with the caveat that the exact contents depend on what's ready that particular week. Navel oranges are in peak form — clean sweetness, easy peel, the variety people think of when they think of California citrus. Satsumas are going at the same time — small, loose-skinned, and sweet enough that they rarely make it home intact. Blanco grapefruit and a handful of kumquats show up when they're ready. Meyer lemons, which aren't really a lemon (they're a lemon-mandarin hybrid), round things out: thin-skinned, less acidic than a Eureka, and worth using in everything from salad dressing to a quick pan sauce.

On the avocado side, Hass is done by late fall. January is Fuerte and Bacon territory. Both are milder than Hass, with a thinner skin and a slightly larger seed, but the flavor is there and the flesh is clean. Fresh rosemary and thyme from the herb garden come along too, cut that morning. Occasionally dried lavender bundles if the stock is ready.

What's not in the bag: anything picked before its time to meet a shipping window. The bag goes out when what's in it is actually ready. That's the whole point of doing this at the scale we do.