Heirloom fruit grown on the 15-acre Bera Ranch is handpicked and packed by three family members, including 81-year-old Frank Bera Sr., right, and son Frank.
the old-fashioned way—by hand, using ladders, metal buckets and vintage wooden lugs. “My 81-year-old father-in-law can pick 20 boxes of peaches in no time, and not break a sweat,” Bera said. Their harvest begins in late May with an early freestone peach called Springcrest. In midsummer, the Bera market stand features more than 10 varieties of both white and yellow heirloom peaches and nectarines and a wide variety of plums. “One year I had 17 varieties of plums at one time,” she said with a laugh. Harvest winds down by the end of September with late-season peaches such as Carnival, Fairtime and Summerset. The senior Frank Bera puts the family’s farming life into simple terms: “Michele tells us what she wants. We produce it. She sells it,” he said.
Loyal customers Emma Lipp, owner and chef at Valley restaurant in Sonoma, has traveled from her Sonoma home to Bera’s Napa market stand every Saturday for many summers. “I buy as much and as many different kinds of fruit that Michele has,” Lipp said. “We serve the fruit just as it is: delicious, fresh, beautiful stone fruit.” Longtime customer John Bisetti said Bera Ranch has “the most beautiful plums and peaches that I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world. They’re beautiful in terms of their taste and color. I eat them fresh all day long— for snacks and breakfast.” Customer Mikey Kelly called Bera’s stone fruit “amazing,” adding, “I stack them up in rows on my countertop and let them ripen. I get made fun of by my family for it. I’m obsessed. It’s an addiction.” A family harvest Harvest time at Bera Ranch is a family affair. Frank, Michele and Frank Sr. harvest and pack all of their fruit
Jolaine Collins info@californiabountiful.com
MORE ONLINE Watch the action at Bera Ranch and the Napa Farmers Market, where the family’s heirloom fruit has been a hit for 25 years: www.californiabountiful.com.
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July/August 2020
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