Fresh from our farmers: Apples at Dean Family Farm

A tall, square bottle filled with honey-colored liquid is nestled into a small bowl of ice, looking good enough to drink. You can use Dean Family Farm’s farmstead apple cider vinegar as you would a shrub, by adding a generous splash to a glass of ice water for a refreshing afternoon quaffer that happens to be quite healthy, too.

The Dean Family Farm in Sebastopol began its third farmers market season last weekend.

In addition to their lovely apple cider vinegar, they have apple butter, applesauce, dried apple rings, fresh apples and fruit leather - apple, pear, raspberry-pear, raspberry-apple, and, later in the season, fig. They are considering adding peach leather, too.

This is the fourth year that Joseph and Eliza Dean have been farming their 12-acre orchard in west Sebastopol. They grow seven varieties of apples, along with pears, figs, peaches and raspberries. Their season typically lasts from late August through late December or early January though, really, there’s been nothing typical about farming since they began.

This year has been particularly challenging.

“There was an early bloom, then no bloom and then another bloom,” Joseph Dean, who moved here with his wife from Canterbury, England, a few years ago, said of spring, 2015, “with catastrophic results. Some varieties are down as much as 30 percent.”

Their Gravensteins were particularly hard hit, though not all of Sebastopol’s orchards were as severely impacted this year.

Their orchard’s ground is becoming increasingly dry. Last year, it was dry down to 12 inches; now it’s down to 18 to 24 inches. Trees are taking in an increasing amount of water through their leaves, which collect the morning mist that comes in from the nearby coast.

This changes the fruit and the Deans have noticed a decrease in flavor. More of their crop is going into their value-added products instead of going to market to be sold as fresh fruit.

The biggest challenge, Joseph Dean says, is to figure out how to rehydrate the soil. They dry-farm their land and watering won’t do that much.

“How would we hold it there?” Dean said, underscoring that the real issue is more complicated than simply irrigating.

“We must take a more serious look at soil development,” he added, explaining that it is one of the least-explored aspects of farming.

Dean Family Farm, founded in 2011 and owned and operated by Joseph and Eliza Dean, attends two farmers markets, the Santa Rosa Community Market at the Veterans Building on Saturday and the Sebastopol Farmers Market on Sunday.

To buy directly from the farm, call 829-1524 or email josdean@ymail.com.

Michele Anna Jordan has written 24 books to date, including the new “Good Cook’s” series. Email Jordan at michele@saladdresser.com. You’ll find her blog, “Eat This Now,” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.