PEACHES!
I sulk--every year--around fruit season.
When I was growing up, there were strawberry self-pick farms a mile or two from my house. In the same location there were apples (red delicious, yellow delicious, more). Up the hill from my house in the field owned by the university was an entire peach ORCHARD that the Agriculture Dept. at the university had planted and left to lie fallow after they were done with their observations. The guy who mowed the field a couple of times a year told us the orchard was just THERE and that we could take all we could carry as they'd otherwise just rot...so we had fresh peaches in season for a DECADE in UNLIMITED quantities. Just a little ways down the highway were more peach orchards, blueberry patches, and more.
And the fruit up here in Chicago is mostly shipped in from California. It is not as juicy or flavorful or fresh or GOOD as the stuff picked fresh from the trees...and is more costly than what I grew up with (which was mostly free or you-pick prices), which we bought in BULK and preserved and made pies from...and I MISS it.
Today, I walked into Whole Foods to get the 365 brand microwave popcorn that doesn't make my husband's eyes water and make him nauseated.
The first thing inside the door was a huge table of ECKERT'S PEACHES!!! They're not QUITE perfectly ripe but they're SO GOOD and I am OVER THE MOON!
When I was growing up, there were strawberry self-pick farms a mile or two from my house. In the same location there were apples (red delicious, yellow delicious, more). Up the hill from my house in the field owned by the university was an entire peach ORCHARD that the Agriculture Dept. at the university had planted and left to lie fallow after they were done with their observations. The guy who mowed the field a couple of times a year told us the orchard was just THERE and that we could take all we could carry as they'd otherwise just rot...so we had fresh peaches in season for a DECADE in UNLIMITED quantities. Just a little ways down the highway were more peach orchards, blueberry patches, and more.
And the fruit up here in Chicago is mostly shipped in from California. It is not as juicy or flavorful or fresh or GOOD as the stuff picked fresh from the trees...and is more costly than what I grew up with (which was mostly free or you-pick prices), which we bought in BULK and preserved and made pies from...and I MISS it.
Today, I walked into Whole Foods to get the 365 brand microwave popcorn that doesn't make my husband's eyes water and make him nauseated.
The first thing inside the door was a huge table of ECKERT'S PEACHES!!! They're not QUITE perfectly ripe but they're SO GOOD and I am OVER THE MOON!