I'm sure than anyone who spent any part of childhood in California (as I did) grew up with a passion for fruit. When we moved from the Southwest to Florida, we left behind such staples as apricots, Bing cherries and concord grapes. Mandarin oranges and Georgia peaches, though quite tasty, didn't quite fill the bill for California-style fruit lovers.
In recent years, though grapes, peaches and nectarines are often reasonably priced, the really, deeply delicious fruit have tended to be quite expensive, even at the peak of the season. Except for this summer of 2009. Today, those Bing cherries above were just $1 -- one buck -- a pound. Needless to say, I bought several pounds. That was at Costco.
Later at Fry's, this container of strawberries was just another buck (don't be confused by the small number -- we had strawberries for desert tonight). Wow. The raspberry season is past, but there was the day I showed up at Albertson's to see the sign "Raspberries. 10 for $10". The little Driscoll boxes, which usually go for over $3 per. I thought about it very briefly -- then loaded up with the requisite 10 boxes. When I got home, I ate 2 boxes with cream right away and froze the remainder. They took the chill beautifully and over the next few days, I was in raspberry heaven.
I do hope that these low, low prices don't mean that the growers are on hard times. I don't worry about the supermarket chains taking a hit from loss leaders, but would hate to see the farmers go under. Except perhaps the apricot folks who ship fruit that ripens into foam plastic at best, though the dried product is not bad.
I'm sure than anyone who spent any part of childhood in California (as I did) grew up with a passion for fruit. When we moved from the Southwest to Florida, we left behind such staples as apricots, Bing cherries and concord grapes. Mandarin oranges and Georgia peaches, though quite tasty, didn't quite fill the bill for California-style fruit lovers.
In recent years, though grapes, peaches and nectarines are often reasonably priced, the really, deeply delicious fruit have tended to be quite expensive, even at the peak of the season. Except for this summer of 2009. Today, those Bing cherries above were just $1 -- one buck -- a pound. Needless to say, I bought several pounds. That was at Costco.
Later at Fry's, this container of strawberries was just another buck (don't be confused by the small number -- we had strawberries for desert tonight). Wow. The raspberry season is past, but there was the day I showed up at Albertson's to see the sign "Raspberries. 10 for $10". The little Driscoll boxes, which usually go for over $3 per. I thought about it very briefly -- then loaded up with the requisite 10 boxes. When I got home, I ate 2 boxes with cream right away and froze the remainder. They took the chill beautifully and over the next few days, I was in raspberry heaven.
I do hope that these low, low prices don't mean that the growers are on hard times. I don't worry about the supermarket chains taking a hit from loss leaders, but would hate to see the farmers go under. Except perhaps the apricot folks who ship fruit that ripens into foam plastic at best, though the dried product is not bad.
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