The weather today is absolutely brilliant, sunny, warm but not overwhelming with a hint of fall in the air. Zesty and I had brunch and then made the decision to head over to the Farmer’s Market at Liberty Village. So, before sitting down and getting back to work on my book that’s due in a couple of weeks, and spending the day at the computer again, punctuated by a couple of breaks spent fighting with the vacuum and doing some laundry, I had to share this:
So, at the Farmer’s Market, I decided I wanted to buy some fruit, and found the perfect stall for me: peaches, pears, plums, you name it, this farmer had it, some of which had just been picked that morning. I’m not lying when I say I got very excited by the rock hard pears he had on offer.
Now, I love rock hard fruit. I know it’s not normal, but I like to eat peaches and pears when they’re as hard as apples. I’m not kidding when I say I enjoy the crunch. The farmer had already packaged up the pears for me, and even threw in some sugar pears, which he said needed to be eaten when they are green, so right away. Cool. I’m planning on making fruit salad anyway.
So now that we’re trying to eat things in season, I was tickled pink to see that he also had locally grown nectarines, which are, to this day, my favourite fruit. He adds those to my bags as well.
While he’s putting everything in for me he says, “Some of them [the nectarines] are ready to eat but some might need to sit for a day or two out of the fridge.”
“Well, I like to eat them hard,” I say, “so these are actually perfect.”
Dead silence ensues.
Then he looks at me like I’m absolutely nuts and hands me a semi-squishy nectarine, and says, “Eat it when they feel like this, not like an Indian rubber ball, okay?”
(But the okay is more like he’s telling me to do it this way, and that not only is eating hard nectarines wrong, it’s just plain stupid.)
And then he proceeds to give me some intimate advice about the freshness of the fruit. “Okay!” I say with a winning smile even though I’m thinking ‘oh my god I can’t wait to get home and crunch away at these half-ripe nectarines.’
I mean, I see his point, and they do smell wonderful when they are riper, but I can’t get away from the crunch. I am addicted to the crunch. So I’m sure I’ll be doing a disservice to the farmer when I bite into the nectarines and keep them in the fridge so they stay harder longer, but a girl likes what a girl likes, you know?
Annnnywaaay. The best part is that an entire bag of fruit, we’re talking more than a dozen single pieces, came to a whopping $8.00. That’s right. Less than the cost of a movie, almost less than a movie rental. And I got a lesson in fruit management too, for free.
PHOTO IN CONTEXT: Said fruit in a bowl. Keep in mind I had given a bunch to Zesty too, isn’t that crazy?
Good grief I love the farmer’s market.
