<p>I just finished some small, red-all-the-way through, organically grown strawberries from my 95-year-old father-in-law’s garden (we are in WA state). Those were by far the best strawberries I’ve had in a long time.</p>
<p>I have taken to just buying organic produce lately, from our local healthy food chain, PCC. My H grew up on a farm and is super-picky about the quality of fruit. If it isn’t just right in flavor and ripeness, he won’t eat it. Buying organic produce is very expensive, but I think it tastes better and H will usually eat it, so it works out better despite the high cost.</p>
<p>Here in PA, we joined a CSA this year and so far the fruit has been good. The strawberries were awesome…red through and through…and no pesticides. We’re now into blueberries and cherries…both excellent.
It’s a bit of a hassle to get the stuff each week but so far so good. Love the zucchini and tomatoes and fresh greens and beans.</p>
<p>I agree with redroses – go to a farmers market. I feel like seasonal produce loses some of its point if it’s not local – it can be grown in Chile in the winter anyway, and it’s still been picked before it was ripe and shipped across the country or world.</p>
<p>I have been growing beach and woodland strawberries as well as the cultivars Tristar have a ton of strawberries- plus nice ground cover.</p>
<p>Raspberries from my grandmas yard that originally came from Missouri about 70 years ago but I also have some native raspberries and trailing blackberries.
Lots of blueberries- haven’t seen huckleberries or loganberries yet- maybe later ( I just planted them last year.</p>
<p>Berries also freeze nicely & in our area, you can buy local berries frozen.</p>
<p>bookiemom- I live by a PCC and have been shopping there since the 1970’s, but the past few years I think they are getting too expensive, and dropping brands I like.
Luckily our neighborhood grocery is probably the best store I have ever been to, although I miss the days before the Odwalla juice scare, when they used to make their own blends fresh.</p>
<p>( The deli at PCC is also a lot better than Ballard Market- both my lab & I love the lemon fennel chicken & the pizza is pretty good too)</p>
<p>Here in Chicago, there’s no peaches/plums or melons in the markets yet, only berries and cherries. They’re fine in desserts, but mostly not sweet enough to eat out of hand. I’ve been finding better cherries at the supermarket, unfortunately. I had the first Indiana sweet corn of the season yesterday, and it was delicious.</p>
<p>AMEN on the seeded watermelons! I have encountered an excellent seedless one now and then in past years, but on the whole they’re flabby and anemic. Give me the traditional frosty-hearted, sweet seeded ones any time.</p>
<p>My son and I have been driving around a lot lately so he can get the needed 50 hours of driving time for his drivers license. He’s not quite ready for highways or town driving so we’ve been going down country roads and through developments. Early this week we were going through a neighborhood with several vacant lots and I realized that there were berries all over the place. I got son to pull over and we found LOTS of ripe blackberries and raspberries. All we had were water bottles in the car so we filled up two of them. The next day we went again and got double that amount in a more suitable container. Yesterday I made a triple berry pie, adding some blueberries I had already bought from the market. Yum!! We have a few pick-your-own farms and I wish I would use them more then I do. Talk about local produce - that’s the way to go!</p>
<p>I started going to a “pick your own” place last year and am now completely spoiled. I eat pounds and pounds of blueberries so, fortunately, they are really easy to pick. I bought organic sweet cherries at Wegman’s a couple of weeks ago and they were delicious. This week, I decided to go for the larger bag of cheaper regular sweet cherries - most of them have no flavor at all so the organics were definitely worth the price.</p>
<p>Strawberries were the best in years–they’re gone. Blueberries were wonderful and the sour cherries were good. Waiting for peaches and blackberries, perhaps I’ll go pick tomorrow. We are in Maryland.</p>
<p>I haven’t purchased any strawberries thus far this year for fear of poor-to-midling flavor. Here in New Jersey we get our early strawberry harvest from Florida. The California strawberries should be available now. Guess I’ve have to try some, given all these glowing endorsements.</p>
<p>Blueberries have been in our supermarkets and fruit stands for some several days and they have been tasty. Pricey, but tastey nonetheless.</p>
<p>I risked it and bought a whole watermelon and sampled it for dessert last night. Worst of the bunch. Exceedingly flavorless, even in the heart. I guess that why it had a low sale price. That’s it. No more watermelon purchases for me this summer.</p>
<p>For a lot of our fruit we just plant a tree and grow it and then pick it right off the branch - navel oranges, valencia oranges, tangelos, tangerines, avocados, peaches, fuyu, grapefruit (which I don’t like so we give it all to the food bank), limes, lemons, and more. People I’ve given the avocados and oranges to fresh from the tree usually say it’s about the best they’ve ever had. There’s definitely something lost in the processing when fruit is picked early, refrigerated, transported, artificially ripened with gas, and purchased/consumed at other than the ideal time.</p>
<p>My CSA sends us strawberries for about six months a year (coastal California climate is perfect for strawberry growing, lettuce too). Always organic, always sweet, always delicious-- but they don’t last for more than a couple of days in the fridge. </p>
<p>I’m not surprised that California watermelons and stone fruit aren’t so good yet this year; we had a late, cold spring, so I expect fruit to be a few weeks later than usual. The watermelons will be fine in three or four weeks.</p>
<p>“For a lot of our fruit we just plant a tree and grow it and then pick it right off the branch - navel oranges, valencia oranges, tangelos, tangerines, avocados, peaches, fuyu, grapefruit (which I don’t like so we give it all to the food bank), limes, lemons, and more.” Rub it in. lol This method does take longer than running down to the farmers’ market on Saturday.</p>
<p>^^ Haha - yes, it’s longer up front (only by a few years!), but after that it’s much more convenient to just walk out to the back and pick what we want for the moment. Sorry to rub it in a bit but at least I do appreciate it. We’re lucky in that almost anything grows well here as long as it doesn’t require a frost and as long as we give it water (which isn’t cheap).</p>
<p>Only in the last few years have they finally succeeded in growing commercial blueberries in Southern Calif. The native North American blueberry required acidic soil and a lot of water, both of which are in short supply here. But through cross-breeding and selection they have a develped a strain that will flourish here. The berries are usually larger than the typical New England or PNW berries, but they have good flavor. Result: price has dropped considerably, and I serve blueberry pancakes far more often than I used to.</p>
<p>Over the dam, a few miles (less than five, I think) through the traffic light, and when you are at the peak of the first hill, it is on your right. It comes up kind of fast. They ore online and there should be peaches too.</p>