Yes, passing_thru, get with the peach program will you? As you can undoubtedly sense, I am rolling about the floor, pointing at you (or in the general direction of Somerville), and laughing.
(It’s posts such as these that got me banned from Chowhound. I was accused of being insufficiently respectful of the feelings of others. I like it here: I can imagine – and post about – a naked oyster warily circling a naked p_thru, each trying to see who can first dab mignonette on whom.)
well, yeah. that’s why we bailed on Chowhound.
(I cleverly added more to my post, while you posted approval. But I josh. This is a great site. )
we have very short seasons for some produce…I’m so sad asparagus is long gone, and apparently green garlic, and garlic scapes…that I try to seize the day and ride the wave out as long as it lasts. I’ve gotten decent tomatoes in October and I’m expecting blueberries to be gone very soon … they’ve been excellent this year from Kimball. I’ll ask on Sat. how long there will be peaches. I’ve only bought cherry tomatoes so far…I wait until the heirlooms are less than $5 a pound.
I have made a decision. Since passing_thru is not the robber-baron I always assumed he was, I am transferring my cultivation to you. Nobody but a robber-baron(ess) could possess plums as deeply hued as these.
We got some really juicy Lookout Farm peaches at Russo’s yesterday. They were fairly small and very dark but were tasty tossed with a little sugar and Highlawn Farm heavy cream.
I got some tiny plums from Ward’s farm last week. They were fantastic. They’re corn has been excellent this year as well.
does anybody know why little gem lettuce doesn’t show up at farmers markets in Boston area (ok, I’m limited to Cambridge Central Square and Charles Hotel, Somerville Union and Davis). I love the Flats Mentor produce and Kimball among others, but I’d love to see some little gem. I saw the first bell peppers today at Union and still blueberries…the rain today could change availability…and still peaches, and the corn is larger and probably better by now. Heirloom tomatoes still $5 a pound, so I’m not buying yet, and great romano (long flat Italian) beans.
boy would I love to know the answer, I cannot understand it either, I so wish to be able to get it!
I should edit this to say that, after eating a Lookout Farm peach whole, I realized that they are white peaches. The Washington state peaches looked a bit under ripe but promising.
They were/are such jerks.
Wow! Dare I risk sparking a clash of the robber barons and robber baronnesses with @passing_thru? Flying too close to the sun can have consequences. 
Taking a few days away right now, after which I hope to regale you all with some food moments worthy of robber baronet-ry.
having attended graduate school at a Robber Baron campus, Stanford, I can say at least in that Northern California locale, there was superb produce available. Robber Barons lived all over the globe, however.
Yesterday at Central Square, 8/6:
A) Purple peppers, garlic, shallots and blueberries from Dick’s. The blueberries were tasty. Have not had the the other stuff yet.
B) Donut peaches from a small vendor, who (sadly) cheated me. They were listed at $2.50/lb, and the three small ones I chose came to about 1/2 lb (I weighed them at home). He looked at my small selection and said "For you, just $2$. To a Baron such as myself (albeit, an honest one), $0.75 is just small change, but the principle stings.
C) Multicolored carrots, potatoes, corn, and white nectarines from Kimball. The potatoes were nice, roasted with olive oil and Curio’s ground lantern pepper, but have not yet tried the rest of my loot.
Today at Harvard (Science Center), 8/7:
A) Corn, small yellow tomatoes and peaches from Silvia. The tomatoes were thick skinned (you can say what you want to them, and they will not blush), but packed with flavor. The corn was the sweetest smelling I’ve ever encountered. You don’t normally think of the sweet smell of corn, but these ears let off such a sweet-milky-corny smell as I stripped them of their husks that I nearly had my own Meg-in-Katz’s moment. I am looking forward to enjoying them tonight.
B) This leads to the next purchase: Corny Breads and these small corn bites. Has anybody else tried this stuff yet?
C) Blackberries (still superb), strawberries (very good), white plums (pretty good), and two peaches from Ward’s.
D) Tomatoes and garlic from Langwater. Yet to try.
By the way: No comment on any of my peach purchases because I am waiting for them to soften.
Peaches from Kimball last week (Davis Sq farmer’s market) were incredibly good, white and yellow. I haven’t been getting to the markets early enough to check if there are any grapes yet. In other news, we are having a bumper crop of blackberries in our urban garden. Something about the weather?
I’ve been on the lookout for grapes, but haven’t seen any yet.
OK not local but definitely seasonal and a short season to boot: red, white and black currents were at Wilson Farms today. They are ridiculously expensive but if you love them go get’em while they last. My late father used to adore red current ice cream and we’d process a few boxes into the base and freeze that so he could make himself a small batch when he got the urge.
Did you blend in the currents, or just mix them into the base? Was it an eggy, custardy base?
I wish I had paid more attention. Due to a job at Brigham’s in high school I have a fairly strong aversion to ice cream so my role was pretty much limited to sourcing the fruit and picking the currants off the vine. My dim recollection was that he simmered the currents with sugar and maybe lemon juice (?) and strained through a fine mesh strainer (so why was I fussing with the bits of vine??) and that was kind of it, it later got blended with whatever you make ice cream with. Can you tell I REALLY don’t like ice cream??? 
GretchenS, you don’t like ice cream? I can see that I can never serve you my saffron ice cream (the recipe for which was published in a computer book on code recipes).
But, thanks for overcoming your antipathy to frozen milk and answering. It appears that it was the essence of currant your father was getting, not any of the curranty bits. That’s basically what I wanted to know. (Whether I’ll do anything with the information remains to be seen.)
