"George Shirley" > wrote in message
...
> On 9/7/2010 7:26 AM, KW wrote:
>> I went in to visit my friendly local produce stand on Saturday to grab
>> enough peaches for a large cobbler I was making for a dinner party. When
>> I
>> put my basket on the counter, the lady that runs the place says that'll
>> be
>> $4, but if your interested.....I have a 25+ lb box of culled fruit that
>> I'll
>> take $5 for if you aren't worried much about how they look! WooHoo! She
>> just
>> kept adding to the box from little piles of culls here and there until
>> the
>> tomato box was full! There was only one peach in the whole box that
>> needed
>> to be pitched and most only had a slight bruise here and there. Put up 7
>> quarts of slices in ultra-light syrup, made a cobbler to feed 20+ and
>> still
>> have enough peaches to make a couple runs of jam.
>>
>> KW
>>
>>
> I wish we had a local produce stand. The ones nearby buy their produce at
> the Houston Farmers Market and you never know from whence it came.
>
> I can occasionally do what you did at the local Kroger, the produce
> manager there is a long-time friend. When he starts culling fruit from the
> market he calls me. I find the Chilean fruit is best as compared to some
> of the US fruit that is offered.

Most of what they get is from the Farmers Market....but the old man (since
deceased) taught the kids well how to pick the best out and what they have
is always leagues better than what's at the local grocers. In this
particular case, he had made a run over to South Carolina and bought the
peaches straight off the farm. Most of these things were the size of
softballs. I have never seen peaches this size before.