Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Hanging in there- part 4, 1 by stormyla

stormyla wrote:
LOL Chris, I never thought of sniffing the potatoes. Great idea! I've generally preferred Gala & Fiuji apples for eating, but the last two years started buying the Lady apples. I like their small size and crispness. Now there is an organic farmer's market nearby with a whole array of beautiful apples I've never heard of, so I'm trying some of them. Honestly I've only started buying apples in the last two weeks as I have been peach & plum obsessed this year.

I can't remember there ever being a better peach year than this one. It seemed like no matter where the peaches came from they were almost all wonderful. I think that I was only disappointed once this season. There were so many different plum varieties available too and I particularly enjoyed the different small varieties as well as the pluots. This summer I sought out and bought from more farm markets than ever before and was rewarded with a lot more variety and better tasting fruits. Surprisingly, some of the farm markets were priced well below the supermarkets too.

Grapes were another item that fell off of my shopping list as some of the produce stores and stands had such incredible buys on cherries, that I bought them whenever possible. They were indeed a delight and so many seemed much larger and sweeter than normal. Since the cherries ended our local produce store has had incredible buys on small figs. LOL So now I'm onto my fig obsession. Alas, those are winding down now too.

Of the supermarkets, I've been finding the best quality and prices on fruit at Walmart. I like to buy the fruits individually too. They are still underselling everyone on Blackberries. I read that they have become the largest retailer of locally grown produce and I've rarely been disappointed with anything I've bought there.

Right now the Helianthus are in full bloom. This is the first year I've ever been able to get a photo of the bloom from the top as with the draught, they are shorter than ever before. The plants are only about 4' tall this year. Last year, they were all well above 6' tall.