Capitol Market, etc.

Outdoors on the market, Ron Crihfield has summer squash, sugar snap peas, red potatoes and pickling cucumbers. John Crihfield has green tomatoes, green onions and squash. Wilda Gritt has hydroponic tomatoes.

Julie Schaer of Hurricane-based Potager Farm is a tiny presence on the market, coming for Saturday mornings only, but she could be a pioneer of an evolving market. She brought salad greens, carrots, shallots, herbs and peas for shelling, none of which normally come to market. She is a certified organic grower, rare for this area.

Indoors the Purple Onion has hydroponic tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms from Putnam County, free-range eggs from Feathered Farms, Lincoln County, and local summer squash, pickling cucumbers and shelling peas. Limited quantities of red raspberries from Poca may soon start. Local strawberries are finished. Local asparagus is done, though New Jersey asparagus may arrive next week.

Purple Onion owner Allan Hathaway also has clingstone peaches, nectarines and plums from South Carolina. The peaches are a big improvement over the Georgia peaches the past two or three weeks. They were duds. More on that below.

Hathaway has blueberries from West Virginia and North Carolina, tomatoes, half-runners and striped heirloom tomatoes from North Carolina, corn from South Carolina, Crimson Sweet watermelons and cantaloupes from Georgia, and sweet peppers and eggplants from Florida. He also has red cherries from California.

Richard's Country Store, almost under the bridge and beside Stadler's Greenhouse in Nitro, has peaches and nectarines from Georgia, sugar snap peas from Kanawha County, and new locust honey - made from the aromatic bloom of the black locust tree - from St. Albans. Richard's also has watermelons and cantaloupes from Florida, and peaches and tomatoes from Southern states.

Make it peachy

Capitol Market, etc.

Outdoors on the market, Ron Crihfield has summer squash, sugar snap peas, red potatoes and pickling cucumbers. John Crihfield has green tomatoes, green onions and squash. Wilda Gritt has hydroponic tomatoes.

Julie Schaer of Hurricane-based Potager Farm is a tiny presence on the market, coming for Saturday mornings only, but she could be a pioneer of an evolving market. She brought salad greens, carrots, shallots, herbs and peas for shelling, none of which normally come to market. She is a certified organic grower, rare for this area.

Indoors the Purple Onion has hydroponic tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms from Putnam County, free-range eggs from Feathered Farms, Lincoln County, and local summer squash, pickling cucumbers and shelling peas. Limited quantities of red raspberries from Poca may soon start. Local strawberries are finished. Local asparagus is done, though New Jersey asparagus may arrive next week.

Purple Onion owner Allan Hathaway also has clingstone peaches, nectarines and plums from South Carolina. The peaches are a big improvement over the Georgia peaches the past two or three weeks. They were duds. More on that below.

Hathaway has blueberries from West Virginia and North Carolina, tomatoes, half-runners and striped heirloom tomatoes from North Carolina, corn from South Carolina, Crimson Sweet watermelons and cantaloupes from Georgia, and sweet peppers and eggplants from Florida. He also has red cherries from California.

Richard's Country Store, almost under the bridge and beside Stadler's Greenhouse in Nitro, has peaches and nectarines from Georgia, sugar snap peas from Kanawha County, and new locust honey - made from the aromatic bloom of the black locust tree - from St. Albans. Richard's also has watermelons and cantaloupes from Florida, and peaches and tomatoes from Southern states.

Make it peachy

Something peach-colored used to be a pinkish red, but definitely not a bruised purple. Peaches have been bred for that dark color at the expense of flavor. California led the way and Georgia followed, growing dark peaches, which were then put into a deep sleep through hydrocooling, were never able to ripen properly afterward, but were perfect for long-distance shipping.

The big chains like that, but farmer's markets prefer lighter-colored peaches that have an exterior that mixes yellow and pinkish red. Such peaches have better flavor, especially if they go directly from the fields to the wholesaler and on to farmer's markets and smaller retailers. South Carolina still grows a lot of those peaches.

Go out to California's San Francisco Bay Area, and the peaches there are wonderful. It turns out some peaches are grown for local consumption and some for long-distance shipping.

Tomatoes

I bought South Carolina tomatoes over the weekend. They aren't great, but they're a big improvement over winter tomatoes.

Backyard peach

"A Georgia peach, a real Georgia peach, a backyard great-grandmother's orchard peach, is as thickly furred as a sweater, and so fluent and sweet that once you bite through the flannel, it brings tears to your eyes." - Melissa Fay Greene, in "Praying for Sheetrock," a book set in Georgia

Reach Bob Schwarz at bobschw...@wvgazette.com">bobschw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1249.