Capitol Market, etc.

The Purple Onion at Capitol Market has asparagus from Lincoln County, red-leaf butterhead lettuce, hydroponic tomatoes, and shiitake mushrooms from Putnam County, free-range eggs from Feathered Farms, Lincoln County, local rhubarb and, possibly by the weekend, local green onions.

Owner Allan Hathaway also has strawberries from North Carolina, pickling cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, Vidalia onions, tomatoes, corn, half-runners and small containers of blueberries from Georgia. He has new potatoes, sweet peppers, seedless Sugar Baby and Crimson seedless watermelons, cantaloupes and grapefruits from Florida.

Kroger

In this space last week, I complained that except for spinach, Kroger was no longer selling high-quality greens in plastic bags and that all the high-quality greens had moved into space-hungry and horribly ungreen solid plastic containers. The Kanawha City Kroger had rectified this by Saturday.

On the down side, the specialty cheese display case lacked prices on - or over - many items. Does not the store have an obligation to price goods, and does not the state have an obligation to make sure items are priced?

Sitar of India

Sitar of India, one of the better places to eat in this town, and one of the best values, is now open on Sundays, serving dinner from 4 to 8 p.m.

Hydroponic tomatoes

A colleague here asks whether I know anyone who actually likes hydroponic tomatoes?

The Purple Onion at Capitol Market has asparagus from Lincoln County, red-leaf butterhead lettuce, hydroponic tomatoes, and shiitake mushrooms from Putnam County, free-range eggs from Feathered Farms, Lincoln County, local rhubarb and, possibly by the weekend, local green onions.

Owner Allan Hathaway also has strawberries from North Carolina, pickling cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, Vidalia onions, tomatoes, corn, half-runners and small containers of blueberries from Georgia. He has new potatoes, sweet peppers, seedless Sugar Baby and Crimson seedless watermelons, cantaloupes and grapefruits from Florida.

Kroger

In this space last week, I complained that except for spinach, Kroger was no longer selling high-quality greens in plastic bags and that all the high-quality greens had moved into space-hungry and horribly ungreen solid plastic containers. The Kanawha City Kroger had rectified this by Saturday.

On the down side, the specialty cheese display case lacked prices on - or over - many items. Does not the store have an obligation to price goods, and does not the state have an obligation to make sure items are priced?

Sitar of India

Sitar of India, one of the better places to eat in this town, and one of the best values, is now open on Sundays, serving dinner from 4 to 8 p.m.

Hydroponic tomatoes

A colleague here asks whether I know anyone who actually likes hydroponic tomatoes?

A good question, and it comes at a time when we have local hydroponic tomatoes in our refrigerator. My lovely wife bought them. The hydropnoics are not going quickly.

Although hydroponic tomatoes are less wooden than tomatoes shipped in from Florida, they tend to be both mushy and lacking in flavor.

One box a week

My New York City daughter was excited to inform me she was joining what she called a CSA - Community Supported Agriculture - in which she pays $270 and gets a box of vegetables once a week for six months directly from the farmer. She was considering committing another $200 to get fruit as well.

My other daughter has been getting a combined vegetable/

fruit box year-round in Oakland, Calif., where the practice is quite common. Such boxes are good for both farmer and shopper, providing city folks with fresh produce and a direct connection to the food they eat.

Community Supported Agriculture doesn't yet have much of a toehold in West Virginia, but it is coming. It works for those who cook regularly, enjoy greens in both salads and cooking, like the challenge of cooking what is in season, and are willing to make a pickup on their way home from work on the same day every week.

In West Virginia, Monroe County farmers have started a CSA-like program for people in the Charleston area. Sign up and the farmers will send you a weekly list of what's available (everything from beef and pork to asparagus and mesclun at this time of year). You order what you want and pick it up Thursdays at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Kanawha Boulevard. Email cedard...@earthlink.net for information.

To contact staff writer Bob Schwarz, e-mail bobschw...@wvgazette.com">bobschw...@wvgazette.com or call 348-1249.