Love and Cooking

The basil I bought at least three weeks ago from Terra Firma Farms is still going strong and looks much better off than the basil purchased after it, and stored under the same conditions (in my kitchen in a mason jar full of water). This bunch has definitely rooted, which is why I will, in future, buy my summer basil from TF.

I took that photo last week, but it still looks good. (Yes, I am planning on using up all that basil Real Soon Now, but at this point I want to see how long it will last!).

In other farmer's market notes, one of the family that runs Blossom Bluff Orchards stopped me on my walkabout to say "Hey, I read your blog. I recognize you from your picture. Thanks for the appreciation." I thanked him for his interest (it was flattering) and for hauling the best stone fruit at the market up from Fresno for my enjoyment. (I didn't say, because I didn't remember to, that my old stomping grounds in the Valley was peach country as well as tomato country, so I am a sharp judge of peaches.)

Unfortunately the wonderfully peachy and tangy (not sugar bomb like far too much stone fruit these days) Sun Crest peaches (subject of the book Epitaph for a Peach) have reached the end of their brief season, so I got some Sierra Ladies from BB instead.

I'm debating whether to make pie or crisp out of the stone fruit I've got, but that was a nice moment.

Here are a couple of pix of some of Blossom Bluff's finest, one of the things that make me remember it's really July even when Berkeley is socked in with fog, taken a couple of weeks ago: