When I talk or write about cooking, I emphasize the value of my kitchen game plans for helping me get a healthy dinner on the table quickly after a day of work. However, there are some things that just can’t be planned, and that’s what crossed my mind this afternoon at my local farm stand. I was wrapping up my shopping, when I saw it from across the aisle.
Each Box $1.00
Now, most of the boxes on the table adorned with this sign were: (a) quite small; and (b) full of vegetables that…well, let’s be honest…were approaching the “limp noodle” stage of life. But one box stood out. It was a flat box used for shipping tomatoes, about the size of a case of beer, and it was full of stone fruits — peaches, nectarines, and plums. I could see that several were bruised, but many of them just looked a little miffed that they were being passed over for a centerfold in Farm Stand Quarterly.
I immediately thought of the late Lowell Trede, the father of one of my closest friends. I never met Lowell, but our mutual admiration was defined by two things, one of which was his obsession with not wasting overripe fruit, and my determination that no culinary challenge was too great. My friend Teri would show up with Lowell’s latest ooey gooey “gift,” and I would try to make it an honest fruit again. This volley culminated about 7 years ago in some of the most glorious pear ice cream you’d ever want to meet.
So, back to today. I’m in the fruit stand, looking at this fruit, looking at the $1.00 sign, thinking of Lowell, and…. I couldn’t help myself. “Is this really $1.00?” I ask the woman rearranging tomatoes on a nearby table. “Sure is!” she replies. I’d like to report that I was poised, nonchalant even. But as I carefully balanced that flat of fruits on one arm and, with my other loot in the other arm, I race walked to the cash register. If you’ve ever seen Billy Crystal speed walking in the move “City Slickers,” you get the idea!
When I got home, the magnitude of my coup became more apparent — this flat contained about 10 pounds of luscious fruit, most of which wouldn’t even be ripe by Lowell’s st
andards! We ate the plums for lunch. I made nectarine ice cream, and put 2 quarts of sliced nectarines in the freezer. And I made another batch of peach ice cream, and put 3 quarts of sliced peaches in the freezer. I think Lowell would approve, and I know KC did! Not bad for $1.00!
