Summer vegetable tasting notes

Peaches:

• Varieties with "June" in the name are the best, followed by Red Havens.
• The good peach purveyors at the BFM are Ram Das (guy with the beard), Blossom Bluff and Woodleaf.
• Current strategy: variety matters more than farmer. If the vendors named above all have the same variety, choose the cheapest.

This usually means I end buying the seconds from Woodleaf. Today I got them for $1.50 a pound at their end-of-day sale.

Tomatoes: I really like the Miyashita Farms odorikos at the Bowl, but they're not always available. Riverdog's heirlooms at the BFM are very good. Not feeling the ubiquitous Early Girls, don't have much tomato taste, if I wanted sweeter tomatoes I'd get cherries. Maybe the dry-farmed ones will be better.

Mushrooms: The Bowl almost always has #2 mushrooms available for around a dollar a pound. This is one of the best deals around.

Corn: Trying very hard to enjoy it, with mixed results. Corn on the cob really isn't doing it for me -- not like the corn of olde, just boringly sweet -- so I've resorted to more complicated preparations. Tried a Chez Panisse-style corn pudding souffle today. Plus side: it actually rose a bit. Big minus: it crumbled as soon as I took it out of the ramekin.

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40 favourite songs of the Nineties, #27: Tricky, "Black Steel"

Actually, I get lots of letters from governments. Most of them say I'm the sucker.

Changing the subject

Been trying a lot of peaches lately, enough to decide I like yellow peaches a lot more than white ones. My favourite Berkeley Farmers' Market stalls to get them are Blossom Bluff and Woodleaf. Woodleaf's discounted ugly peaches are terrific value, two-something a pound where other BFM peaches are three-something. Last weekend, though, I bought one with a hole in it, and out crawled some bug. So this week, Blossom Bluff. They had three yellow peach varietals, and I couldn't help buying one of each:

Regina: sweet
Donut: sweet and peachy
June Lady: sweet, peachy and sour

So yeah, I liked the June Lady best.

This weekend: back to Woodleaf, where I'll select with more care.

Other fruit notes: Last week I finally had some good Blenheim apricots, from Monterey Market. I forget the farm name: seems to be better to select by optimal ripeness anyway. Season's already winding up, though... Haven't had a satisfactory nectarine yet, any tips?

Salad of the moment: Riverdog cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic-rubbed toast, skim mozzarella.