Sunday, February 05, 2012

Newton Pippins Redux, and other Winter Fruit Tales

It's been nearly three months since I purchased my Newtown Pippin apples from North Star Orchards at the Headhouse Square farmers's market, and I'm down to my last four apples.

These great storage apples have gotten better with the time spent in the crisper drawer. Their skins are still shiny and waxy with little sign of age, and the flesh is a deep sweet-tart flavor, just juicy enough. I'm amazed I paced my consumption to still have a handful left, but glad to have this taste of autumn in mid-winter. Man cannot live by oranges alone.

Speaking of which, Iovine Brothers' Produce at the Reading Terminal Market has a wide selection of Chilean fruit. The bagged seedless green grapes I picked up last week were worth it at $2 for a bag weighing about a pound and a half. This week I selected two blemish-free Bartlett pears, a nectarine and a black plum. They're all sitting in a paper bag ripening on the counter, we'll see how they taste in a couple of days.

I also picked up some Temple oranges, which have come down in price to 4/$1, down from 3/$1. Very juicy, easy to peel but a tad more difficult to section than the last batch I bought. Limes eased in price to 4/$1, and avocados, which usually see their price increase dramatically for Superbowl Sunday, were a reasonable 2/$1.49 -- anytime they're less than a buck apiece I consider a bargain.

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