Stoned Fruit

Cherries, peaches, apricots &  plums and all their derivatives – pluots, pluots, apriums are referred to as stone fruits. These fruits along with almonds, are all related. Yes, almonds, really! Look at a peach or almond pit for proof or just muse away on why almond extract/amaretto tastes so good with peaches and cherries. I bring this up because it is stone fruit season. Baird and Liepold had apricots yesterday. And thanks to the micro-climates in the Pacific NW, we have everything from gorge peaches as big as a baby’s head sold at the same markets with slow growing cherries from the Cascades. This is good. Cherries are easily my favorite fruit

(except

Apricot Center

for when something else is in season like a late August Peach or a pear in Sept-tober – Okay, I’m fickle). All this fruit, plus the sun coming out on cue the day after the 4th, it’s good to be a Oregonian/NWer right now.

Since we are talking about things I like…Along with the stone fruit I’ve spent a week feasting on green salad, spaghetti with raab, roasted potatoes – the multicolored (both inside and out) ones that I have been getting at La Terra Vita rock especially when served with grilled  flat iron steak from Sexton. There have been eggs from Dancing Chicken and goat cheese from Portland Creamery. All this bounty has kept me a very, very well-fed man these days. Actually there is so much good stuff, I wish I could eat more, but I am just one man. For instance if I had a little help I could cook fresh green beans and Olympic Provisions salami, well more like a slow sweat until the tastes are so intertwined it is only the texture that tells you what’s what. I can do the cooking I just need help with the eating, the dogs are a little more protein than veg focused.

Kenton market is today. It’s both the Market and the neighborhood. If I were getting off work at 4, 5, or 6ish and heading north, I would stop off at Denver & McClellan, probably get a beer at Kenton Station, do a little shopping, grab some food and head home after the throng thins out a little.

PSU, King, Pioneer Square and Shemanski all happen in this week. Not this Monday, but the following Monday, July 16, is the Chef Challenge sponsored by our friends at Country Financial. The event is like Chopped – contestants shop the Market, cook the food, present to judges and summarily are judged. Last year we had a blast, this year should be fun too. Details to follow but we want to give a shout out to Country Financial. The Market Sponsors not only make events like Chef Challenge, or the scholarships awarded to PPS students for designing the seasonal bag, or Kids Cook possible, we are fortunate that all of our sponsors care deeply about the access to local foods and the people who grow them. You can read about Country’s commitment to the market and its growers here.