Thursday at the Market

It's been over a hundred degrees in parts of Eastern Washington where so much of the fruit I use in the preserves grows. I wondered how this would reflect at the market. What would have popped and what would be waning? The fruit looked similar to last week, maybe a few more fuzzing, softening cherries to tease out from the tangles of stems and fruit I picked out of the vendor's plastic tub. Also too, more blueberries, bigger zucchinis and the arrival of golden raspberries or maybe I just didn't catch them last week because I was obsessing over Apriums. I was on a heavy duty fruit run at the Queen Anne Farmer's today. I think I almost busted my basket getting the goods home. Certain farms, Billy's Gardens and Mair Taki come to mind immediately, separate their goods into 1sts and 2nds for the market. The 2nds mean cheap prices and the product's usually got to be used fast. But the 2nds Apricots at Billy's were gorgeous, small, but blush-gold-colored, and firm. Their imperfection? smaller-than-a-pin dots on the skin, the sales person pointed out. My next preserves project is to combine those Apricots with the Rainier Cherries I stocked up on at the stand opposite to Billy's.