I am so excited for summer to arrive. It’s not just that I’m sick of the cold, windy and generally icky weather, I’m want to eat good, ripe fruits and veggies. Growing up in Wenatchee, I rarely thought about the food resources we have. It was a given that I would work at “The Fruit Stand” every summer. And while I was at the fruit stand, it was a given that I’d be able to eat fruit, the best fruit you’ve ever tasted, from 100 yards away. It’s not that our fruit was special in some way. It’s more like the fruit at the fruit stand was fresh, ripe, sweet and juicy. When I’d come home from work, I frequently found apricot or cherry goo stuck to my dusty tennis shoes and plum juice all over my T-shirt. Just evidence of a day at work.

I pity the people who haven’t eaten a fresh, ripe peach. Eating chocolate ice cream can’t compare to the joy of peach juice dribbling down your chin.

While talking with Joan Qazi of EAT a few weeks ago for this story about eating locally, I was reminded of a time in college when I was shopping at the Albertsons a block from my apartment. The store had a pitiful produce department and seemed to specialize in Top Ramen and macaroni and cheese options. It was late April or early May and a man walked up to the young woman stocking pretty, but rock-solid, peaches for a display. He asked her when peaches were in season. She looked up at him and answered “I don’t know.” I was shocked and upset. Here we have an employee working in the produce department and she couldn’t tell a customer when peaches would be in season. So, I went up to the man and told him when he could find local, in-season, ripe peaches in Seattle. I don’t think he believed me. I was telling him that peaches wouldn’t be in season here for another two months at least and he could see peaches in front of him. It was an epiphany to me that others didn’t know when they could have a fantastic piece of fruit. Maybe he had never had a tree-ripened peach. The horror!

For those of you who don’t know, or want to be reminded, here’s a quick reference to when you can find fresh fruit in season in Wenatchee. This is accurate as long as the weather is fairly normal (which it hasn’t been) and assuming my memory is correct. Also, check out this list of local fruit stands that open in the summer.

Cherries: Late June through late July

Apricots: Early July through early August

Apples: Mid-July (earliest summer apples) through November

Peaches: Mid-July through September (seriously, some varieties keep ripening through September)

Plums: Mid-July through August

Nectarines: Late July through August

Pears: Late August through November

What’s truly sad is that this particular grocery store, which my sister and our friends lamented over, was a treasure trove of food compared to the options in poorer neighborhoods. Check out this story from today’s PI. In actual low-income neighborhoods, where many people don’t have cars, grocery stores don’t exist. To top it off there were at least three other, better stores within a mile of my place.

Do any people here have a hard time getting groceries? I suspect it’s quite a bit easier, but I could be wrong.