peaches

[mint]

flat ones, round ones, yellow-fleshed, white-fleshed......doesn't matter which type.  They are abundant and wonderfully juicy and tasty at the moment.  It's just that there is no elegant way to eat them!

However carefully you slice them up, extract the stone, do it over a bowl, have a pile of paper napkins ready, you still end up covered in juice up to your elbows and all over your face.

So, my word of warning is:  don't serve them to guests at the dinner table.  OH says only eat them in the bath so, unless you are prepared to run baths for your guests, just stick with the cheese.

[woolybanana]

Tinned peaches are better? and cleaner?

[Théière]

Not bad if you are walking on the beaches.

[idun]

Hmmm, I always found the best of the peaches in this order,

white, in spite of looking anemic were always the juiciest and sweetest,  then the yellow.

And then the flat ones, well they were peche de vigne where I lived and had red flesh and were horrible, very sickly, so I would never buy any of those.

[mint]

Idun, mais non, they are NOT red fleshed.  They are called peches plates and the stone is a little knob in the middle, all the rest is glorious, juicy, sweet, scented WHITE flesh[:D]

[Patf]

We can even get those flat ones here in NE England, but they're rather tasteless and go off quickly. Goodness knows where they come from. When in France I found nectarines to be more reliable for taste and lasting quality.

Lateral thinking - I bought some clementines today which claimed to be Jaffas, but came from Spain.

I thought Jaffas were Israeli?

[woolybanana]

So, Jaffa cakes are Jewish? Are they kosher and circumvented???

[mint]

Have bought flat peaches from both France and Spain.

As for melons, besides water melons, I now only buy Charentais.

[richard51]

Melons not peaches, but was horrified at the cost of melons in dordogneshire a month ago - 1.50 euro plus, yet only 56p in Morrisons, UK this week.

Brexit may well change it.

[Judith]

Don't favour peaches or apricots  because of the skins, so much prefer nectariesn, which don't have furry outsides.  This year we had no apricots, thankfully, on the tree, as the wind came before the blossom was set ... still got jars of them in alcohol (hic!) to eat up though from previous years!

No idea about flat peaches, just don't buy any!!

[woolybanana]

Perhaps someone might be able to suggest what might be suitable contents of food parcels for post Brexit UK.

Getting them there might be a problem, so trawlers running into sheltered coasts overnight or cannon fired from Calais.

Melons, Richard, could be sent this way at least.

Or those useless aircraft carriers could pop over and be filled up with food. Plenty of space as no planes.

[mint]

[quote user="richard51"]Melons not peaches, but was horrified at the cost of melons in dordogneshire a month ago - 1.50 euro plus, yet only 56p in Morrisons, UK this week.

Brexit may well change it.[/quote]

Yes, not sure why Charentais melons are so expensive as they only come from the next département along and they grow easily.

I am always shocked by the price of avocados and might buy the occasional one as a treat and to eat between the TWO of us.  However, this must be avocado season; they are relatively cheap and seem to ripen well without going rotten first.

You know how it is with avocados.  You look at them everyday, squeezing them here and there, looking at the stalk to see if it's coming off and, day after day, the thing remains hard and unyielding.  Then, one day, you look and squeeze and notice the skin is going black in patches and you cut it open straightaway.  How many times do you then find that the inside is black in parts as well?

As an aside, I bought some grapes (pink colour) origin Spain and they are SEEDLESS!!!  The first time in 11 years in France when I have been able to buy seedless grapes; have truly never found them before.  These were small but tasty and sweet but not too sweet.  Got 2 pretty bunches in a pack in le Grand Frais....yum....

[richard51]

Presumably the poor farmers have to charge massive prices to continue their baseline existence in France - Have you noticed that even the US are now increasing subsidies to farmers for the losses in Trumps trade wars. Poor people!

WB - yep tory sarcasm and amusement noted. However reality is that even more people will be seeking aid. UK getting as unnecessarily sick as the USA.

[woolybanana]

Dont see why it is Tory, Dickdick. YEwkay depends on imports for loadsa basics and if there are hold ups at the frontiers, no food, no medicines, massive layoffs in just-in-time industries ...... Need one go on.

Just one scenario, so I have reserved a trawler that was gonna be decommissioned and we will bring food over as needed?

[richard51]

Isn't it the tories who are happy to creep towards the no deal scenario?

God bless America - they will come to our rescue and ( in very small letters in the contract), charge us for the service.

NB When did the UK pay off the debt to the US for services supplied during WW2 ?

NB sending goods (food parcels etc) would incur charges (tariffs) let alone PO charges!!!! Grrrrr.

[Noisette]

Sidestepping the political stuff, the reason produce is so dear is more to do with it arriving on the shelves via middlemen. The producers don't get anything like the price the consumers pay as most are forced to sell via grossistes. As an example, a melon grower would get 20 centimes of the €1.65 or whatever.

[YCCMB]

Two farmers and a random have told me that fruit is expensive and not good this year due to the weird weather. Finally last week the Charentais melon index fell below the €1 mark and avocados plummeted to 99 cents for a bag of 3.

I'm fully on the side of the nectarine. Fuzzy skin: beurk!

Not that I buy them, but French-dwellers, you're being royally ripped off on iceberg lettuce. Even Lidl wants 99 cents for one. 49p in Morrison's.

[Judith]

Mint, re seedless grapes .. the only ones I can eat ... I have had them in my local supermarket from South Africa, sometimes, but not always.  Yet tos Spanish seedless so I will look out for them.  The French don't seem to like seedless and have no problems with the seeds ...

As for melons, ridiculous prices in the supermarkets this year, even the Spanish ones.  Even the market prices are much higher than usual .. and we had plenty of rain earlier in the year.  World gone mad, methinks!

[mint]

Judith, just had a look at the packaging so that I can give you precise info[:D]

The "marque" is ROYCA and the variety is called Rallis.  From Spain, category 1.  There were green ones and these ones were marked red but they are kind of rosy and look delicately blush.  Skin is nice and thin, not like some of those thick black ones......

[woolybanana]

There is no evidence whatsoever that Brexit is a purely Tory solution, though a couple of pompous ghouls would make one think so. (Perhaps he would have been better employed as a Boris Karloff stand in, rather than a ridiculous MP)

The beloved Jeremy seems happy to go that way if he can make Uk into his own little Socialist paradise where everyone is poor but proud, rather like Cuba. This later has just ditched communist economics and is finally allowing its people to earn for themselves.

Which means that your pension will be worth rugger all, dickdick, so we shall be asking the UK to send us the crusts from the food parcels we have sent them.

[idun]

I actually peel peaches or nectarines, usually the skin just slips off. I like the flesh, not the skin, although probably the skin would be very good for me.

I only leave skin on if I am making a compote.

I can presently buy lovely melons for a £1 and am happy with that.

Where I used to live, I would never ever again buy from the 'vans' that sold them, twice to three times dearer than the supermarkets and I was only stung once.

[richard51]

WB - I think that hard brexit is the preserve of the tories. We will all be shouting "god bless America" to get their measly offerings.

[Noisette]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]

Not that I buy them, but French-dwellers, you're being royally ripped off on iceberg lettuce. Even Lidl wants 99 cents for one. 49p in Morrison's.[/quote] It's a long way to go for a lettuce, though :-)

[YCCMB]

True, but I'm puzzled as to how, as they're probably both sourced from Spain, one can travel twice as far and cost half as much...

Charentais melons have shot back up in price again from 99 cents to €1.49 and tiny plum tomatoes have also increased in price by over €1 a kilo since last week. Good job they've come into season. ?

[woolybanana]

Weather, Betty and too many small producers.