Stone fruit has been really good for us, too. I haven't noticed a problem with romaine or other greens in quality or price...so far. Maybe it depends on location. We're in Southern CA.

That's interesting, rita. Around here I've seen the same old couldn't-tell-it-wasn't-a-zucchini-with-your-eyes-closed junk we always get, although cherries were much less flavorful than usual. I haven't had any problems with romaine, but I don't buy that at Publix.

And I had to do a double take at the price of plain old cabbage at $1.19 a pound. What's going on? I thought cabbage was peasant food???

Whenever any food becomes popular (and homemade sauerkraut is very much a Thing these days), the grocery stores jack up the price. See chicken thighs, for instance.

I agree - the peaches and plums have been amazing this year.

I bought some romaine about a month ago that was so bitter it was inedible. After several soaks in a cold water bath, the bitterness was leached out and it ended up making some delicious salads. It was extra crunchy too - perhaps due to the coal water soak?

I haven't noticed the peaches being better so much as riper--whereas in recent years they'd been picked so early they never ripened.

What I have noticed is my first bunch of organic bananas with the weak neck y'all were talking about here. They look young, strong and thick, but just give way without hardly pulling. Unless someone put the organic stickers on different bananas (they're Dole, not one of the small packers), whatever is causing it has spread.

Perhaps the issue with bananas is because growers have shifted to a different variety, because of Panama disease?

And yes - the organic plumcots, peaches, and cherries I've bought this year are terrific! The plumcots were so sweet - better than plums.

I buy organic and lettuces have been pretty terrible in many of the stores selling them, but Aldi has hydroponic butterhead that's always very nice, and a local store, Rollin' Oats, has beautiful romaine.

And organic cabbage may be had for .98/# at some of the markets here.

they'd been picked so early they never ripened.

I thought stone fruits don't ripen any more once off the tree, just get softer with age?

And I should have said that I did have some wonderful-tasting peaches this year, but they were locally grown and only the size of a large walnut. And I have to admit I can't get used to the idea of a nice crunchy peach (what U of F calls "non-melting" in their varietal descriptions).

I've made pie out of crunchy peach, but the pie didn't taste peachy so the crunch made people think it was apple.

That may be true about peaches. I've never heard of that before. I do know that the ones that start as rocks stay rock hard. Perhaps the hard ones that have that itty bitty bit of give are fully ripe and just getting softer on the counter rather than ripening more. But peaches should be soft enough to have to be careful not to bruise them! Usually, I just wait for the tree ripened peaches, but the box I got on a whim had some ripe/soft and some hard that softened/ripened on the counter. The ones I waited longer to cut also were sweeter, but there's no way to know if that wasn't just the natural variation from peach to peach.

Peaches should melt. One summer I was living with a bunch of people in a crummy apartment which had a fantastic patio, so we had a lot of people hanging out on the patio all the time. My contribution to a bring something dinner was a pound cake with sort of grilledish peach topping. The peaches we had were a little bigger than a walnut, but not much! But I dutifully peeled and peeled and peeled and sliced them and put them in a pan with butter, sugar and Sabra and they kept melting rather than browning because they were so small, so I kept adding more. I think I had peach juice up to elbows, but it was the most wonderful thing ever. And, no, I've never done it again! First you have to have fantastic peaches. Then they have to last until you get to cooking them.