This is the Season for the Best Fruits and Vegetables Around
By Margit Bisztray, Food Critic

Not to sound really OLD or anything, but remember when you couldn't get strawberries out of season? Or corn, cherries, tomatoes or apricots? This meant when you saw them at the grocery store, a specific season had begun. Up north, where I grew up, the above fruits and vegetables meant summer (I've since learned tomato season in Florida is just the opposite, winter). The other thing was, they were usually sweet, juicy, and delicious.

I thought of this the other day when I bought organic peaches at a Publix near Gasparilla Island on the West Coast of Florida. Now, I have not given up on peaches altogether, but they've been pretty lousy lately. Not only do they have no flavor, but they've had that dry, mealy texture that makes you go yuck. These were incredible, all sweet flowery nectar, and a texture so silky it was hardly texture at all. I freaked out. Different people freak out for different reasons––-like when they're favorite team wins, or they pick the right game show door, or they win the beauty pageant. Me, I'm happy with a peach like that.

I was filming at a restaurant called JCT in Atlanta recently when I had a blackberry freakout. This farmer–––who, by the way, you couldn't have invented a better version of for a Farmer Show if you had to, with his bushy beard and Southern drawl and, I'm not kidding you, overalls–––brought in a tray of blackberries so perfect and healthy they practically glowed. He urged me to try one, and it was sensational. It was an explosion of blackberry-ness big enough to blow away all the bad ones I've had for a few years. And he was so proud of them. He knew how great they were. Those blackberries were his calling, his craft, his pride and joy. I asked the chef, Ford Fry, what he was going to do with them and he said he wasn't yet sure, but a certain fruit crumble was one possibility. I envied every diner who might wander in the next evening or two and haphazardly order that blackberry dessert and be amazed.

Real produce–––I would say "old fashioned" produce but there I go sounding old again, so let's say "old fashioned tasting" produce–––is scarcer these days. Once in awhile it's at the Publix store, but I have to say where you're most likely going to find it is at places like JCT (and Eugene, Canoe and Watershed) in Atlanta–––at restaurants, in other words, where the chefs personally seek out the farmers in the overalls, or, out of season, the purveyors who know farmers in overalls growing delicious produce elsewhere. This is the season for the best fruits and vegetables around, so let your chefs treat you to the very best. Or, keep up the treasure hunt at your local supermarket. I'm telling you, that peach...

NOTE: Margit Bisztray has been reviewing restaurants and writing about food for ten years. She has published three editions of The Complete Key West Dining Guide, and her work has appeared in such publications as Vogue, Gourmet, Islands and Metropolitan Home. To read more restaurant reviews, log your own personal opinions, rate your favorite restaurants and watch streaming video archives of these shows and other reviews, visit Margit's Top 5.