2011 off to a slow start

Every season is a different set of growing conditions. This season got off to a slow start with cool, wet weather, then stifling heat, then cold and wet again. So we're about two weeks later than the "norm" if there is such a thing anymore.

Nonetheless, we're finally starting to roll. Peaches arrived on the Market Friday, July 15, about two weeks later than last year. Still, peaches draw people, especially when they're Michigan grown. The first varieties are the cling-stones and the flesh does not easily come off the pit. It can be done, but it takes a practiced hand to cut wedges off the pit, and it's almost impossible to get full halves from an early Michigan cling-stone.

Yet the flavor is pure Michigan. Sweet, intense, juicy.

I'm predicting we'll be in full swing very soon. So come on down and experience Michigan's "terrior."

Lee LaVanway, market master