When we planned our trip to the Hudson River Valley for the day yesterday, one of the things I really wanted to do was pick up some fresh, local produce grown in the area. Since it’s summer time, stone fruit, berries, and tomatoes would be at their peak, and I was hoping we’d stop by a stand or two. We drove by a spot that had a good variety of produce, but the local fruit was the cheapest and juiciest: I don’t even know how many pounds each basket was, but we got at least 5-6 lb. each of “drip down your arms” peaches and perfume-like, deep red tomatoes for $5 per basket, and they were some of the juiciest and most fragrant fruit we’d ever bought. The sheer amount was hilarious, as we’d never purchased this much fruit before. Chris looked at the fruit, puzzled over what I’d do with it. “What are you going to do with all these?” he asked.

“Lots of things!” I exclaimed back. “For tomatoes, we can just eat them! Put them in salads! Make fresh tomato sauce! Tomato onion masala! And for the peaches, eat them! Make peach syrup and soda! Smoothies!”

There’s something about fresh, local, (and cheap!) produce that makes me so excited and happy. Even if I have no idea what I’m going to be doing with all of them, I will find uses for them since no food goes to waste in our home.