In front of me on the table is s fine ripe peach. I am sure it will be sweet and juicy because the one I had for lunch yedsterdy was delicious and this one came from the same basket. Maybe even from the same tree in Niagara. I love August when I can eat plums, nectarinees and peaches, all the really good fruit I love. And I do not have to peer at the labels in the supermarket to see what foreign country the fruit came from. This stuff is all grown in Ontario.

I know peaches of the same type are meant to taste the same but how can they when one has travelled hundreds of miles in a refrigerated truck to get to Oakville and the other was grown not far away, in fact probably a few miles down the road. ly down the road. They are like two different varieties of fruit. I am looking forward to the big red plums with their sweet and sour taste. I cannot remember what they are called but they are solid fruit that you can bite into rather like eating an apple and the jiuce runs down your chin. That is a good reason to eat them over the sink as they can stain your clothes with drips.

I have never been an enthusiastic vegetable eater. In fact potatoes are my favourite. I blame this on my Irish heritage. When I was a child I tried to avoid eating turnrips snd parsnips but my father was a strong advocate of the clean plate rule and would insist that I eat everything exceept bones. I’d sit for ages staring the dreaded stuff which was growing colder and slimier by the mminute until he had to let me leave the table because I would have been late back to school. We ate our main meal at middat. Siometimes I was presented with the veg as leftovers at the next meal. It did not make me feel any kinder towar them. Mum used to mix the parsnips in with carrots snd swear she choulld not tell the difference in tasts but I did not believe her . I always could recognise a turnip or parsnip. I still do not care for either of them or for swedes but at least as an adult, I can legally ignore them.

The beans have been lovely this year. In fact I always liked green beans and grew lots of them back in New Zealand. I used ro swap them for other produce just as I traded grapes for plum jam or even honey or other fruit. It was not a deliberate swap. I took beans to a neighbour and she gave me somehing in exchange. It was a great system as I was never sure what I would bring home. .The broccoli has been good this summer too and the local bunches are very large. The lettuce is always reliable.

So I am enjoyng my local produce and very happy to support Ontario foodgrowers. I shall rmember this month with fondness when I am looking at lables on fruit that tells me it came from Chile or Mexico. .I do make exceptions for New Zealandd kiwi fruit as they seem to be picked at a better stage . Some of the others never ripen properly. And I am supporting my home country.