Summer in the Negev desert is a long hot and dry season that tries one's soul.
Will it ever end?
About the only good, refreshing thing about Israel summer is the many kinds of fruit that flood the shuk.
Even these Siamese-twin peaches.
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(I once read that double peaches are thought to be caused by drought stress at the time of flower bud formation.)
UPDATE: I added an explanation in the Comments about how produce is sold in the open-air market or shuk.
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So you get two for the price of one, or not?
ReplyDeleteHave a nice weekend, Dina !
I've never seen that before!
ReplyDeleteLooks interesting
ReplyDeleteI was wondering the same thing as Karl! On the other hand, though, as long as they are delicious and juicy, sweet and refreshing, who cares if it's two-for-one or two-for-two when you are suffering through a hot Israeli summer.
ReplyDeleteWe don't get good produce in the larger stores here. It's picked too early and transported, and it doesn't ripen. The Farmer's Market is the place to get them.
ReplyDeleteDouble peaches. What an interesting thought that drought is the culprit.
ReplyDeleteShalom,
Janis
GDP
OK, friends, I should explain how it works. At the huge open-air produce markets in Israel's big cities, there are two ways to buy fruit.
ReplyDelete1. Choose individual pieces of fruit and hand the bag to the seller to weigh.
2. Take your chances by getting a 6x5x4 inch open plastic container of the fruit and have it weighed. Usually the seller has hidden a few squished or bruised fruits (or in this case, two Siamese-twin peaches) on the bottom (invisible) layer.
Sometimes the non-perfect or smaller fruit is purposely boxed like this and sold at a lower price in order to move it out quickly.
I often have mercy on this type and feel it is a good deed to buy it and thus prevent it from being thrown out on the streets of the shuk and wasted at the end of the day.
I got these peaches from a stand that was selling 6 types of fruit (including mango!), each kind for 5 shekels per kilo. So at only $1.30 for one kilo (2.2 pounds) of tasty peaches, I can't complain!
Our town's only supermarket charges 3 times that. Ganavim.
Twins.
ReplyDeletemmmm these peaches look delicious.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen that before! Are they still good to eat?
ReplyDeleteSandi, I imagine such things happen in America too, but you will never see "twin" peaches because the grower will not send them to market.
ReplyDeleteMine were fine to eat. Just the smaller of each pair was really small.