stlbites.com – st. louis food blog of bill burge

…and speaking of spoiled peach crops

Aug 30, 2007 farmers' markets, farming, general food

In July, there was one week that a grower showed up at the Maplewood Farmers Market peaches in tow. Overjoyed I bought a whole peck. What a mistake . . .

Out of 20 peaches in my peck, only 2 did not have living worms in them when cut open. A few looked particularly damaged from the outside. (I’ve spared you the gnarliest pictures because it was just nasty)
As it turns out, it’s pretty tough to grow organic peaches in this area as they’re susceptible to an incredible amount of wormy pests like the plum curculio and the peachtree borer. Not being a peach farmer myself, I have no idea exactly what was in those peaches, but armed with these pictures I headed back to the market the following week to take it up with them, but alas, they never returned and I chalked the experience up as a loss.

Here’s to hoping next years crop is back to what it should be not just for the farmers, but so that we can eat all those delicious peaches.

Tags: Maplewood Farmers Market