How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table | 
 enlarge | Author: Russ Parsons
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $3.13
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Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 33222
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0547053800
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.35
EAN: 9780547053806
ASIN: 0547053800
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Eat locally, eat seasonally." A simple slogan that is backed up by science and by taste. The farther away from the market something is grown, the longer it must spend getting to us, and what eventually arrives will be less than satisfying. Although we can enjoy a bounty of produce year-round -- apples in June, tomatoes in December, peaches in January -- most of it is lacking in flavor. In order to select wisely, we need to know more. Where and how was the head of lettuce grown? When was it picked and how was it stored? How do you tell if a melon is really ripe? Which corn is sweeter, white or yellow?
Russ Parsons provides the answers to these questions and many others in this indispensable guide to common fruits and vegetables, from asparagus to zucchini. He offers valuable tips on selecting, storing, and preparing produce, along with one hundred delicious recipes. Parsons delivers an entertaining and informative reading experience that is guaranteed to help put better food on the table.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
Yes, it's been done before, but never so geeky November 20, 2008
Brian Connors (Cape Cod, MA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Believe it or not, I have a writing life outside Amazon reviews, and one of my projects is an ongoing food blog with a heavy emphasis on kitchen science. As it happens, Russ Parsons is, while not one of my go-to authors, definitely someone whose work I like to keep around; his collection of essays and recipes, How to Read a French Fry, is a good book to sit down and browse just to learn dribs and drabs that might be covered in a more firehose-like manner in Cookwise or On Food and Cooking -- interesting, but sometimes a bit inessential. I'd wager I like this one better.
"How To Pick A Peach" covers numerous different varieties of produce, and again, there's a lot of material in here that can be found other places. But Parsons takes a slightly different approach from books like Rebecca Rupp's awesome Blue Corn and Square Tomatoes, focusing heavily on many of the reasons why modern produce is often less than optimal and offering solutions about what can be done about it. In particular, having only been published in 2007, it has a lot to say about relatively recent developments such as the widespread appearances of farmer's markets and their role in keeping small family farmers in business and rare and exotic vegetables and fruits in circulation.
Numerous recipes and sidebars complement capsule histories (sometimes a little too capsule, probably for space reasons) of the many vegetables, and the impact of shopping by variety is explored for such things as apples, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, and even cabbage. Unusual history and trivia make up a great deal of the book -- did you know that Japanese-Americans created the modern US strawberry industry, or that the Dutch and Chinese knocked the US tomato market on its ear? Or that the corn that your farmstand sells as "Silver Queen" probably isn't? Or that a town of 5000 in Pennsylvania is the mushroom capital of the United States?
Books like this do tend to suffer from a triage problem -- so much information, not enough room to store it. Parsons certainly couldn't avoid it; I can only imagine the research he left on the bookshelf. And the truth is that given the nature of the food markets and how much they've changed even in just the last ten years, this book probably won't be terribly essential ten years from now. But it'll still be interesting, so grab it while it's still pretty current. The recipes and techniques will still be good, and the information is still pretty awesome.
 Good Read October 6, 2008
J. Benedetti (Couer d'Alene, ID United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is very interesting. Thank God for NPR or we wouldn't hear about all the great books.
An excellent reference for finding high quality fruits and vegetables June 21, 2008
Robert C. Ross (New Jersey)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Great food always starts with great ingredients. According to my teachers at the Culinary Institute, the aspiring home cook can make delicious foods simply by picking great ingredients and then not making mistakes in cooking them. The CIA spends a great deal of time focusing on quality.
My paperback copy of How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table by Russ Parsons captures much of that information in a very handy volume. Parsons is a staff writer and the former food editor for "The Los Angeles Times." His approach is similar to that of Harold McGee (see On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, for example): direct, practical, informed and very readable.
Parsons recognizes the reality of many grocery aisles: "tomatoes that taste like cotton; peaches that will never drip; strawberries that could bend a fork." He has written short chapters on fruits and vegetables from apples to winter squash, together with over a hundred recipes. His writing shines: "With its overlapping rows of hard prickly petals, [an artichoke] seems only one step removed from a stick with a nail stuck in it."
The book covers 42 categories of fruits and vegetables arranged by season. The organization is a little confusing, but the excellent Index makes navigation easy and accurate. The index is particularly helpful in distinguishing the several biographies of the ingredients and the practical hints to choosing high quality ingredients.
Parson's recipe for parsnip soup is particularly good and representative of his style:
"This is a somewhat plainer version of a recipe by the San Francisco chef Jeremiah Tower. (He garnishes his version with shaved white truffles.) It's also really, really good with sour cream.
Ingredients
1 lb. parsnips
1 Tbsp. butter
1 onion, chopped
1 medium boiling potato, peeled and diced
~ Salt
3 cups water, plus more if needed
1 sprig tarragon
1 sprig parsley
cup sour cream
Steps
1. Working lightly with a vegetable peeler, peel the parsnips, then cut off the bottoms and tops. Continuing to use the vegetable peeler, cut away and save the rest of each parsnip down to its woody core, catching the thin slices in a wide pot. The color of the vegetable will change from creamy white to ivory when you get to the core. Discard the core.
2. Add the butter, onion, potato, and 1 teaspoon salt to the pot, along with cup water. Place the pot over low heat, cover it tightly, and cook slowly, "sweating" the vegetables until they begin to become tender, about 15 minutes. Stir from time to time to keep the vegetables from sticking and scorching. If necessary, add a little more water.
3. Add the tarragon and parsley and continue to sweat for another 5 minutes. Add 3 cups water, increase the heat to medium, and cook, uncovered, until the vegetables are completely tender, about 10 minutes.
4. Discard the tarragon and parsley sprigs and, using a slotted spoon, transfer as much as you can of the solids from the pot to a blender. With the lid of the blender removed, pulse to chop the vegetables. If necessary, add a little water. Once the vegetables are chopped, blend on the lowest speed and gradually work your way up to the highest. At first the vegetables will jump up the sides, but then they'll subside and remain at much the same level no matter the speed of the blender. With the motor running, add the rest of the liquid and any vegetables left over in the pot and purée until completely smooth.
5. Wipe out the pot to remove any bits of vegetables, then pour the puréed soup back into it. Heat through over low heat. Taste for salt.
6. Beat the sour cream with a spoon to soften it. Divide the soup among four warmed soup bowls, drizzle in a bit of sour cream in a decorative pattern, and serve.
And here are a couple of samples of Parson's hints on finding great ingredients:
A good watermelon should "sound hollow when thumped lightly." The reason: large cavities form inside the ripened fruit. An additional personal hint: if you buy a watermelon already cut, perhaps covered with clear plastic wrap, pick watermelons with large cavities, not the ones that are smooth and completely flat.
When selecting citrus and tomatoes, go for items that feel heavy for their size; lighter ones will have lost moisture and have a pulpy mouth feel.
"Mature fruit that hung on the tree long enough to develop the sugar will have a distinctive orange cast . . . trust your nose: fruit that is ripe and delicious will always smell that way." In particular, "When you buy [peaches] at the right time of year, however, when the local farmers have filled the markets with them, these fragrant treasures go for pennies. They'll even be cheap enough that you can afford to buy the very best. And that's the time you want to pick a peach."
Altogether, I found this a very handy book to refresh my memory of what constitutes excellent ingredients, particularly handy in the paperback size when shopping.
Robert C. Ross 2008
 Not the "Best Pick" in the Field January 7, 2008
Dyslexic Bob (Cincinnati, OH)
3 out of 16 found this review helpful
This book has a few interesting chapters but overall it misses the mark. Each chapter describes a different fruit or vegetable along with a few recipes. Any food lover will be disappointed and not learn much.
Great resource for taking advantage of fresh produce October 27, 2007
Christina Phillips (Alexandria, VA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
As others have mentioned, this book is a nice reference and fun to read. I have tried only a few recipes, but they have all been WONDERFUL. To me, they give the ideal kinds of insights for simple ways to prepare food more effectively which can be extrapolated beyond the exact recipe. After trying the beet/cuc/feta salad, and not having much experience with beets, I continued to make a cold beet salad for my 3yearold all summer, at her request! Also, after preparing eggplant in ways I was accustomed and accepting that my daughter didn't like it, I tried his recipe for steamed eggplant (go figure!) and again my 3yearold loved it! (So did I. It's now my favorite eggplant preparation as well.)
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