Eating Seasonally and a Quest for Limes and Yellow Peaches

At home two huge trends in food are about eating locally and seasonally. That's all good in theory, but in practice, wow, it's a serious adjustment. Living in a country the size of New Jersey, everything is local, and seasonal. Apparently there's a store in Herzeliya that imports produce from all over the world (like we do in the US) but it's far, and I'm sure the prices are ridiculous.

So here we are. Living seasonally and eating locally. How fabulously trendy we are. Or kind of miserable. Some things are always around- cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, apples, bananas, etc. Others are more fleetings. Strawberry season is from around Chanuka to Purim which means no summer strawberry pie. Mangoes are big now, but no chunks of mango in January around. Apricots were a slice of heavan in May and then disappeared. As our time here has progressed, I've gotten smarter (I like to think), and at the hieght of the season- when the particular fruit is everywhere (and SO SO cheap at the Shuk), I buy a ton, cut up and freeze it. So strawberry smoothies were enjoyed through May, and we can still whip up an apricot tart.

One item that has been particularly illusive has been the lime. Apparently there IS a lime season here, but it is very brief, like a few weeks, max. So last week when I saw familar small green ovals at our local supermarket I got very excited and bought a whole bunch (with plans to juice and freeze in ice trays to have for a while!). I envisioned finally getting to spritz some lime juice onto our taco salads, put wedges in my seltzer, and use some zest to brighten up a fruit cobbler. Yes!

Here's one of my beautiful limes, all green and perfect:

And then I cut it open:

Then the following questions came up:

• Um, what the heck? 
• Why are limes orange? 
• Why do they taste not at all tart and very orange-y? 

And then I found some solutions:

• Oh, because they're clemintines. Then why are they green?
• Oh, apparently all peels of citrus fruit in this country start out green at the beginning of the season, even though the fruit inside is perfectly ripe.

Okay, this is weird. But okay, I guess clemintines are cool. And clemintines are seasonal in the US too, and the first box of clemintines is always a little exciting in the late fall/winter, so I can deal. But my lime search was not over.

Another day in the market, I saw this guy:

And got all excited again. And opened it and saw this:

Whomp Whomp. A lemon dressed up as a lime. Total BS. Like, it's always lemon season here- they're one of the staple things, and I have no idea why these guys were green. To mess with me? I still have no limes, but Esty is coming to the rescue by agreeing to pillage some from her parent's lime tree! There will be limes in this house!

Another thing we've been missing is yellow peaches. For some reason, all the peaches around here are white. I'm slightly allergic to white peaches, and Ami doesn't like them, but LOVES yellow peaches. White peaches have been around all summer. And we ask at the Shuk, hey when are the yellow guys coming to join the party, and get the same answer - in the next couple weeks.  By now, I'm thinking, yeah, right, but still look up and down the aisles for the illusive "afarsek tzahov" sign.

Well, it seems like things have taken a turn for the positive, because yesterday  in the Shuk I found ONE stand with the beloved yellow peaches. We had kind of given up by now, but there they were. And I saw them, and I looked at the seller, and he looked at me, and in my best Hebrew I asked if these were really yellow peaches. And he looked at me like a crazy and said, yes, that's what the sign says, so that's what they are. But I still didn't believe it after all my lime trauma. So I bought two, half thinking we'd open it up and it would be white (or who knows what else) or just not the yellow peaches we're used to. And then I meant to send Ami an EMERGENCY text about it but forgot. But then he got home and I told him and we checked it out, and these yellow peaches are the REAL THING! Now I have confidence in the peaches, and can go back to the Shuk next week and buy a whole boatload (eat as many as we can and freeze the rest, you know the drill).

Here is the happy boy:

Attempting to share with Eitan:

And finishing it off himself:

Yellow peaches, WELCOME!