The food chain

Once again I'm a glutton for cherries.  Strawberries are still abundant so cherries are not available everywhere.

Two weeks ago I bought a bag of cherries from Whole Food for $6.99/lb and thoroughly enjoyed them.  I was pleasantly surprised when I returned and the cherries were on sale.  I bought 2 more pounds.  The problem is that once I start eating cherries, I'm hooked for the season.  When the sale was over I couldn't bring myself to purchase at the higher price point so I looked at the next best source for produce.  Unfortunately Wegman's was overflowing with strawberries but there wasn't a cherry to be found. 

I went online to search for sales and Genaurdi's had cherries for $2.99/lb.  I dashed to the store and they had only grapes and strawberries.  We went to Johnson's Corner Farm Wednesday and I desperately wanted to purchase the local grown, fresh picked cherries for $4.99/lb but they were not plump and many appeared bruised.  At that moment I was a hypocrite, a supporter of industrialized agriculture, preferring west coast cherries to those grown less than 20 miles away.  I did however purchase the Jersey field tomatoes ($2.99/lb) and we gobbled up tomato sandwiches when I got home. 

I went back to Wegman's, but still no cherries...it seemed that my only option was Whole Foods. 

Understanding my desperation, my husband picked up some cherries.  They were terrible and are still in the refrigerator.  I assumed they came from Shop Rite, a inner-city purveyor of inferior produce, but they came from Pathmark, even worse.  It's tragic when you're in the middle of a food desert.  There have been attempts at bringing fresh food to the hood but there's fresh and then there's fresh.  Although the price per pound is comparable to suburban markets (if not more), the produce always seems ready to ferment at any moment. 

I returned to Genaurdi's Thursday night and there was no evidence that a cherry had ever been there.  The clerk said that elderly people were buying them all by 8am.  I took a raincheck and made a last ditch effort to go to Super Fresh.   While I know that A&P purchased Pathmark, I assumed that the Main Line would certainly have better cherries than Philadelphia.  At Whole Foods, I can just pick up a bag of cherries and be on my way, knowing that 90% will meet my standard of dark, firm, and plump.  It took some effort to find 2 lbs of California cherries that came close to my criteria, but I guess that's what $2.49/lb will get you.