Baby bunches, striped Chioggia, gold and red beets are plentiful this week. Easy to cook and delicious to eat, if you haven’t discovered the pleasure of fresh beets, now is the optimal time. Cromwell, Mattawoman, and New Earth are ready to fill your baskets with this sweet treat from the good earth.

Cromwell is bringing peaches, cantaloupes, lettuce and kale. New Earth has sugar snap and snow peas, kale, lettuces, broccoli, and plants. Mattawoman is featuring that grand oddity, Romanesco cauliflower, along with kohlrabi, kale, broccoli, Napa, and several types of onions. Last call for radishes and collards. And Laura Bergey brings an overflowing basket of mixed lettuces for salad, along with the delicate selections from Heads Up Hydrogreens.

Combine your veggies with fresh pasta, local goat cheese, Virginia sheep and cow’s cheeses, peanuts, and crusty breads. Spice them up with pickled peppers, fresh salsa, meats cooked or uncooked, and local seafood. Add a pie or cookies, and a bouquet of garden-fresh flowers.

Old Beach has everything you need for memorable meals. Try the local advantage. Reap the compliments.

PARKING

With graduation ceremonies at the Convention Center this Saturday, the city has reopened 19th Street to cars for the day. You may continue to park in the convenient grassy lot on 19th Street, and the paved parking lots generously donated by our corporate neighbors: the WRV skateboard lot at 19th and Cypress,; the paved and grassy Waller, Todd & Sadler lots on Cypress near 20th St.; and the paved Runnymeade lot on Cypress at 20th and 21st Streets.

RECIPE: 

GRILLED PEACH, ARUGULA & HAM SALAD

Peaches are great for eating out-of-hand, but their juicy goodness really shines when grilled.

In this recipe, I take grilled peaches and add them atop a salad of arugula lightly tossed in a simply vinaigrette and top everything with Virginia country ham sliced into ribbons, a sprinkling of sea salt, and a dash of freshly ground black pepper.

To grill peaches: heat grill to high. Rinse 4 peaches, blot dry with a clean kitchen towel, and cut each peach vertically. Remove the pit inside. Brush cut sides of peaches with a little vegetable oil and place cut-side down on grill.

Watch for the cut-side to start turning golden brown and grill marks to appear. As the fruit softens and heats through, remove from grill with a spatula, cut into slices, and use in salad.

Use one grilled peach per salad.