I didn’t have the slightest interest in going to farmer’s markets when I lived in the country. Since I moved to the city, I can’t resist them. I’ll wader around squeezing peaches, plucking tomatoes, staring at piles of waxy red peppers, and day-dreaming about all the things I can slather with jewel-toned jam. Lately when I visit upstate I’ll usually stop at a farmers market, hunting for something I can’t find in the city, because it’s closer to the source.

A couple weeks ago at the Montgomery Place farm stand outside Red Hook I spotted a bucket of “our own” pink pearl apples, all pale green with just a faint flush under the surface. The sign assured me that this apple was beautiful on the inside, so I took one home and nerded out over what I’d just bought.

Pink Pearl is an heirloom apple, first developed in Northern California in 1944. An heirloom, or antique plant is typically an older variety that was never grown for large-scale agricultural use, and that relies open open pollination from insects or wind. Heirloom apples tend to be less attractive, or abundant, or hardy than supermarket moneymakers like Granny Smith and McIntosh, but there are hundreds of varieties (there used to be thousands), many boasting unique colors, textures and flavors.

Despite its dull exterior, my pink pearl apple had crisp, juicy, white flesh ribboned with gorgeous streaks of pink. Its taste was precariously balanced between sweet and tart, but in a good way, like lemonade. These apples ripen in late summer, before you’re even thinking about of apples, and only hang around for three or four weeks, so it’s not likely that I’ll get another Pink Pearl this year. That is, unless someone’s got the lowdown on a stash here in town.

Montgomery Place Orchards Farm Market
intersection of 9G and 199 in Red Hook (about 100 miles north of NYC) (845) 758-6338
Next to Bubby’s Burritos!

Last night I slept under the covers. This is notable because during August my apartment never drops below a steamy 80 degrees (I dislike air conditions, ugly white-noise units that down out my window symphony of crickets, owls, cars, and clattering dishes from the restaurant next door). So the end of summer is usually a relief, like a fever breaking.  The only downside is that there’s just a few days left to pick up my favorite Greenmarket snack, before they go out of season.

Fresh peaches from the Greenmarket put supermarket peaches to shame. Ripe, unbruised, and fragrant, with a deep golden hue and sweet, juicy flesh, they taste a little like the local answer to mangoes. They’re delicious eaten alone or with vanilla ice cream or garnishing a plain cereal like Special K. Italians serve them sangria-style soaked in red wine. I grabbed two for $1 on my last visit, which seems steep until you taste them.

Peaches don’t ripen off the tree so be sure to pick a ripe one and eat it as soon as possible. Look for a deep golden background color, no bruises, and a strong, peachy fragrance. They should give a bit when squeezed. If you’re holding one that isn’t fuzzy, it’s a nectarine.

If you’re a peach fan, don’t miss this peach dessert slideshow.

Union Square Greenmarket
Union Square West between 14th St, and 17th St.
Mon, Wed, Fri, and Sat 8am-6pm

An all-vegan ice cream parlor that looks like an old-time sweet shop, Lula’s might be the lacktard’s jackpot. Now instead of envying the cone-lapping trances shuffling down the sidewalk, gastronomically-challenged folks and their omnivore buddies can bond over frozen treats here. The menu includes a couple of soy milk-based ice creams, including a convincing cake batter flavor, and about ten nut milk-based ice creams, many of them gluten-free. My favorite of the nut-based flavors is cinnamon, but other notables include orange creamsicle, cookies and cream, and mango coconut. Sampling is not only permitted, but encouraged, and I didn’t get any “omfg she’s asking for a fourth sample” attitude.

(There seems to be some variation in scoop sizing. On my second trip I got a much larger scoop)

As for taste, this is a pretty good dairy substitute, with no weird soy flavor and spot-on creamy texture. There’s a telling lack of buttery richness, but I can eat about half a dish ($3.75) before I even register it. Vegan treats like white-”chocolate” covered pretzels and pectin gummi bears are also for sale, not to mention egg creams ($3.75). An egg cream is a classic NYC beverage (Lou Reed even wrote a song about it) that usually consists of chocolate syrup, seltzer and milk mixed to form a fizzy head. Lula’s non-dairy version was a fair approximation of the classic egg cream I’d had at Gem Spa, although in both cases I got the sense that I was drinking a poor man’s ice cream float.

Lula’s Sweet Apothecary
516 East 6th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B
Wed 3pm-10pm Thu 3pm-12am Fri-Sat 3pm-1am

As country roadside burrito stands go, they don’t make ‘em better than Bubby’s. This teeny trailer with its green, hand-drawn “Burritos” sign appears sometime in May, near a farm stand at the intersection of Route 199 and 9G in Red Hook, NY (upstate, not Brooklyn). The vegetarian menu boasts just four items, all made-to-order: burrito with guacamole ($6.50), burrito without guacamole ($5.50), cheese quesadilla ($4.00), and auguas de frutas ($1.00). The guac burrito is a satisfyingly fat bundle of rice, beans, lettuce, tomato salsa, cheese, sour cream and guacamole wrapped in a toasted tortilla. Everything tastes fresh, and just a bit of chipotle hot sauce, available at the counter, adds some welcome heat. A couple of picnic benches suffice for seating, and the crowd–if you dare call it that–is a mellow mix of locals, daytrippers and Bardies (hippie-ish students from the art school up the road). The husband and wife team that run Bubby’s split their time between upstate NY and their cafe in Mexico, so come autumn the trailer disappears, not to return until next summer. HIghly recommended stop for lunchtime munchies if you’re in the area.

Bubby’s Burritos
intersection of Route 199 and 9G Red Hook, NY
open during the summer Tues-Sat 11-5
If the weather is stormy, or portends storminess, they may be closed. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Perhaps the most eagerly-anticipated fruit export in years, boxes of Indian mangoes have started cropping up in a few city delis, after a 20-year ban. Most Americans have only tasted Mexican or Guatemalan mangoes, whose stringy flesh and faint sweetness pales next to the Indian variety, kinda the way that canned fruit cocktail stacks up to fresh produce. The FDA’s concern over pesticides used by Indian farmers halted the mango trade until George W Bush lifted the ban in 2006, as part of larger trade and nuclear cooperation agreements. Currently, only 2 of the 1500 varieties grown in India (which produces 50% of the world’s supply) are allowed in the US, under condition that they be treated with irradiation to eliminate seed weevils: the alphonso and the kesar.

I tried an alphonso, fondly known as the king of fruits, after my snacking associate spotted some in a box at Dual Specialty Store, an Indian deli on First Avenue. The mango’s flesh was firm but more creamy than pulpy, and the outer layers had, in addition to an intense mango taste, notes of floral and spice. Towards the middle the mango turned sweeter, more honey-and-vanilla, dribbling juice that ran down my wrists. Eating mangoes is a messy business, best enjoyed with someone you love.

So of course, it was back to Dual for more mangoes. I picked out two green ones, wrapped in styrofoam nets, hoping that they will ripen to golden yellow. Since they were an exorbitant $3.50 each, I also picked up a more reasonably-priced $1.50 Mexican mango, which was bigger and promisingly shaded vivid red and gold. Compared to the Alphonso it fell flat. There was no complexity, little flavor, and pulpy bits. The man at the counter said they were running low on the alphonsos, but they would be getting some kesars in soon (sure enough, the first sea shipment left Mumbai on June 12 and is due this week). And then, since mango season ends in June, and there are still few importers, there will likely be no more til next year. For now, Patel Brothers in Jackson Heights might be another likely source. Get them while you can, because mango fanatics will be snapping them up.

Dual Specialty Store
91 First Avenue between 5th st. and 6t st.
11am-midnight