Anyone who has tried to peel a ripe tomato with a paring knife knows how it usually ends, with more fruit lost than peel removed. Peaches have the same problem, their fuzzy exterior clinging just as stubbornly to what's underneath. The fix for both is a quick trip through boiling water, a technique called blanching, which loosens the peel without cooking the fruit itself. While the method is nearly identical for each, timing is important.
Open the crisper drawer and there is a chance something in there that has wilted. The good news is that wilted produce has almost always lost water, and there is a simple fix. How you do it depends on the shape of what's wilting — veggies with a solid stem or stalk take up water from a cut base, but leaves, herbs, and smaller vegetables need a full soak instead.
Jim Durst will tell you that good vegetables begin underground. Feed the soil, he likes to say, and it will feed the plants. Jim came to that idea early, falling for organic farming as a young man and going on to help spark the sustainable farming movement that took root across the Capay Valley.
