Almost always, every fruit vendor will tell you the goods in his store was freshly picked that day or a few days ago. Never will you hear, “10 days ago”. But that is what exactly Soni said when I asked her about the peaches displayed at Peach King Fruit Market, a fruit stand in Keremeos, the Fruit Stand Capital of Canada.
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| Soni, the honest sales lady |
I was astonished at the seller’s honesty. I commended Soni who said the store has to be
(truthful) in order to attract and maintain customers. With that guarantee, I did my shopping of
peaches, tomatoes, onion, and russian garlic.
How are the watermelons? Soni
pointed out those green watermelons with black stripes called “Sugar Baby” were
yellow inside and good. Yellow? Really?
The last time I had yellow watermelons was as a kid in
tropical Philippines. They were referred
to as La Mallorca, after the passenger bus line with all-yellow coaches. The red ones were called Victory Liner or
Philippine Rabbit which have red-colored coaches. Across the US and Canada, even Mexico, I
have never seen yellow watermelons, red being the only one. Although if you google it, some stores do
carry the yellow variety. So I got two
at $3.99 a piece (regardless of size or weight though more or less everyone were
comparable in volume). This was
mid-September at the doorstep of the end of the season. Soni said at the start of the season, both
red and yellow are sold by weight a t$0.49 - $0.79 cents per pound depending on
the bounty of the harvest. The watermelons
range from 4 lb to 7 lb in weight. When
to expect it next year? Red and Yellow start rolling off the fields the first
week of August until the end of September.
All local watermelons have seeds, only the imported ones from the US and
Mexico are seedless, said Soni. “The
seeds variety are juicier.”
A few days later, sure enough, when I bludgeoned the chilled
watermelon with a cleaver, the San Andreas size fault revealed a bright golden flesh
spotted with black seeds. Crisp, sweet,
cool, thirst-quenching, and most importantly firm not mushy. It was a terrific rebirth of a young boy’s
gustatory joy.
Peach Fruit King Market also carries cherries (the Lapin
variety are bestsellers – middle of July), nectarines, summer and winter apples,
pears, berries, pepper, tomato, plum, prunes, pumpkins, and other vegetables - all grown from their huge orchard behind the
store. and other properties in the Similkameen Valley.
As to the tastiest peaches, Soni said in addition to
Harbrite (an early variety that starts 1st week of August), the
other flavorful peaches are Red Haven (also 1st week of August) and
Glow Haven (2nd week of August).
The retail and wholesale store opens annually around June 10th
and closes end of October. Seven days a week even long weekends and holidays
from 8 am - 7 pm (longer depending on daylight)
Call Jessi or Soni at Tel. 250 499 7053. E-mail: mundi1998@gmail.com
Location: 990 Keremeos Bypass
Road (at the corner of Highway 3A going towards Penticton), Keremeos BC
There are many fruit stands in
Keremeos and along the Okanagan Valley (Kelowna, Summerland down to Osoyoos) –
which will give you a smorgasbord to choose from. It is fun to fruit-stand hop.
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