Fresh organic peaches, nectarines, blueberries, along with cantaloupe, pineapple, and strawberries from our trip to California is what is being served all week for breakfast. It could almost be considered a mistake to buy fresh local organic fruit from a farmers market as we become all too aware that what we buy in the local Phoenix market cannot compare. Many a time the fruit we buy from one of the major grocery chains is literally without flavor, and while Whole Foods or Wild Oats offers better quality, local fresh in-season fruit cannot be beaten.

These tomatoes are from my final visit to The Little Farm in Gilbert as this was Lauren’s last season operating a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. She will be sorely missed.

Turns out that the third time was the charm in my effort to make ketchup. The first attempt failed because I didn’t understand the importance of a food mill. The second opportunity to make fresh ketchup was ruined because my recipe was still coming together and I still didn’t have a grasp on the dynamics of working with tomatoes. This last week’s attempt was dialed in. Maybe I should have cooked it a wee bit longer for a thicker ketchup consistency, but we are quite happy with the results. Caroline will find a little slice of heaven the next week as she indulges in her love of noodles and ketchup – yuck.

With a wide range of help from the books Classic Sourdoughs, The Village Baker, Great Whole Grain Breads, along with King Arthur Flour and their wonderful The Baker’s Store and the various blogs and websites for bakers on the internet, I have finally tackled my first bread baking in years and the results were almost perfect. I shouldn’t have scored the tops of the bread and the recipe called for baking the loaves on a greased and cornmeal-dusted cookie sheet, I used a baking stone. This was hard enough, but now I want to tackle baguettes and multi-grain bread.