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How To Pick A Peach - The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table
by Russ Parsons
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN 978-0-618-46348-0
Published May 2007 - Hardcover - 412 pages - $27.00

"How To Pick A Peach" is an indispensable guide to common fruits and vegetables, from asparagus to zucchini.  You'll learn why you should never refrigerate a potato, the one sure test for judging a fresh artichoke, which fruits you can buy unripe, and which ones will never have flavor if they were picked before their time — and how to tell if they were," it says on the book's dustjacket.  Invaluable information as far as I am concerned.  I was brought up to be a picky produce shopper, but was never told how I would know which fruits would be flavorless if picked too early.  Every eater's goal should be to use good quality, good tasting, and fresh food.  Not always possible as nowadays there are so many speedbumps en route from farm to dinner plate (not to mention escalating costs along the way).  Not only does food have to travel (and be stored), but there are many detours along the way, from farm to storage to transport trucks or trains to warehouses to delivery vehicles to coldrooms at the stores, etc., but, as it says in the book, "Although great flavor is the quality we eaters hold most dear in our food, for everyone else involved what matters is profitability," which is sad.  For me, as an example, fruit is prohibitively expensive and I can't afford any other fruit other than bananas, unless it's on sale and significantly marked down.  If we're lucky, the closest we get to "fresh" these days is at local farmers' markets, but their yield is limited to what grows in their area.  Parsons has divided his book into Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, and discusses many different fruits and vegetables and how to choose them, how to store them (vital information if you want to make the most of your food), how to prepare them, and offers recipes.  Some of the produce he talks about includes Strawberries, Corn, Eggplant, Beans, Potatoes, Peppers, Squash, Cherries, Tomatoes, and a host of others.  I'm surprised the other names for eggplant weren't listed, for interest sake — aubergine and brinjal.
Conclusion - If you're serious about what you eat, you need to read this extremely interesting and helpful book.