One of the more frustrating things at the farm is the way people test the ripeness of peaches. Just look at this peach. Someone had a heyday digging his/her fingers into it to see if it was ripe. Now it is a damaged peach, and no one is going to want to buy it at full price. It will be moved over to the half-off corner and most likely end up in the hands of someone making a peach pie or cobbler.
This is one area where I wish American produce markets would follow the European example. In Europe, you generally don't touch the produce. Instead, you tell the vendor what you want, and he or she selects it for you.
A few years ago, while in Salzburg, we visited the Salzburg Cathedral. In the plaza outside, several produce vendors had set up their stands. Todd reached out to examine a head of cauliflower and immediately received a scolding from the vendor. He didn't realize it but he had broken the rule: look, but don't touch.
This does make sense. When you are selling fresh produce, every squeeze, poke, or poke-and-sniff test can damage something that another customer might have purchased.
I would love it if Treadway Gardens took a lesson from the European approach. Let the people who know the produce choose it for the customers. The peaches would arrive in their bags without fingerprints, bruises, and dents, and the half-off corner just might not have as much damaged produce. But doing this would be be against all norms of American shopping.
