Fruit

Late-season tomatoes are a difficult sell. They are not gorgeous. Spotty, misshapen, with fissures on their skin, they would be described, if they were children, as having faces that only their mothers could love. Yet in this, the shank of their season, they draw attention from me and the fruit flies. The fruit flies circle the tomatoes that sit on a kitchen counter, looking for soft spots. Only days before, the tomatoes had been on the vine, catching a last bit of sunshine before biting cold and fading daylight shut down production.

The first Marriotts Ridge Music Foundation Citrus Sale will benefit the music students of Marriotts Ridge High School and help fund their trip to attend the Fiesta-Val Music Festival in Gatlinsburg, Tenn. The sale will feature ruby red grapefruit, navel oranges, tangerines and a variety pack. The tree-ripened fruit will be delivered to the school in refrigerated trucks. Orders to be picked up Nov. 15 are due by Friday; orders to be picked up Dec. 13 should be submitted by Dec. 2. Information: Carita Carlyle, 410-465-2344 or Karen Littlejohn, 410-442-5440.

By all rights last fall, Doug Woerner, my downtown farmers' market late-season quince source, should have been feeling the love. The October 2007 issue of Martha Stewart Living had an article on quince, with several simple recipes. But not even the blessing of that well-known purveyor of "good things" helped move many pints or pecks of the fruit off Woerner Orchards' market table. I was, and still am, one of Woerner's only quince customers. I can't wait for his quince, with its knobby shape, glo-green color when not ready and almost fluorescent-yellow tone when ripe.

Severna Park volleyball hitter Christi Laite traveled great lengths over the summer in an effort to step up her game. To Arizona, to be exact. The junior, in her fourth year playing the sport, was part of a team that took part in a high-level international tournament in Tucson, where she strived to build on her reputation as a dominant front-row hitter. Laite has rounded out her game with improved passing and defense, and leads the young Falcons in their quest for a second straight Anne Arundel County title.

If you're looking for a quieter activity than the Maryland State Fair this weekend but still want to pass on some of those home arts to your tweens and teens, you might want to head over to Marshy Point Nature Center, 7130 Marshy Point Road, Middle River, on Saturday. From 2 p.m.-4 p.m., kids 12 and older (and adults) can learn the art of canning peaches for fall and winter recipes. Free. Preregistration required; call 410-887-2817.

2006 Folonari Riesling From: Pavia, Italy Price: $ 9 serve with: seafood, spicy Asian cuisine Riesling is associated with Germany, Austria, France's Alsace region, Australia, Washington state - but seldom with Italy. This crisp, just-off-dry version of this noble white-wine grape is simply a wonderful value, however. It offers generous flavors of citrus fruit, apples, peaches and tropical fruit, but somehow never crosses the line into being overblown. It offers good acidity, a welcome touch of minerals to offset the fruitier flavors, and a zingy finish.

The full August moon was once known as the Fruit Moon, denoting its appearance while fruit is ripening on the trees. Last night's full moon was partially eclipsed during the afternoon, our time. At its peak, the Earth's shadow darkened about four-fifths of the moon's face as people from western China to western Europe watched. We in the New World were on the wrong side of the planet for this one. The next total lunar eclipse visible here will occur (numerologists take note) on 12/21/2010.

Robert Egan Groth, an entrepreneur and retired owner of the Flying Fruit Fantasy fresh fruit shake business, died of a stroke Saturday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson. The Pikesville resident was 57. Mr. Groth grew up in Wantagh, N.Y., a suburb of New York City, and attended American University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in political science. He managed two prominent restaurants in Washington in his early adulthood, the Gandy Dancer and the Biltmore Ballroom. But building the Flying Fruit Fantasy business with his wife, the former Georgia Bacas, was his true passion, according to friends and family.

When Charlie Gailunas harvests zucchini from his lush Catonsville garden, he might overlook a specimen camouflaged beneath a canopy of leaves. "Sometimes you miss one," he says. By the time he finally discovers the hidden squash, it may have grown to baseball-bat proportions, far beyond the zucchini's capacity for tenderness and a pleasing, mild taste. Gailunas, a retired hospital administrator who has cultivated his 700-square-foot garden for 30 years, doesn't toss the zucchini, nor does he pawn it off. He makes Gagutz, a Sicilian soup introduced to him by a neighbor's mother who lived in Little Italy.

Which fruit ripen after they are picked - and why? For the lowdown on ripening, I called the postharvest information center at the University of California, Davis (postharvest.ucdavis.edu) and the California Tree Fruit Agreement (eatcaliforniafruit.com). Ripening, I learned, is a complex process involving three changes in fruit: Starch is converted to sugar; acidity levels decrease, and the cell walls of the fruit begin to break down, making the fruit soften. Not every fruit experiences all these changes, but all of them experience at least one. Climacteric fruit ripen after they are picked; nonclimacteric fruit do not. Nonclimacteric fruit include pineapples, cherries, grapes, citrus fruit, berries and watermelon.