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Farm fresh or Franken-fruit?

When you are buying produce, you are most likely more concerned about the look and feel of the product than the Price Look Up (PLU) sticker. While squeezing, flicking, smelling and all those other tried-and-true techniques of examining produce work well, that little sticker actually offers some useful information.

If you are looking for organic fruit, make sure your sticker has a five-digit number that starts with the number nine. If it doesn't, it's not organic.

Five-digit codes that begin with the number eight are cause for a little more concern. These codes mean that the produce was genetically engineered. That means your seemingly harmless piece of fruit is the product of manipulated genes. Sure, it may be bigger and have a prettier color than the organic fruit, but that is a sign of genetic and chemical manipulation, not better taste or quality.

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Katie Moulton

Target is going "P Fresh": sounds like a personal problem to us here at Gut Check, but the retailer isn't being shy - just a little coy - about its new store concept.

Next Sunday, March 27, three local Target stores will relaunch with the P Fresh concept, which features an expanded selection of fresh food. The Kirkwood, South County and Shiloh, Illinois locations have remained open during the three-month remodeling, but as newly-minted P Fresh stores, "guests will discover an inviting and open-market layout, including a curated assortment of fresh produce (e.g., bananas, seasonal fruit, berries, baby carrots and bagged lettuce), fresh packaged meat (e.g., ground beef, chicken and pork) and pre-packaged baked goods (e.g., dinner rolls and pies)," according to a Target spokesperson.

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Banana luchadores!

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Robin Wheeler

Been jonesing for the first sweet, juicy local peach of the season? You don't have to wait as long as usual. Most years the first St. Louis-area peaches don't ripen till the end of June. So imagine Gut Check's joy upon walking into Eckert's Country Store yesterday to find tables loaded with peaches.

Not California peaches. Illinois peaches! Picked ripe from trees in the neighboring orchard!

Weather conditions gave this year's crop an early boost. Payback for 2007, when most of the crop was destroyed by a late freeze? Perhaps. Global warming? Maybe. Whatever the reason, Early Clings are ready. They're a palm-size fruit with dark, thin fuzz and bright yellow flesh.

Bite into the peach, and be prepared to change your shirt. The fruit's just as juicy as what we get in July.

Lana Shepek, Food Enthusiast (yes, that's her job title) at the Belleville store, predicts that Garnet Beauty peaches will be the next available, about June 20.

For now the peaches aren't available at Sappington Farmers Market, Whole Foods or Kirkwood Farmers' Market. But that'll change later in the season.

These early summer treats are only sold at the Belleville location. A one-quart pan (about 2.5 pounds) costs $4.49.