At least once every year, I like to bring my camera with me on one of my early Saturday morning trips to the Oak Park Farmers Market to capture the abundance.

Mid-July is a heady time at the farmers market. The tables are groaning with fruit from the Michigan orchards. Stone fruits of all kinds, from cherries to apricots to peaches and plum, jostle for space and compete for your attention.

While the strawberries may have left, their partner in crime, rhubarb, is still hanging around. And the blueberries and raspberries more than make up for the early bird cousin’s absence. If you are lucky and eagle-eyed, perhaps you can even spot a few members of the Ribes family: gooseberries and currants.

But it is folly to focus on the fruit alone. By now, there is sweet corn to be had – a dozen ears for $5. Zucchini taunt us with their abundance. Put it in everything, I say! Green beans, cucumbers, carrots, beets, onions — I want to pickle them all. And for those of us who don’t garden, fresh herbs of all kinds are on offer for only a few dollars.

In a few weeks, the cherries will be gone. Then the apricots. Luckily the peaches, plums and berries will stick around for a while longer. As July turns into August, the tomatoes will become the star of the show. Soon everyone’s bags will be bulging with heirloom varieties. The sweet peppers will make an appearance and maybe some more obscure favorites too: poblano peppers or tomatillos or ground cherries.

Before we know it, summer will turn into fall; hardy apples and pears replace the soft stone fruits. Raspberries and blackberries hang on as the air gets colder. But I long for the more exotic fall fruit. Will I be able to persuade one of the farmers to bring me some quince? Will my Damson plum guy come through once again?

As frost threatens, green tomatoes sell for rock-bottom prices and knobby root vegetables enjoy their moment in the sun. With only a few weeks left of the market, panic sets in. Buy all the apples, celery root and squash you can to keep in cold storage.

But why focus now on those more melancholy times? It is still July. We still have cherries for Pete’s sake. And we will eat them until we get sick.