In this fruitless mid-season before local strawberries and raspberries show up, when all that's on offer are bananas, oranges with the texture of Kleenex and apples you just don't want another bite out of, think about dried fruits. Soak them overnight in anything from weak tea to diluted fresh orange juice, and buy a mix of whatever catches your interest from figs and apricots to golden raisins, cranberries and dried apple slices. A bowlful makes a delicious breakfast. And sprinkled with a liquor, and a crunch of toasted walnuts, and served with creme fraiche or thick Greek yogurt, you have an easy dinner party dessert.

The packages of dried fruits and nuts in general supermarkets are perfectly serviceable. But if you want to offer them as sweetmeats or elevate your fruit cakes to a higher level, buy them loose at a Middle East grocery.

Yekta, a good fresh produce and dried goods grocery at1488-A Rockville Pike, Rockville, 301 984 1190, and Yasaman Bakery, in the Ritchie Center, 785J Rockville Pike, Rockville, 301 762 5416, both sell excellent shelled pistachios in various flavors and other nuts and some dried fruits.

Catty corner to Yasaman is Sam’s Café & Market, a Persian grocery that also stocks dried fruit and nuts, particular large sheets of dried fruit puree, the origin of Fruit Roll-Ups.

Some of the cheapest cashews and pistachios around can be found at the Afghan Mini Market, 6566 Blacklick Rd, Springfield, 703 644 0186. Raw cashews are $4.99 a pound, pistachios at the same price, loose seeds and candied peel by the pound (good to know about for Christmas cake bakers). For the rest of it, this friendly store sells goods similar to those in Indian markets.