This month, I'm looking forward to eating an abundance of summer fruit.  You might have noticed that it's not yet summer, but the Farmer's Markets are full of delicious fruit.  In the warmer Central Valley and inland areas, summer fruit ripens a full month before it does here locally on the Peninsula.  Although in early May my taste buds aren't yet ready to switch from oranges to apricots, by the time late May and early June roll around, I'm definitely ready to bite into an apricot dripping with juice.

The best tasting fruit is found picked fresh from a tree on a sunny afternoon when the sun has warmed up the fruit a bit.  For many people who are not growing their own fruit, the next best place to find this flavor is at a farm stand or the local Farmer's Market.  Summer fruit sold at the grocery store does not compare to the same fruit sold at the fresh market stand.  When a farmer plants a fruit tree or berry vine, he thinks about many qualities of the fruit and tree/vine before planting. Most importantly for the eater, farmers who sell their fruit at a local market add extra weight to the flavor of the fruit.  Farmers who ship their fruit pick their varieties based on how well the fruit will ship.  In addition, whereas the grocery store sells one or maybe two varieties of peaches, a Farmer's Market will typically contain at least 5 – 10 different varieties of each fruit.  Once you get hooked on eating really fresh, great tasting fruit, it's hard to turn back to buying hard, tasteless supermarket fruit. There's a great summer challenge to buy your fruit at the Farmer's Market as much as you can and see if you notice the flavor/texture difference when you eat fruit from somewhere else.

After buying fruit at the Farmer's Market, store the fruit on the counter, not in the refrigerator.  This behavior might seem counter-intuitive to people who put everything in their fridge, but really, the refrigerator negatively affects the developing flavor of the fruit. The fruit might last longer in the fridge but it will not taste as good as if it's left on a counter out of direct sunlight.  Because the fruit is not in the refrigerator, you need to eat it when it becomes slightly soft to the touch,  which might be anywhere from 2-4 or 5 days after you buy it.  Berries are very fragile and do last much longer in the refrigerator.  If you leave them out of the refrigerator, you'll need to eat them within about 2 days.  Spend the summer making an art out of eating summer fruit when it's just ripe!

In addition to eating fruit out-of-hand, here are some other ideas of what to do with this summer's bounty.

Freezing Fruit for Later Use:  When you walk by the strawberry stand at the Farmer's Market and are swayed by the entire flat of strawberries, buy the whole darn flat!  Don't settle for 1 or 2 pints!  You can freeze the berries and use them all summer long in fruit smoothies.  They make a great base for any other fruit.  To freeze berries (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc.), hull the berry (for strawberries), place the berries on a cookie sheet, and place the tray in the freezer for a few hours until frozen.  Then, remove all of the berries and put them in a Ziploc freezer bag and put them back in the freezer.  When you make smoothies, just use a large handful of already frozen berries.  You don't need to add ice; the berries serve as your ice and make the smoothie nice and cold.

To freeze fruit other than berries, cut the fruit into slices, place the slices into a Ziploc bag or plastic tub, and put the container in the freezer.  If you eat bananas, it's handy to have an ongoing banana smoothie supply by creating a banana-morgue in your freezer.  Peel the bananas (very important step(!)), break them in half or thirds, put them into a plastic tub or Ziplog bag, and place the container in the freezer.  Whenever you want some fruit for baking or a smoothie, pull out what you want and put the rest back in the freezer.

Smoothies Most summer fruit can go right in the blender with a little bit of water, lemonade, milk, or yogurt to make a delicious drink. Overripe fruit is especially sweet and full of juice. Under-ripe fruit won't do much for you no matter what way you eat it.  Save it until it's ripe.  If you've stored some of the fruit in the freezer, pull some out and it will cool down your smoothie without using ice.

Soups Fruit soup is an utterly incredible experience and completely worth the effort if you are a summer fruit lover.  One summer I made peach soup every other week all summer long! It was fabulous.  The two tricks are to roast the peach halves to bring out their natural sweetness and to use real vanilla beans.

Salads Fruit in a green salad is easy way to use fruit, and it tastes fabulous.  Try sliced strawberries with arugula and just use a simple white (or black) balsamic vinegar with olive oil.  Or, if you have a fruit-based balsamic vinegar, you don't even need oil. Just throw any lettuce together with sliced summer fruit. The trick is that the fruit must be ripe and have a good flavor.

Pies, Cobblers, Crisps All of these baked goods taste great;  just decide which kind of dessert you want and how much effort you want to expend.  If you want fruit pies in the winter, then just freeze some summer fruit.  I can personally attest to you that frozen fruit baked into a winter pie tastes pretty darn good on a cold, dark, winter evening!

If you have pie anxiety because it's too much work, try a frozen pie shell, a cobbler or a crisp.  If you have pie anxiety because the pie doesn't set, add more flour and/or enjoy the 'pie soup'.  I confess that once I found out that berry pie needed to cool down in order to set, I stopped worrying about why my berry pies didn't set.  Instead, I enjoy eating berry pie warm even if it's a little soupy.  I guarantee that once people taste fresh berry pie, they won't mind a little soupiness either.

Pies are very simple once you're able to get the hang of making a pie crust, or you purchase a pie crust and store it in your freezer for later use.  For the basic fruit pie, place fruit (cut it up if it's not berries) in a bowl, add some sugar (¼ cup – 1 cup — amount depends on how sweet the fruit is), and let it sit for 20 minutes.  If you are using a fruit that will turn brown while it sits, add the juice of one lemon.  If you think the pie is going to be runny, add a couple of tablespoons of flour to the fruit mixture.  Then, fill the pie crust, add a few dabs of butter and bake at 400F for 15 minutes and 350F for 30 minutes.

If you're making strawberry pie, bake the crust without the pie, make a strawberry sauce on the stove with 1/3 of the strawberries, the sugar, flour, a little water, and the butter.  Basically, boil, then simmer until thickened, a few minutes. Place the strawberries in the shell, pour the sauce over it, and chill for at least an hour or two.

A cobbler is where the fruit is on the bottom and the dough is on the top.  This recipe comes from my friend's Mom.' She used to make fantastic fresh apricot cobblers!  It's easier than a pie crust and a little more work than a crisp.

Melt a stick of butter in the bottom of the pie dish or casserole.  Mix the fruit the same way you would have done for a pie and then place it in a dish.  Make the cobbler dough by mixing 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar sugar, 1 cup milk, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder. The mixture will be liquidy. Pour the mixture over the fruit.  Bake at 350F for 1 hour or longer until dough is golden brown.

A crisp is the easiest thing of all because there's no crust to roll out; it's just oats, brown sugar, and butter on top.  Do the same fruit prep as for the pie and cobbler.  Then, mix together ½ cup brown sugar,½ cup flour, ½ cup oats, ¼ cup melted butter, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon until crumbly. Place on top of the fruit and bake at 350F for 45-55 minutes.

Berry Happy It's Summer,
B.

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