Waaah ... but yum

[d_trektone_w]

I bought a bag of peaches and nectarines at the Farmers Market on Saturday. They were perfectly ripe on Monday and I'd been eating them here at work. This morning the remaining few are way over-ripe and starting to go. I think I should clean up what's left and eat them w/ice cream for lunch.

Comments

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Will you get better/different peaches when you're in Indy?

Oh, I just cleaned 'em up an' ate 'em. :)

[carolf.livejournal.com]

Suggestions:

1. Keep them in the paper bag at room temperature if they need additional ripening. Once they're ripe, but them in a plastic bag/container in the fridge. They'll keep much longer. Apples, for example, can keep for two months or so -- sometimes even longer.

2. Use them for home-made smoothies, too. Great for lunch or breakfast. Put fruit, milk, yogurt, ice in blender. Blend. Pour. Drink. Yum.

3. Microwave with brown suger and a bit of butter, use as a syrup over just about anything - ice cream, waffles, raisin bread, you name it.

The best part of summer is the fruit!

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions. I did fridge them Monday here at work. Thought they'd hold longer. Oh, well. Yum!

What are your favorite summer fruit in MI? Different from IL?

[carolf.livejournal.com]

Not greatly different, no. I think the real difference between my fruit adventure in IL and here is that I'm in a rural area, here. I have access not only to the really great farmer's market in A2, but all the on-site markets on the farms around me. Nothing beats just picked fruits and vegetables!

There are two fruits that stand out here: apples and cherries. (There are also vineyards, but they mostly go to wines, not market.) Michigan is known for its cherries, rightfully so. Out here they make what is called a "Michigan salad." It's a regular green salad with salad vegies (carrots, onions, tomatoes, etc.) with walnuts, cherries, blue cheese crumbles and a cherry vinaigrette dressing. Wonderful.

I've yet to meet a fruit I don't like. I understand there's a fruit in China that smells just awful, and I might not like that, since my sense of smell is so keen, but I haven't met it yet, so it doesn't count. So far I'd probably put lychee on the bottom of the list, but I still like them -- I just like other things more.

Favorites: apples (yes, Michigan has good ones of those, too, but I have to admit my favorites are Braeburn and Fuji. *sigh*) clementines, pineapple, plum, peach. Oh, and berries - any kind of berry. In fact, put them at the top of the line.

We have red raspberry canes on the new property, and we had cups full this summer. My favorite is blueberry, but I really like all kinds of berries.

Once upon a time, bananas were my favorites, but I seem to have grown more eclectic in my taste as I age.

There's a Hillers on the far east side of A2 that gets lots of interesting stuff, including new fruits that appear to be hybrids of different fruits. Ever had a pluot? It's a cross between a plum and an apricot. Quite good. The taste really was a blend of the two parent fruits; but the texture was apple-like in its crispness. I indulge less often in these, since the price is comparatively high.

TMI?

(The trick with fridging them is that they have to be in an airtight container and dry. Even so, apples do last longer than almost everything else.)

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Not TMI!

Yay for berries of all kinds!

Pluots. Yep, I ate my first one last decade, I think. Tasted a few this past weekend at the market. None were crisp like apples, though, at least to me.

The smelly fruit. I believe that's durian. It's available in Asian markets out here. The smell is definitely strong and offensive to some. My mom's favorite gelato place in San Francisco, Marco Polo, makes durian gelato. She's not a durian fan, though she tried it the last time we were there. I neither love nor hate durian. Have had it in a few different ways, including a milkshake. Perhaps I'll FedEx one to you someday.

[carolf.livejournal.com]

It wasn't so much that the pluot was crisp on the outside. It didn't crunch as I bit into it, the way an apple does.

But the meat inside the skin was more like an apple texture than a plum or apricot texture. Apples are fibrous, but each fiber has body, hence a crunchiness as you chew. Think water chestnut versus bamboo shoot.

Re the durian: Or, next time I come to California, maybe it'll be for longer than a single week (which has been the pattern the last few times) and we can meet and you can treat me (if treat it is ...)

[trektone.livejournal.com]

"Treat" -- it is. Hee!