Over the years I’ve gradually added more fresh fruit and berries into my diet. I’ve always loved bananas and eat one almost daily. I’d guess at least 25 a month.
Strawberries are my favorite summer treat. I try to keep a pint in the fridge all summer. Slice up 4 or 5 for my cereal each morning. Fresh bing Cherries are really good too in cereal. I like blueberries cooked in my cream of wheat or oatmeal. Don’t really like them in my cold cereal.
I’m not a big peach fan. I’ll eat one every week or two. Apples are good but I rarely eat more than or or two a month. Peaches and apples both tear up my stomach if I eat them regularly.
I used to love cantaloupe. But haven’t bought one in several years. Listeria has pretty much ruined cantaloupe for me. I almost gave in and bought one last summer. Thankfully I didn’t because they announced another listeria outbreak a few days later.
Do you eat a lot of fruit and berries when they are in season?
I don’t. I’ve never been a fan of fruit, although I’ve tried to eat more of it as an adult for the health benefits. I usually make a commitment to myself to eat X number of Y fruit on a daily basis, and it tends to last a week or two. I never eat berries, I can’t even think of a berry I like.
Lately I’ve had some success bringing an apple to work every day and eating it as a mid-morning snack, but here it is Wednesday and I still have Monday’s apple sitting next to me on my desk, uneaten, giving me accusing looks throughout the day.
I’ll eat melon if someone cuts it up for me, but I can’t be bothered to do it myself.
Yep. All about the “seasons” here. Asparagus season, artichoke season, sweet corn season, tomato season, green bean season, rhubarb season, parsnip season, cherry season, peach season, strawberry season, cheap blueberries season, watermelon season… my husband and I were both raised to indulge in stuff while it’s cheap and good. My parents actually told me to never buy a tomato from a grocery store. Fresh tomatoes came only out of people’s gardens. In season. During the season, though, there were fresh sliced tomatoes at every lunch and dinner.
This year it seems like the prices for berries have been a lot better than in the past. I think I’ve had some kind of berry pretty much every day for the past few months.
I live in California where you can get pretty much anything all the time, but I look out especially for new crops of apples, fresh figs, mangoes, and white peaches.
I like going to the Farmer’s Market and getting whatever is available–cherries, marionberries, tayberries, gooseberries (the red ones taste better than the green ones), currants (red tastes better than black), black / red / yellow raspberries, etc. I split the summer between 3 locations (Virginia, California, Seattle), so I get a nice variety of fruit.
I usually mix the berries with locally-made jam and spoon it into oatmeal instead of using maple syrup.
Absolutely. Oregon and Washington produce a huge amount of pears, apples, cherries, berries, figs, etc. Hood River strawberries (Hoodies) are a particular treat in the spring/early summer. They’re only around for a short period, but are super sweet. There’s also the short season for marionberries (a blackberry hybrid), another sweet treat. We’ve already canned our raspberry and marionberry jams for the winter.
Absolutely, and as much as I can out of season. The only fruits/veggies I don’t like are turnips and parsnips. I was raised to eat all the others, and I never disliked them, even as a kid.
I enjoy fruit, but rarely actually eat any. A banana once or week or so, and berries if they’re in the house. Rarely apples or oranges. Not sure why. I will pick blackberries off the vine once they’re ready. I’ll buy a melon once or twice a year.
Being in Southern California, we have pretty much the same fruit available all year round. We go through a lot of fruit all the time. Some of it is good no matter what the time of year it is (bananas, apples, pears, pineapples)- a lot is shipped in from South America during the parts of the year it isn’t ripe locally.
However, there are certain fruits I only get in season - to me, stone fruits (peaches, plums, apricots, cherries) are only worth it in season and locally. The stuff available during the rest of the year is all picked too early for long distance shipping, and is hard and flavorless (and expensive), so I don’t buy it. Melons are another one that comes and goes, we tend to go through a lot more in the summer months.
We get strawberries by the ton all year - I’ve resigned myself to eating those genetically bastardized flavorless big red fakers (more like stage props made to look like strawberries than real berries).
Icarus, I hear you about the strawberries. I’ve had better luck at farmer’s markets and some of the local health food stores or co-ops. Sometimes they carry different varieties that are smaller and have more flavor. Those big, cottony ones are a waste of time.
I will buy strawberries when they are in season, but most of my fruit intake is from frozen fruits, which I add to plain greek yoghurt. Usually berries.
Absolutely. Yoghurt blended with whatever berries and fruit are on sale is a breakfast staple chez chiroptera.
I also agree about the watery huge strawberries at the grocery store. I still like them but compared to fresh-picked, it’s like the difference between the gassed tomatoes and fresh, vine-ripened ones.
I probably eat more fruit than anything else. I sometimes refer to my diet as “fruit plus”, since I generally start with fruit, and then add other components as necessary. I like a wide variety of fruits, and will definitely change my diet with the seasons. Today I’ve had a peach and a bunch of cut melon (watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe). I will almost certainly have strawberries tonight – I have three baskets in my refrigerator (along with apricots, cherries, peaches, nectarines and plums).
OTOH, I’m not a huge fan of vegetables. I eat a lot of salads (of course the ones with fruit in them along with the vegetables are best), but not a lot of cooked veggies.
As above, yes to pit fruits such as peaches and cherries, although I kind of grimace when I see how much a bag of Rainier cherries costs at the register.
Our strawberry season in Minnesota seems to be nonexistent this year - a weird spring I guess.
Does sweet corn count? It’s almost as sweet as some fruit and only really good straight from the farmer’s field.
Finally nothing beats a good fresh apple at the orchard’s stand. Honeycrisp? yum!
Summer is when you have cherries. And strawberries. And mulberries. And blackberries. And blueberries. And a lot of other stuff whose name ends in “berries”. Oh, and black figs. And green ones. And… It’s the best time for fruit, for me, despite an enormous hate of anything meloney (another family which is in season - no damnit, I don’t want to try the cantaloupe).
I’m very bad regarding buying fruit: if I buy more than what I’ll eat in the next meal, it easily goes to waste. The exceptions to this are apples (Golden, reineta or Fuji), oranges (navelinas or navels) and bananas. Since so many of summer’s “little fruits” are sold in one-Nava-meal portions, that suits me. Other fruits, in many supermarkets they will be available only in six-packs… what am I supposed to do with a six-pack of peaches? I only want one!
The grocery right under my house is great for that; I can walk in, say hi, look around to see if something strikes my eye, and if it does I buy and if it doesn’t I don’t.
One of the sources of friction between my brother and his wife in their first year of marriage was that he favors the “veggies” while she prefers the “fruits”; he rarely has any kind of dessert, the sweet tooth is strong in her. They eventually reached an entente. Their kids seem to be on the anti-dessert camp, they’ll eat fruit as a snack or a minor meal but by the time dessert comes around they’re just full.
My raspberry and wild black raspberry bushes have failed this year. I used to go out and pick a handful of the ripest every evening and put them in a big container in the freezer. I’d use them to make a berry crisp later in the year - free berries! This year, nothing out there to speak of. So I’m buying a little container of berries, any kind, every week and stocking up on them. I dutifully buy cantaloupe but I weary of it - wish there was something I could do with it besides eat it plain, but even mixed with tastier fruits, it’s still cantaloupe.
