Honestly, the best thing to do with summer fruit is to eat it.
I don’t like fruit much. The peaches are always hard, greenish and sour (not grown around here), the pears are rotten brown inside. I do love berries of any kind, and sweet cherries. I buy sour cherries at the farmers market and laboriously pit them, to make into fantastic cherry pie or ice cream topping. Water, sugar, a pinch of cinnamon and a drop of almond flavoring…locally grown strawberries are ok, and fresh pineapple…maybe I DO like fruit after all!
I wouldn’t like fruit either if that’s all I ever saw for sale. Where are you that they’re that bad?
NY State. I’m not saying every single peach is bad, but I’m discouraged. They are cold, hard, tinged with green, trucked in from I don’t know where. Pears are a bit better, they do grow around here. We do have great apples!
That’s weird. Some peaches (and other stone fruit) are grown in New York and elsewhere in the Northeast, although I suspect most of what you’ll see in the supermarket is from California or maybe Georgia. Definitely stay away from the peaches sold in winter and imported from Chile. I’ve been disappointed every time I tried them.
Oddly (or not) there doesn’t seem to be much of an online price differential between dried Bing and Rainier cherries.
I like fresh cherries in summertime once in awhile, but am not enthused about dealing with the pits.
Yes, I think I should be looking at the farmers market for stone fruits, along with the cherries and berries.
Certainly you’ll get better quality, but the cost will be higher and the season will be very short.
oh, the cost doesn’t matter, I live alone and don’t eat much!
Well, it’s not like I snort the pudding…
Sorry. I meant I prefer just to eat it raw rather than cooking with it.
I LOVE fruit. I practically live on it during the summer. My favorites this time of year:
Watermelon - they’ve been hit or miss this summer. I’m working on one now that is just OK. I eat an entire watermelon by myself every week.
Cantaloupe - Sam’s Club has the Sugar Kiss variety. OMG they are good. And always ripe when you buy them. I’ve also had the Tuscan variety this summer that is really good. I eat 2 cantaloupe per week.
Raspberries - my fave berry
Strawberries - they’ve been pretty good that last few weeks
Cherries - expensive but since they’re not available for very long, I splurge
I like peaches, plums and nectarines but they are never ripe when you buy them. I have to put them in a paper bag in the pantry and hope I remember they’re there.
I do the same thing with pears (which I love) but usually eat those in late winter and into the spring.
Grapes, apples and oranges/tangerines are my go-to fruits in the winter.
All year - a banana every day
I rarely buy strawberries anymore. They are almost always a major disappointment when I get them from the store. No flavor whatsoever.
Interesting, because oranges and other citrus aren’t really “summer fruits” (I’m interpreting that to mean fruits that are in season during the summer. Maybe you’re taking it to mean fruits you eat during the summer). They actually ripen in the fall/winter – at least that’s when they ripen on my neighbor’s tree and when they’re most prevalent at CA farmers markets. So I’m a bit surprised you’re finding good ones this time of year.
It’s been my observation that Raniers bruise easier, go bad faster, and are otherwise not as durable when fresh. If they have a better keeping profile dried then that might account for a similar price, as less would be lost in transport.
Yes, that was the basis of my reply. It’s summer and I’ve been eating navel oranges; therefore, they’re summer fruit.
The cherries and peaches are probably better examples of seasonal fruit. I bought some pears a while back and they went from too hard/unripe to brown with sunken soft spots in hours. Turns out, they were from Argentina, of all places, and the long trip probably screwed up the ripening sequence in some weird ways
Around 20 years ago I was unpleasantly surprised to develop Oral Allergy Syndrome, which means that eating cherries or peaches makes my mouth itch. Cherries are one of my favorite fruits and every year when hubby brings home a bag I’ll try a couple. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but still unpleasant. They’re much more edible for me when cooked, so I make peach or cherry tarts.
@TRC4941 we’re on the same page with fruit! Except I always get fruit flies in the summer so I don’t have bananas sitting around this time of year. They sell single bananas at the gas station so I usually pick one up for a big treat in the summer.
I just finished my fruit salad and replenished. Now I’ve got cantaloupe and a mini seedless watermelon, peaches, grapes, cherries, blueberries and tangerines.
So far there really isn’t a mixture of fruits I don’t enjoy.
You have my deepest sympathies.
We go cherry-picking and berry-picking (usually blackberries) most years (Nov-Dec here), and I can’t imagine not being able to scarf them down in the orchard as I go along.